Night City is a megapolis unlike any other. It’s split into six main districts and each one feels alive with its own soul and style. From architecture and art to layout, people, places, and more, just walking through the city or taking the NCART sky metro will give you plenty to see. If you’re a photography lover, you might feel a touch overwhelmed. Really, everything can be a killer shot in Night City, so let’s help you point your lens (or Kiroshis) in the right direction. Here are some cool places you can go and enjoy being a cyber shutterbug, including some must-see spots and a couple of hidden gems. Time to go full Photo Mode!
- Jig-Jig Street — For this spot, you’ll wanna wait until night time and prepare yourself to dive into Night City’s sordid side. Jig-Jig Street is the city’s red light district and it can be found nestled in Westbrook’s Japantown. It’s a concentrated area of glowing neons filled with sex shops, joytoy sex workers, street dealers, and taboo-testing tourists drawn in by the promise of a good time. Here you’ll find plenty of angles to capture Night City’s neon-drenched aesthetic as you explore the street-side bars and food stalls, and the looming skyscrapers above also add some moody architecture to the street-level smut. And once you’ve had your fill of Jig-Jig street’s allures, hop on over to the Cherry Blossom Market across the street. There you’ll find more traditionally aesthetic sites to snap, including the beautiful pink cherry blossom tree holograms, a wildly gargantuan statue, and the eponymous lantern-lit, glass-covered street market!
- Rocky Ridge & the Surrounding Deserts — Take a break from the city and enjoy some quiet time in the desert. It’s easy to get lost in the Badlands, so we definitely encourage you to start your desert-photography journey at a landmark that at least resembles civilization. The abandoned town of Rocky Ridge sets the mood for some thought-provoking shots. Urban exploration like this can yield some spectacular results, especially when you use the contrast of day and night time to really tell the story of this once-thriving roadside locale. And once you’re ready to head out into open ground you’ll find plenty of distinctive rock formations and hints of old life dotted throughout the sandy plains just waiting to be captured. Spend some time shooting the sprawling turbines of the Wind Farms, find the perfect landscape shot of Night City’s lights far, far in the distance, and challenge your composition skills as you kick up dust amidst the uninterrupted stretches of sand. The Badlands is a great canvas to take some unique photographs in a setting overrun by unforgiving nature. It opens a whole new world of photography compared to the one available in the dense urban jungle of the city proper.
- Dogtown — Okay, it might be cheating to add an entire area like this to the list, but hear us out: Dogtown is a city within a city, totally unlike the rest of NC, and there are so many places to shoot that it only makes sense to wrap them all up into one package. Sure, Dogtown’s not for the faint of heart. It’s a place for photographers who enjoy being in the middle of the action and those who want to document what raw life looks like in Night City’s most dangerous district. You can’t even enter the place without an in, and once you’re inside its massive border walls you’re in a free-for-all. Dogtown, originally part of Pacifica, is ruled by a militia. Its crumbling streets make for an impressive canvas though, and so do its eye-catching buildings. The iconic glass pyramid of the Heavy Hearts club always makes for a centerpiece of a landscape shot, then there’s the wrecked luxury of Luxor Heights, the imposing Black Sapphire, the stadium (and the seedy black market within), the slums of Longshore Stacks and much, much more. From panoramic shots of the crumbling skyline to gritty street photography — and even some risky portraits of heavily armed Barghest troops — this is the perfect area to take shots you simply can’t get anywhere else in Night City.
- Reconciliation Park — Slow down and indulge in some nature. Reconciliation Park is a slice of tranquility hidden away in Heywood, right under the nose of Corpo Plaza. Unlike the glass, metal, and concrete found above in the megalopolis’ manic rush, the park is lush, green, and relaxing. Tall trees line its footpaths and wooden bridges guide you across the park’s lake — giving you a great naturalistic backdrop, especially when the sun’s shining. And besides the natural elements themselves, you can also practice some candid photography and indulge in some people-watching. Plenty of folk flock to the park as they seek to catch a break from the urban sprawl, so take a slow walk around and shoot to your heart’s content. After a while, you might feel like you’ve left Night City entirely!
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