Jarrett Murphy - 2025 Playbook Photo Competition Winner Spotlight

Where discomfort meets wonder: the art of seeing in the dark. Jarrett Murphy is a nocturnal landscape photographer known for his surreal, long-exposure images created using studio lighting in natural settings. In this spotlight, we explore his portfolio The Ecotone: a dreamlike series that blurs the line between reality and imagination and recipient of Third Place in Playbook's 2025 Photo Competiton, Hidden in Plain Sight. Through a uniquely creative process that involves navigating the wilderness and painting with light, Jarrett captures the eerie beauty and quiet tension of nature. Learn how his unique style developed, what inspires his work, and why discomfort plays a central role in his creative journey.

Meet Jarret Murphy

“When I was a child, my parents — not artists themselves — encouraged my creative instincts whenever they could. They let me develop my own cookie recipes. They let me draw and paint all over my bedroom walls”.

Jarrett’s interest in photography started early, shaped by curiosity and a family that enabled him to explore. It wasn’t until high school that things really clicked. When other students began passing around contact sheets on the school bus, something sparked — and he was hooked.

Photography wasn’t even offered until 10th grade, but once he got his hands on a camera, Jarrett was all in. He even voluntarily repeated the class twice for extra credit before pursing an independent study his senior year. This passion carried on into college, where he would earn a BFA in Professional Photographic Illustration at the Rochester Institute of Technology.

I continued building my series, The Ecotone, into my late twenties, until life pulled me away from photography for nearly a decade. But this project sat inside me like a dream deferred — until I returned to it last year.

Now best known for his surreal, light-painted nighttime landscapes, Jarrett has developed a signature style: using studio lighting onto wild terrain, captured in total darkness. His long exposure images, some taking up to two hours to create, feel like something out of a dream. Named one of the Top 10 Nature Photographers from Sony World Photography Awards in 2008, his perspective has been shaped by a lifetime of diverse experiences. At the heart of it all is a deep curiosity, love for storytelling, and what he calls “a commitment to creating something extraordinary”.

About Jarret's Portfolio: The Ecotone

The Ecotone explores the strange, beautiful space between comfort and unfamiliarity. Jarrett’s images blur the line between reality and fantasy, capturing landscapes both shaped and untouched by human presence. It’s in the stillness of the wilderness that he feels most creatively alive. The series is a visual reflection of his evolving relationship with the natural world—and its delicate, fleeting nature.

“It’s where I get to navigate discomfort and curiosity, engaging with a world as terrifying as it is beautiful.”

What does your creative process look like? How do you get inspired, and when do you create your best work?

“Making this work is physically demanding, sometimes borderline reckless. It’s trudging through waist-deep snow, leaping over creeks in the dark, or police approaching mid-exposure and me waving and yelling for them to turn off their lights. It’s walking or falling across a field of rocks, ending the night with more bruises than exposures.”

Jarrett describes his creative process as a part of his art, demanded careful planning, patience, and a “willingness to stumble around in the dark—literally and creatively”. The scenes are built slowly and deliberately, one light stroke at a time. He weaves through the landscape mid-exposure, painting each section with light by hand.

“As each section catches light, I’m not behind the camera to see it — I’m out in the scene with the light.”

With exposure times typically ranging anywhere from 10 minutes to 2 hours, and most of his work shot on film, Jarrett doesn’t get to see results for days. Instead, he relies on instinct and pre-visualisation to “imagine how all those moments will accumulate”.

What inspired your portfolio submission for Hidden In Plain Sight? And what themes are you drawn to as an artist?

The first image in The Ecotone was born out of creative frustration. Near the end of his junior year at RIT, Jarrett felt stuck—like he was capable of better work, but couldn’t quite unlock it. One night, he took a chance on a new idea and visited a tree he’d found in Highland Park, experimenting with a lighting technique he’d been toying with. That photo became the start of a series that would span decades.

“I’m not what you’d expect from a nocturnal landscape photographer. I don’t hike for fun. I hate bugs. Even as an adult, I’m uneasy in the dark. But I also have a deep contrarian streak in me. I’m as drawn to discomfort as I am repelled by it. That tension pushes me to keep making these images.”

⛰ Want to wander deeper? Check out more of Jarrett’s visions on his Playbook page! Jarrett’s work invites us to embrace the unknown, lean into discomfort, and see the natural world in a whole new light—sometimes literally.