Sometimes you don’t really know where your organic artistic direction lies until you look back at your body of work.
When I come back from a day of shooting, I put the images into various folders according to genre. And the folder I have with the most images is the one I call ‘Noir’.
What does that say about me? Don’t ask.
I just love that foreboding, creepy street scene that would make you quicken your steps as you walk by.
This is a great example of New York City Noir in Chelsea.
To really reinforce the noir aspect of how this facade made me ‘feel’, I used a strong upward angle for the shot and tilted it slightly. Being a little off-center myself, I know how dramatically these two techniques work together. And lastly, I kept the tone very much on the dark side. It also doesn’t hurt that the lower window is covered with bars.
When you live in the noir world, those bars are as likelyintended to keep people in as to keep them out.
So next time you’re out shooting, go dark, go off-center. Go Noir.
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