Q2 ASSIGNMENT 2026: GAEL HILLYARD
PHOTOGRAPH: DARKNESS
THE ASSIGNMENT BRIEF FOR APRIL TO END OF JUNE 2026
From Gael Hillyard: “I would like it if people could go outside one night after work, after dinner, in the garden, in the street, in the supermarket car park, and just stop, and look up, perhaps wait for the clouds to clear. Just look at what you can see, and keep looking. Let your eyes adjust and notice what's in that dark patch of sky. I think you’ll be amazed. Satellites, stars, clouds, planets, everything. It'll take time. Just let your eyes adjust and keep watching. Then, perhaps using a long exposure technique, see what you can make.”
You’re also welcome to use the sky as a sliver of the picture, since you may have buildings or other structures that provide context. You could equally be looking through objects into the sky.
HOW TO ENTER. IMPORTANT NOTES ON FILE SIZE AND ENTRIES
Send your entry to stories@photowalk.show.
Your picture should be 2,500 pixels wide, if possible, for online optimisation. Or send the full-resolution photo, which we will optimise.
Feel free to provide text as well if you think it will help explain the location, context, etc.
Please don’t add borders or watermarks, and be sure to send FULL URL links to your website or a social media channel so that we can link to your work on this assignment page. We’ll use a selection of photos you submit on our Photowalk Instagram to showcase your work to our community and help build connections.
The last admission date for the assignment is June 30th, 2026.
Entries are shown below. Good luck!
Neale
GAEL HILLYARD
See more of Gael’s work on her website.
PAUL HOLDORF
Belonging.
I belong to places like this. There are a few roads, but they wind invitingly through the mountains. They beg for you to go just a little bit farther, just a little bit higher, because they know what is around the corner and they know you need to experience it. Flowers abound in an array of color that you would not dare imagine. They bob their heads in the breeze like lazy dancers on a hot summer day. If the flora are rich and thick, the fauna are wild and free. From the tiny Voles that help aerate the soil to the Great Grey Owls that hunt them from the air or from the Mule Deer that graze in the meadows to the Grizzly Bears that dominate the food chain, this is a truly wild place. There are vast meadows lined with stately Fir Trees. There are rocky precipices and ponds which reflect the grand landscape better than any mirror. There are dense forests protecting unseen wildlife and there are windswept alpine ridges where stunted flowers take shelter behind the rocks.
During the day, the whole mountain range is alive with wildlife and plants doing what they must to continue the existence of their species. Forget-Me-Nots sway in the breeze, Bee’s zoom about, Moose browse the willows, Beavers inspect their handiwork, and Birds sing a melody fitting for such a glorious place. It is good to sit for a spell and just absorb the tranquility. During the night, a different set of creatures enter the scene. Some aspects of night can be frightening, but I believe we do darkness a disservice when we associate it with malevolence. Just as we need the relationship between light and shadow to create a great photograph, we need the cycle of day and night to create a balanced life.
Now, I am usually an “early to bed, early to rise” sort of a guy, but when you’re up here, you feel compelled to stay up to watch the stars come out. As the last shades of sunset fade to black, the stars begin appearing on the stage of night. It is a show that you do not want to miss. On top of the mountains, there is no such thing as a bad seat. Tonight would be a grand show indeed as galaxies, planets, and a phenomena known as airglow would be headlining the show. It is exciting to stand in the dark and wonder what creatures may be watching you. Up here it could be just about any animal that calls Montana home. As lightning flashed far to my north and the sliver of the crescent Moon ducked behind the storm clouds, I began to capture the images needed for this panorama. While the camera certainly enhances what is there, I could see this scene with my unaided eyes. I didn’t even need a flashlight to see around me, although I did admittedly shine a light around occasionally to make sure that I would not become someone’s midnight snack!
Wild places, be they at sea level on a rocky California coastline or high above tree line in the Montana Rockies, make me happy. A place where every living thing has a purpose and is permitted to carry out that function. A place where the stars are as visible as the flowers and I can take the time to admire them both. A place where I can witness the Sun greeting the morning with its glorious rays and watch it sink below the horizon on the other side of the sky. Ahhhh, wilderness, a place where I belong.
See more of Paul’s work on his website.
CHUCK MCCLARY
Chuck here, from Kansas, USA. I’m actually close to the area of one of your former guests, Jim Richardson. He’s easily one of the nicest photographers in our little state. This photograph of Upper Fall River Lutheran Church in the Flint Hills of Kansas comes from a larger project of mine I’ve called Small Histories. In the past, when I would take photos of lonely places like this near where I live, I would often wonder about their histories. I decided to turn this into a photography/videography project in which I walk viewers through a photoshoot of a place I find interesting, then discuss its history and significance to the surrounding community. Here is the YouTube link for anyone who’s interested in watching history and photography of tiny places in a flyover state.
