Nathan Orsman Reveals Why Darkness Is a Lighting Designer’s Most Powerful Tool
In his debut monograph, the Australian talent reflects on his most collaborative projects with influential architects and designers, including Kelly Behun, Steven Gambrel, and more
Nathan Orsman is one of the most accomplished lighting designers working today, but he spends much of his life in the dark. Through late-night site visits and exhaustive testing with his 50-person team at Orsman Design, the Australian talent devotes countless hours to refining how his artfully composed plans illuminate homes and gardens after sunset.
Over the past 16 years, Orsman has become a trusted collaborator to the industry’s most influential architects and interior designers, including Kelly Behun, Steven Gambrel, and Jean-Louis Deniot. Their projects all populate the pages of Light (Rizzoli), Orsman’s debut monograph, arriving in September, accompanied by personal reflections on what distinguishes his work.
With studios in New York, the Hamptons, and Miami, Orsman has cultivated a sterling reputation around an intriguing idea that runs counter to conventional notions of illumination: What remains dark matters just as much as what receives light. “Anyone can light something up, but darkness is what creates interest,” he says. “Playing with the negative is one of the most paramount things in what we do.”
Reinaldo Leandro, cofounder of New York firm Ashe Leandro, has enlisted Orsman’s expertise for a multitude of projects. “He’s very aligned with our sensibility about not overlighting, and he makes educated focal points to enhance the art and the mood of a space,” Leandro says. That philosophy is most strongly reflected in the ceiling: Rather than peppering the expanse with recessed fixtures, a visual Leandro likens to “Swiss cheese,” Orsman relies on ambient and indirect illumination that dances across surfaces and allows art, furnishings, and architecture to coexist comfortably during twilight hours.
For a New York townhouse Ashe Leandro designed for a prominent art-world couple, Orsman developed a scheme for a collection that includes a figurative sculpture by Simone Leigh and an expressive canvas by Adolph Gottlieb. He approached the commission by first imagining the interior in complete darkness. “I paint the whole room black in my mind, and then I slowly add what I want,” he says.
From there, he determines which elements deserve emphasis and which should recede into shadow. Instead of isolating each work with spotlights, he employed a warm, restrained wash of amber-toned illumination, which draws the gaze while integrating the collection seamlessly into the home’s broader character. To achieve that balance, Orsman and his team study glare, contrast, color temperature, and Ashe Leandro engaged Orsman to devise understated lighting for the living room of a Manhattan townhouse, which features artwork by Adolph Gottlieb and Simone Leigh. sight lines. “My clients aren’t showy,” he says. “Art is part of the story, but they don’t want to lead with it.”
For all his technical expertise, Orsman traces his approach back to a piece of childhood wisdom from his mother that has guided him for decades. “The three things needed for a successful dinner party are background music, interesting people, and thoughtful lighting,” he writes in the introduction to the monograph. The advice reflects a conviction that runs throughout every project he undertakes, to devise environments that simply feel right, with architecture, landscape, and art subtly emerging into their shining moment.
A version of this article first appeared in print in our 2026 Fall Issue under the headline “Guiding Light.” Subscribe to the magazine.