“Do you know what turns darkness into light? Poetry.” Jean -Luc Godard. Alphaville. 1965
The work of the cinematographer Gökhan Tiryaki in Nuri Bilge Ceylan’s Once upon a time in Anatolia1 showcases a unique approach to the use of light in Night Scenes. The study of the aesthetics of Night will be used to analyze his film in order to reflect on the challenge of lighting a night scene as an aesthetical problem rooted on the main relation between light and darkness and discover how this exposes the subjective approach that the cinematographer has to use in order to contribute to the visual dramaturgy of a film.