I love the old Film Noir detective movies. What made them great was the scary, dark and dangerous places in which all the scenes were shot.
And there has never been a place that screams scary, dark and dangerous more than New York City.
So wherever you are, you should look for something a little out of the ordinary and work with it to create something a little chilling. Something that screams, “Don’t go in there!”
I this case, I came upon the J. Hampden Robb House, designed by world-renowned architect Stanford White and completed in 1891. It’s a pretty stately mansion, but in its exquisite, refined architectural details, I found something more foreboding. A place that probably hid it’s share of secrets, if not dead and rotting bodies.
OK, I’m going a little overboard here. But the idea is to find a cool piece of architecture and focus on some of its more dramatic elements. Doorways and window are always a great place to start.
I wanted a little tension in the image so I angled the composition. Angling is a great tactic (but don’t overdo or overuse it) because you can often make a dramatic composition of architectural shapes and shadows by making a radical departure from the ‘level and plumb’. Of course, the black and white treatment and intruding dead tree branch simply added to mystery.
So next time you want to leave your comfort zone, try a little New York City Noir and embrace the dark side.
You might never come back.
And as always, please help me keep this site alive by browsing through my ebooks or photo galleries of beautiful New York City black and white photography. There you can select a gorgeous high-resolution print file that you can download for only $20 and print it anywhere yourself. And I’ll donate 20% of the purchase price to one of the following global humanitarian charities that you can select on checkout: UNESCO, Unicef, Earthwatch, Doctors without Borders, Human Rights Watch and The Hunger Project
Until next time, happy shooting.
Bob