Dan Ratner, Nocturne (PEOPLE 2025)

Nocturne is a meditation on melancholy—on the quiet contradiction between external context and internal state. These images exist in the space between what we see and what we feel: the fluorescent wash of a takeaway bar, the theatre of nightfall, a man with wings he doesn't know he has. Each frame captures a moment where presence feels like absence—where characters drift through familiar urban settings that seem dislocated from time or meaning. There’s beauty here, but it’s uneasy. Light becomes a veil, space becomes psychological, and the night reflects something quieter, more interior. This series isn’t about documenting place, but revealing mood. A tension between the banal and the poetic. Between isolation and imagination. Between being surrounded by life, yet lost in thought.

Images have been resized for web display, which may cause some loss of image quality. Note: Original high-resolution images are used for judging.