Right, but you can't see it even a few inches away because the photons are only on the surface.
That's what a black hole looks like from the
outside (beyond the event horizon). But the question is what would the black hole look like from the
inside? I am no expert, but surely the reason it is black is that light falls into it. So it seems to me (I speak subject to correction by anyone with the requisite physics) that if you were in a black hole and looked out towards the event horizon, you would see stars. From the inside, then, it would not be dark.
Edited by Dr Adequate, : No reason given.