emptiness fills, photography
-Michael, we'd love to hear your story and how you got to where you are today, both personally and as an artist.
I always needed the balance of having a side thing along with my day job. I’ve worked for years as a VFX editor in film and television, but photography became a more personal creative outlet for me. A major turning point was shooting downtown Los Angeles during the Covid lockdown. Seeing the city completely empty made me realize that loneliness, isolation, and the emotional weight of urban spaces were really the subjects I was drawn to. Since then, my work has focused on cinematic night photography that explores those feelings through light, atmosphere, and absence.
delayed goodbye, photography
-Your night work has such a distinct point of view that it's hard to imagine your series in any other way. How did you actually decide on night photography as your primary language, and when did you realize this was your unique style?
I came across this photo series of Tokyo at night by Liam Wong and I immediately felt inspired by the darkness with the bright colored lights and the vibe that his work was giving off. Soon after that we got hit with some rain and the liquor store on the corner from me just lit up the night with its neon reflecting off the wet street. So I snapped a photo with my phone. At the time, the iphone was starting to capture really decent quality low light pictures so I was really happy with the results. It wouldn’t have looked as cool during the day, with or without rain. After that I was hooked…and then I realized that there was a meditative element of wandering around a mostly quiet, empty city after all of the life had been sucked out of it.
candy factory, photography
-Los Angeles, Tokyo, Paris, London…these are cities people love to romanticize, but your images tell a different story. What draws you to cities specifically, rather than standard landscapes or interior spaces?
Colored light. Architecture. Streets. Signage. Wanting to capture the city in a way that people aren’t normally accustomed to seeing.
Tokyo definitely has the best signage and alleyways I've experienced so far.
I'm born and raised in Los Angeles, and I always found something very interesting about empty streets in a big city. These places attract lots of people who, like you said, romanticize these places, not really knowing that there's an underlying loneliness and isolation that can come with it. Being surrounded by thousands of people, strangers, who can easily treat you like you aren’t there. I try to bring this feeling to the photograph.
found the light, photography
-Some of your strongest images have a single figure in them, alone, usually seen from behind or far enough away that you can't quite read them. What does a person do for a photograph that an empty scene can't, and how do you choose one over the other?
I don't use models, so any people captured are strangers taking a night walk. I feel like capturing an anonymous figure, walking away or denying the viewer their identity is another part of showing the loneliness and isolation of living in a big city. You as the viewer are being denied by the subject who is also all alone. But I’ll usually choose one over the other based on composition. Sometimes I’ll capture the right moment, in the right position and sometimes a person can just ruin it all. I just let the photo speak to me.
drifting warmth, photography
-What's the best way for someone to check out your work and provide support?
I have a website www.michaeltmarlett.com where you can pick up prints and zines, and I am on Instagram @mtmarlett where I post a new photo every day.
Statement
I photograph the spaces in between—neon reflections, empty sidewalks after rain, the quiet hum of a city caught in pause. My work is rooted in liminal moments and cinematic tension, drawing influences from loneliness and isolation to evoke a sense of longing, memory, and imagined intimacy.
Through night photography, I explore emotional residue—the ache of what almost was, the ghosts of connection, the beauty in solitude. My images are not just about place, but presence—the kind you feel when no one else is watching.
retracted confessions, photography
Bio
pedaled away, photography
Michael Thomas Marlett is a Los Angeles-based photographer focused on capturing cinematic, liminal environments. Working primarily at night, his images explore themes of loneliness, isolation, memory, and the dreamlike tension between stillness and movement, creating emotionally charged urban landscapes that feel suspended in time.
His work has been featured in group exhibitions, he received 2nd place in the Decagon Gallery’s Places and Spaces exhibition, has an upcoming exhibit at the DTLA Art Night in their emerging artists gallery and been selected to appear in the Visual Poetry Journal. Michael continues to evolve through print collections, zines, and a growing archive of night photography. He shoots with a Sony a7R III, often using a 24mm f/1.4 to capture atmospheric depth, light, and space.