Why Film Noir Photography?
In the early 1940s, a style of movie making developed called “Film Noir,” a French phrase literally meaning “black film.” The name refers to a genre of mostly black-and-white American films with bleak subject matter, downbeat tone, and low-key lighting. These movies made quite an impression on me as a young boy, mostly because in England in the 1960s TV stations showed a lot of movies from this period. It wasn’t that they wanted to, but something to do with copyright laws prevented the broadcast of newer movies. On Sunday afternoons, my family ritually watched one of these old movies. Although usually bored to tears by the plot, the dark scenes and action left a lasting impression. Black-and-white photography has a special quality that I enjoy very much and recently I have been trying to bring some of the elements of Film Noir into some of the photos I take.
