Late-August monochromes!

What’s up, Hive? Quick, unfortunate update on last night’s blog about the chicken of the woods mushrooms. They were delicious. I made two pulled pork sandwiches and today, while preparing them to give to friends and family, @vermillionfox asked how I took care of the infestation of of small maggot like worms. Fuck! I didn’t. I ate them all, apparently. The sad conclusion that the 20 pounds of mushrooms @ghostfish and I harvested were corrupt, and I’m apparently no longer vegan. Super gross. I’ll leave it at that for tonight.

Now that I set the mood, let’s try and move on to new takes on old photography. I do this every so often, taking some of my favorite color images and converting them to black and white images. This first image is from a 2017 shoot with Velveteen Suicide. You’ll see this image as my Hive banner, actually. This was a dark shoot in the attic of a nearby old home in NE Minneapolis. The concept was a grief stricken woman with a mannequin soldier. I worked with a really talented special FX make-up artist for this and I love seeing it as a black and white.

Next is a shoot from Queens, NY in 2016. The model’s name is Christina and I met her through my friend @vintagevandalizm during Viva Las Vegas. We connected after that weekend and during my next trip to New York, she booked a dark pinup session. NYC hotels are notoriously small but I got creative and took this shot of her sitting in the sink. The light pretty much dictates where I pose the model and this worked out so well for an image I probably wouldn’t have come up with otherwise. It’s striking as a black and white with a pulp noir feel.

Lastly, this shoot from 2016 is with Minneapolis burlesque legend, Elektra Cute. We first met a few years earlier when we decided to collaborate together during the endless Minnesota winter. We went on to become good friends and this shoot was an all day affair which took place in an avant-garde bar in downtown called Constantine. Elektra was actually resting against the barstools while I was shooting another model named Roxi D’Lite. I saw this, quickly posed her and got the shot. Striking as a monochrome, in my opinion!