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Len Blau
shadow light: black and white photographs

To me, photography is like visual travel.

New and changing perceptions are very exciting.

Light is the crucial element that makes a photograph work.

I find the interaction of forms, shapes and light to be particularly interesting.

By reversing highlight and shadow,
forms and shapes emerge and
become very graphic and abstract.

Light is projected, not reflected.
Structures appear to be lit from within.

I call this experience Shadow Light.
 

All of the prints in this show were taken in daylight. It's the process which makes them look like nightime photographs.

Most of the photographs were made with color transparency film; a few are from black and white transparencies. Then, rather than using a negative to make the print, the photos are printed from the positive tranparencies (or slides) onto black and white photo paper. Remember - when you print a negative, you end up with a positive print that looks like the scene really looked. When you print with a positive you end up with a negative image! All the photos are processed with black and white chemicals and paper. So that's why, in my photos, what is light comes out dark and what is dark comes out light!

 

"These are beautiful! Wow!"

"I love night photography"
and when told these are NOT night photographs,  "Oh, I get it...I love these!"

"I want to learn how to do this kind of thing."