Early-July monochromes!

What’s up, Hive family? It’s another summer evening here in Minneapolis. A storm rolled through just before sunset and brought with a beautiful Stranger Things sky. @tarotbyfergus would have been outside of @caffetto pointing his phone up to the clouds taking pictures. I stopped by @guthrie’s brother’s house and help him set up his new 3D printer. I got liquid resin all over my hands and face, which burned, but as of a few minutes ago, I got a text from him saying our first 3D print was successful! I love that he’s figuring this stuff out as a teenager.

Okay. Enough of the day to day stuff. Once or twice a month, I do a post where I feature some black and white photos that haven’t been shared on my blog. These are photos that I’ve always looked at as color, so this is a chance to convert some of my favorites to monochromes. This first shot is probably the most powerful. The model’s name is Berrit and she’s German. This was from NOIR in Los Angeles in 2016. Every time I see this shot, I can’t get over how much she looks like Marlene Dietrich! What a memorable night this was. It’s so good as a black and white!

Roxi D’Lite is a legend in the burlesque scene. She and I were Instagram friends for years and somewhere along the line, we started talking about shooting together. At the time, she lived in Las Vegas and I would be there during Viva. We finally made it happen in 2017. We met at my friend’s Ralph’s speakeasy in Paradise, NV. Roxi is a brilliant photographer as well, so we connected as creatives that understood this process from various points of view. This shot is from our first shoot and one I would consider an instant classic.

Lastly, this shot is of pinup model, Cherry Dollface. I’ve known of Cherry for years and we finally connected in Los Angeles in 2016. We shot together at the Clark Gable estate, and would later go on to be part of the @wcpublishing family together. She’s done two books with the publisher, and of course, I worked with them on Dark Pinup. This shot is striking in black and white, mostly because of the background that projects her to the center of the frame. Cherry is an outstanding model and this post is so strong.