Near-field optical phenomena at the nanoscale are outlined, on the basis of the fact that they are, in essence, a photon-matter interacting system. They indicate that material systems and optical near fields, cannot be treated independently nor separately. The linear dimension of dressing nature or virtual clouds is simply estimated by the Heisenberg uncertainty principle, which shows approximately 100 nm for a visible light, which indicates that dressing effects might be prominent on the nanoscale. As an approach to such a system, a picture of photons dressed by material excitations is proposed and discussed, where a finite material system, not an infinite bulk system, is emphasized, and dressed photon operators are explicitly derived. The applicability is mentioned, and it is pointed out that the related developments in future are expected, for opening up a new area of research and development.