Frigid Long-Exposure Photography, Lit By The Ubiquitous Emergency Flare

Kevin Cooley’s photos glow with eerie red light shed from the emergency-kit staple. Military flares--the sort you see near car accidents and after Hurricane Sandy, lighting intersections in blacked-out lower Manhattan--are the basis for photographer Kevin Cooley’s series, Take Refuge. Cooley, who is based in Los Angeles, is best known for his long-exposure landscape photography and video art. He’s travelled widely for his work (an Arctic Circle Expeditionary Residency took him to Svalbard last year), and Take Refuge grew out of his travels, a slow and steady collection of photographs taken while on location for other projects. “[It’s] is a very deliberate series of photographs, but I didn’t necessarily set out to make the work, which is unusual for me,” he tells Co.Design. “I typically work on a project exclusively for six months to a...