![Lights of the City by Manuel Alvarez Diestro](https://static.dezeen.com/uploads/2011/12/dezeen_Manuel-Alvarez-Diestro_18.jpg)
Lights of the City by Manuel Alvarez Diestro
Photographer Manuel Alvarez Diestro has sent us these photographs documenting the vernacular street-lighting of different cities around the world.
![Lights of the City by Manuel Alvarez Diestro Lights of the City by Manuel Alvarez Diestro](https://static.dezeen.com/uploads/2011/12/dezeen_Manuel-Alvarez-Diestro_19.jpg)
In these images, light bulbs and lamp posts become the subject matter rather than the surrounding context.
![Lights of the City by Manuel Alvarez Diestro Lights of the City by Manuel Alvarez Diestro](https://static.dezeen.com/uploads/2011/12/dezeen_Manuel-Alvarez-Diestro_17.jpg)
The collection varies from fluorescent lighting along a motorway to a simple light bulb attached to a decaying piece of wood.
![Lights of the City by Manuel Alvarez Diestro Lights of the City by Manuel Alvarez Diestro](https://static.dezeen.com/uploads/2011/12/dezeen_Manuel-Alvarez-Diestro_15.jpg)
He highlights the smaller spaces within a city's framework, from the outskirts to the city centre.
![Lights of the City by Manuel Alvarez Diestro Lights of the City by Manuel Alvarez Diestro](https://static.dezeen.com/uploads/2011/12/dezeen_Manuel-Alvarez-Diestro_29.jpg)
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Here's a description of the project from the photographer:
"lights in the city" is a collection of images of the different street lighting devises that I have found while walking in different cities around the globe.
![Lights of the City by Manuel Alvarez Diestro Lights of the City by Manuel Alvarez Diestro](https://static.dezeen.com/uploads/2011/12/dezeen_Manuel-Alvarez-Diestro_14.jpg)
They were taken in a variety of urban contexts during these past years.
![Lights of the City by Manuel Alvarez Diestro Lights of the City by Manuel Alvarez Diestro](https://static.dezeen.com/uploads/2011/12/dezeen_Manuel-Alvarez-Diestro_8.jpg)
Sometimes, I chose to photograph light posts in marginal areas of the new cities in Asia or Northern Africa.
![Lights of the City by Manuel Alvarez Diestro Lights of the City by Manuel Alvarez Diestro](https://static.dezeen.com/uploads/2011/12/dezeen_Manuel-Alvarez-Diestro_7.jpg)
In other occasions I identified isolated light posts in the central metropolitan areas of cities such as London.
![Lights of the City by Manuel Alvarez Diestro Lights of the City by Manuel Alvarez Diestro](https://static.dezeen.com/uploads/2011/12/dezeen_Manuel-Alvarez-Diestro_4.jpg)
Finally, in the more unexpected locations as for example in Cairo’s City of the Dead I found the most basic and improvised forms of lighting where a light bulb is hanging from a wire inserted on a piece of wood.
![Lights of the City by Manuel Alvarez Diestro Lights of the City by Manuel Alvarez Diestro](https://static.dezeen.com/uploads/2011/12/dezeen_Manuel-Alvarez-Diestro_5.jpg)
It never came to my mind to conduct a work on this subject.
![Lights of the City by Manuel Alvarez Diestro Lights of the City by Manuel Alvarez Diestro](https://static.dezeen.com/uploads/2011/12/dezeen_Manuel-Alvarez-Diestro_6.jpg)
Only when I saw that in all my works their geometrical shapes or the vertical posts where present that’s when I realized that I could create a story.
![Lights of the City by Manuel Alvarez Diestro Lights of the City by Manuel Alvarez Diestro](https://static.dezeen.com/uploads/2011/12/dezeen_Manuel-Alvarez-Diestro_13.jpg)
With this in mind I selected images where the light bulbs and light posts were the main subjects or at least had a strong compositional value during the creative process.
![Lights of the City by Manuel Alvarez Diestro Lights of the City by Manuel Alvarez Diestro](https://static.dezeen.com/uploads/2011/12/dezeen_Manuel-Alvarez-Diestro_10.jpg)
Light devices are created to carry out a specific function. They are intended to provide light to the city. However, due to its fragile nature they do not last long in time.
![Lights of the City by Manuel Alvarez Diestro Lights of the City by Manuel Alvarez Diestro](https://static.dezeen.com/uploads/2011/12/dezeen_Manuel-Alvarez-Diestro_11.jpg)
When photographing them these ephemeral electric devises made me ponder that they could potentially provide a new angle in how we see the city by generating intimate and reflective moments about our human condition.
![Lights of the City by Manuel Alvarez Diestro Lights of the City by Manuel Alvarez Diestro](https://static.dezeen.com/uploads/2011/12/dezeen_Manuel-Alvarez-Diestro_25.jpg)
With "Lights of the city" I want to create a point once more on the relation that exists between the city and the humans which inhabit them.
![Lights of the City by Manuel Alvarez Diestro Lights of the City by Manuel Alvarez Diestro](https://static.dezeen.com/uploads/2011/12/dezeen_Manuel-Alvarez-Diestro_20.jpg)
This work was presented on a screen at El Aperitivo 04 celebrated on the 30th of June 2010 in la Fabrica (Madrid) under the subject "Luz" and as an homage to László Moholy- Nagy
![Lights of the City by Manuel Alvarez Diestro Lights of the City by Manuel Alvarez Diestro](https://static.dezeen.com/uploads/2011/12/dezeen_Manuel-Alvarez-Diestro_28.jpg)
The images belong to Cairo, Aswan, Ras Sudr, Beirut, Abu Dhabi, London, Santiago de Chile, Fukuoka, Hong-Kong, Bangkok, Kuala Lumpur, and Bloemfontein