The timeless allure of black and white photography!

Good morning, Steemit! I just made it to work. My window seat at @caffetto, where countless epic games of Magic: The Gathering have left their mark on coffee shop history. There are a lot of great things happening right now. Our @caffetto friend @kailyzaic just joined Steemit. If you aren’t following her, please do. Having the chance to work and catch up editing has put me in good spirits. The @caffetto Craft Fair is this Sunday. Myself, @vermillionfox and @guthrie will be selling our wares […maybe even copies of Dark Pinup. We’ll see!]. There’s a lot of excitement in the cryptospace as well. I think this is going to be an exciting few months.

I wanted to share a few of my favorite black and white photos. It’s been well over a year since I’ve done a dedicated black and white blog post. I’ve mentioned previously that I’ve held an annual black and white Old Hollywood boudoir event since 2013 called NOIR. That event was created from a love of the seductiveness of black and white photography, especially in the dark pinup style. Many of my favorite career photos were created during the NOIR events, in LA, New York City and where it began here in Minneapolis.

This is an excerpt from my friend @thomaskuntzart’s forward for @wcpublishing’s Dark Pinup book. It’s a wonderful, eloquent summary of the romance in black and white, cinematically dramatic photos.

 Light and shadow….

As I write this forward for Lars Kommienenzuspadt’s “ Dark Pinup”, it occurred to me that it was a common interest in Chiaroscuro that initially formed a bond between Lars and I… as both of our careers were profoundly shaped by it. My first sculptures were figures from German Expressionist films of the 1920’s and the American film Noir… these stark, sometimes unsentimental, brooding films seemed to reveal what polite society tries to mask. There’s also great beauty in darkness… but only if you are able to cross the threshold to confront the fear in the way of it all.

In the shadows we find fear, yes…… but we also find mystery and magic!

As I’m preparing these images for this blog post, I’m reflecting on this time in my career. I’m reminded of the exhausting travel, knowing that several photos were taken in New York City, others in Los Angeles, within less than 24 hours from one another. I grew to hate that pace […even though I romanticized it before my career reached a point I was actually booked under those kind of circumstances]. It’s bitter sweet to reminisce, though. I can’t deny these are some of the best photos I’ve ever taken. I think shooting at a relentless schedule does force you to do your best work. 

My black and white photography doesn’t get as much screen or print time as my color work, but I think of it as an homage to a timeless era. It’s my attempt to honor early cinema and an even deeper artistic representation to film noir than the majority of my vintage work. I sometimes hear that my photos seem to have a “story”, and if that’s true, I feel the narrative is never darker, sexier and dangerous than in black and white.

Thanks for reading. for more photography, art, illustration and the stories behind the work, follow me here @kommienezuspadt!