The invention relates to a method for illuminating a surrounding region (18) of a motor vehicle (10) by vehicle-side emission of at least one light beam (16, 16', 16") onto a deflecting device of the motor vehicle (10) and time-controlled deflection of the light beam (16, 16', 16") into the surrounding region (18) of the motor vehicle (10) by means of the deflecting device in order to illuminate the entire surrounding region (18), wherein the deflecting device deflects the light beam (16, 16', 16") toward a predetermined point (s) of the surrounding region (18) at each of predetermined times (t), wherein an optical device (24) provided between the surrounding region (18) and a vehicle occupant (12) for producing a predetermined illumination pattern (22) visible only to the vehicle occupant (12) in the surrounding region (18) at at least one of the times (t1, t2) blocks transmission of a part of the light beam (16, 16', 16") reflected back to the vehicle occupant (12) from the surrounding region (18) such that each associated point (s1, s2) appears unilluminated to the vehicle occupant (12) and the remaining points appear illuminated.