This photo has particular significance to me. Looking at the photo after I finished processing it, I was struck by the feeling that every night we get the chance to look out the window of our spaceship Earth at the infinite universe through which we travel. The church in the photo, for me, appears to be the embodiment of all of humanity’s philosophical attempts to understand our purpose, all of which prove to be inadequate. I’m not saying this to bash religion; I happen to be religious myself. I just think it’s increasingly important for us to realize that no human philosophy can ever encompass all truth. To an extent, we are all wrong. We should do our best to recognize our own wrongness and stand peacefully beside our neighbors who are also wrong. Yet despite our wrongness, we are all equal crewmates on this giant spaceship with magnificent windows. Let’s not screw it up, eh?
MAT BOBBY
Earlier this month I was in New York City for the AIPAD Photography Show. What's AIPAD you ask? Well, it's the longest-running fine art photography fair in the world, running since 1979. Held at the Park Avenue Armory. Galleries from the US, Europe, Canada, Australia, and Japan in one room, nineteenth-century processes hanging near contemporary work. The place is filled with great photographs and at times my eyes were overwhelmed by it all.
That evening I got off the subway at Grand Central, got a little lost, and ended up taking the long way back to my hotel. Somewhere along the way I found myself on the corner of West 40th and 7th, standing in the steam coming off the street vents while the cabs rolled through. I stopped and made a few photos, inspired by all the great work I had just seen.
I know it isn't a typical night sky photo for Gael's brief, but the act of stopping on a corner in the dark and waiting for my eyes to adjust to the scene around me felt close to what she was after. The sliver of sky is there above the buildings, and everything below it is what was happening under that sky.
See more of Mat’s work on his website.
MIKE MILLER
Please find attached my astrophotography image that I made on the evening of May 15. It was almost a new moon and it had set several hours before, so that wasn't going to be a problem. Settings: Focal Length was 18mm on a crop sensor, ISO 1600, f/3.5 using a 60 second shutter speed and an astrotracker on my camera. The camera is pointing south and it was too early in the evening for the Milky Way galactic core to have risen.
My wife had planted some daffodils last fall and they were in full bloom. A single light on in the cottage was enough to light the foreground. It's difficult finding some foreground interest so I made multiple images looking for something that looked appealing. It's not the greatest night image that I've ever made, but in keeping with the spirit of the assignment, it is something that was made within Q2. At least the weather cooperated. You might even say that the stars were aligned that evening! ;-)
SIMON BLAKESLEY
I just finished listening to Episode #527 with Ruth Guest and really enjoyed her thoughtful and insightful perspectives on photography, social media, and life more broadly. I was also heartened to hear that The Assignment has returned. The topic (Darkness) is one that those who live north of the 60th parallel experience in abundance for months of the year. As an aviation photographer, I find this to be an exciting time that requires planning, warm clothing, adaptation- and a sturdy tripod!
Of course, I couldn't help myself and felt compelled to offer an image with an aircraft in it. The DHC-2 de Havilland Beaver is a Canadian-built aircraft that is equally at home on lakes and gravel runways in the North. On the evening this image was taken the Aurora Borealis was out in fine form. A 15-second exposure helped capture the wavy motion of the northern lights as they drifted across the night sky. Other than a red LED head torch to help me set up safely, it was total darkness. For me, this felt like an intense and awe-filled Canadian moment- witnessing a classic Canadian aircraft lit only by a wondrous auroral display.
See more of Simon’s work on his website.
JAN CURLE
“Into the darkness, what might you find - ancient horrors of skulls, bones, ghosts - or modern horrors of plastic and cigarette butts?
St John’s Kirk has rested in the centre of Perth, Scotland for 900 years and was surrounded by a graveyard until the 1580s. Today, the drain covers, embedded in the modern paving around the Kirk, make me chuckle - indicative of my dark humour (probably); reflecting that of the designer (perhaps); or are they simply a nod to the ghostly memory of the graves below? Or might you react with a Scream, like Edvard Munch?”
See more of Jan’s work on Instagram.
ALEX MEALIN
I intended to go out and shoot the Northern Lights, which never showed up!
In the end, this passing ship behind the Point Of Ayre Lighthouse on the Isle of Man where I live in the end I thought came out quite well.
See more of Alex’s work on his website.
KELVIN BROWN
Here is my submission to the current assignment, Darkness. It is what I would term an unusual sighting, a crescent moon with Venus (so I'm told) just above. Taken with new to me, Galaxy S24.
JEAN-DAVID N’DA
A photograph called ‘Believe’.
RICK SMITH
Stairway into the darkness.
