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Brightening the Dark

Film critic, professor, and writer Sukhdev Sandhu seeks to illuminate London's night - and the cast of characters who exist on its stage - in his art project Night Haunts, an engaging collection of sights, sounds, and stories from England's capital.

. Photographs by Alistair Thain.

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A sleep disorder and jet lag trouble writer Sukhdev Sandhu. They're difficult maladies for anyone but particularly pesky for a man charged with documenting London's night. For almost two years, Sandhu has set his alarm for the wee hours and entered the city's darkness to explore it from the sky, from underground, and from a host of nooks and crannies, all in service of Night Haunts, his art project. Tonight he intends to take me on a nocturnal walk through his neighborhood, the East End, a historical place of refuge for centuries of immigrants - Irish, European Jews, and, most recently, Bangladeshi, which has earned the area the nickname of Banglatown. But this evening Sandhu has misjudged the night, his subject of choice. As he nears me, he shakes his head, apologizes, and admits he forgot that night arrives later than 8:30 p.m. in the summer. He blames jet lag.

As an assistant professor of English literature at New York University and the chief film critic for London's Daily Telegraph, Sandhu, 35, spends a great deal of time ping-ponging between the city that doesn't sleep and the city that used to sleep but now merely naps. Wearing jeans, a green shirt, a navy pinstripe jacket, and a five o'clock shadow, Sandhu stands near a trinity of important landmarks, and each serves as a testament to the area's allure.