Usry Alleyne

Category: After Dark

  • Corrugated Pizza

    Corrugated Pizza

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    Usry
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    Corrugated steel will always represent affordable shelter to me. It’s a material that I saw frequently used for the roofs and walls of modest rural homes of in Guyana. My mind traveled back in time, and thousands of miles away when I saw this piece of metal in downtown Oakland. Instead of a roof and…

  • Wet Window

    Wet Window

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    Usry
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    The permanent streaks on the driver’s side window of my car, diffuses light reflected from my rearview mirror to give the impression that light is coming from below. Unless the source is volcanic, or a reflective body of water, we are used to seeing light coming from above. This has metaphorical significance for those who…

  • McNally’s Irish Pub

    McNally’s Irish Pub

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    Usry
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    Roofs are designed to keep us warm and dry. Combined with walls, they provide comfort and shelter. They shield our heads from rain, lightning, excessive heat, snow, bird, feces, and other things that fall from the sky. They also stop us from seeing the moon, the sun, the stars, the clouds and clear blue skies.…

  • Bokeh Lights

    Bokeh Lights

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    Usry
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    Even though there are no specific objects to see in this image, (it’s just a field of blurry, white and colored circles of light), I still enjoy looking at it. I love the momentary settling of thoughts that occurs because I’m not asked to identify anything. There is no cognitive purchase necessary for me to…

  • Yellow Warehouse

    Yellow Warehouse

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    Usry
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    I’m always drawn to corrugated steel building walls. In Guyana, it was a very common building material when I was young. Typically, it was used for the walls and roofs of small country houses occupied by the poor. The sound of rain was deafening inside of these homes.

  • Street Light

    Street Light

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    Usry
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    As a child growing up in Guyana, I spent a lot of time watching insects buzz around beneath streets at night. On a wet winter night in Oakland, when I stare up at the street lights, there are no insects only, other lights and cameras staring back at me as if I were the insect. 

  • Raindrops

    Raindrops

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    Usry
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    I love rain at night because it always seems to slow down the passage of time as I sit and wait for it to stop while simultaneously not wanting cessation. 

  • BART Lights

    BART Lights

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    Usry
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    This image reminds me of the idyllic images of lights reflected on the surface of water at night. Instead, these lights, mounted to the walls of the BART track in West Oakland, are reflecting on the roof of my car.

  • Oakland Moon

    Oakland Moon

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    Usry
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    The crescent of a rising yellow moon sits light speckled horizon of the Oakland Hills, east of the crane and ship filled Oakland docks. I love the contrast between the cool blue lights on the left the warm red lights on the right. This was taken from a road running near the Emeryville Marina.

  • Uber Lights

    Uber Lights

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    Usry
    in ,

    Even in total darkness, the textured layers of paint buildup mark the passage of time on the facade of this Oakland restaurant at night. The line of glowing white lights along the roofline, the dark rough squares in the middle, and the portion of an artist’s mural visible in the lower right corner, all catch…