'Nighthawks' By Edward Hopper: Painting Analysis

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Nighthawks is perhaps the painting that embodies whom Edward Hopper was as an artist. The whole scene of a diner at night creates this entire different mood then it would if it was painted at a different time of the day. When we think of night, there are many things that happen, more obscurity and more curiosity. With this painting you can start to create the narrative, that these individuals are loners, they like to come out at night to escape the day. This idea that these people come to this place to alienate them from the real world is such great metaphor, how night can become a sense of peace for this people. Also that a diner serves as a sanctuary to these so-called “Nighthawks”. I feel that the title does the painting much justice, because …show more content…

I shot at night to capture the way Edward Hopper would if he owned a camera in modern time. I took as many as I could and I got some duds and I got some studs, I also chose to shoot interior. The reason for shooting interior was to capture the individuals that occupied the place, I wanted to show the interaction they have, what they were drinking or eating, I wanted to asked the question of who were these individuals? Who are the types of people that come to this diner? I shot during the morning, afternoon and nighttime, I chose to do that because I wanted to see how the dinner transform throughout the day, during each time period there was different individuals coming thru, the most busiest was during the morning due to people going to work. The afternoon was people coming back from work and having a meal, during the night was where you got an occasional diner here and there. These were the “nighthawks”, of the people I was able to encounter, they seem the most compelling, and they were something in the individual that struck me. I could only think of Nighthawks, almost as I have wondered into the painting and I was living in it for that time period. I felt how powerful the night can be for people, it is a time where there is little activity, the modern world seems to stop and old custom became alive. The study of Edward Hopper greatly influenced the way I went about the

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