SENSUOUS NOSTALGIC GLAMOUR

Bubble wrap Blonde - Retro style black and white photographs with a sensuous taste of nostalgic boudoir and pin up glamour

Get Shirty! - Retro style burlesque black and white photographs with a sensuous taste of nostalgic boudoir and pin up glamour

Retro look glamour
Gallery: Get Shirty

Shell Shock - Retro style black and white photographs with a sensuous taste of nostalgic boudoir and pin up glamour

Retro look glamour
Gallery: Net Scapes

Between scenes -Retro style burlesque black and white photographs with a sensuous taste of nostalgic boudoir and pin up glamour

Home Studio About Etchings Paintings Giclee Photography Words Jewellery Cards Book Printing Contact Links

PHOTOS:

People and events Odds and Sods Paint and Rust Rocks Snow
Lost Resort Groynes Digital B&W Sensuous nostalgic glamour

ETCHINGS:
GICLEE:
PAINTINGS:

Rye Hastings Beachscapes Greenhouses St Pancras Nudes Other
Rye Hastings RX Coastal Textures Groynes Life Drawings Other
Figure Painting Fallen Angel Nudes

Stepping Up -Retro style burlesque black and white photographs with a sensuous taste of nostalgic boudoir and pin up glamou

On the Rocks - Retro style black and white photographs with a sensuous taste of nostalgic boudoir and pin up glamour

PHOTOGRAPHY: SENSUOUS NOSTALGIC GLAMOUR - BURLESQUE IN BLACK AND WHITE
Nostalgic Glamour - Sensuous retro style burlesque glamour, boudoir and playful pin up black and white photography

COLIN BAILEY

ARTIST & PRINTMAKER

SENSUOUS NOSTALGIC GLAMOUR
Retro look photography

BLACK AND WHITE PHOTOGRAPHS: Retro burlesque style sensuous nostalgic glamour

These photographs are the result of a fun and surprisingly sunny summer. Originally we were just looking to play about with a new digital camera, drink a bottle or three of wine and capture some pictures that could be used as source images for paintings, drawings or etchings. With a love of movies, burlesque and a treasure chest of old films on DVD to dip into it wasn’t long before we were raiding the local charity shops and creating our own flick chic! Dressing up (and down!) we ended up with a unexpected set of burlesque boudoir style black and white photographs that evoke the retro glamour and nostalgia of old 1930’s,1940’s and 1950’s movie star pin up photographs; the glamorous and teasing photographs that I enjoyed as a schoolboy; the age of Marilyn Monroe, well thumbed books of sensuous black and white fine art photography from the school library and the occasional naughty magazine borrowed from older boys!

Many of these photos draw their spirit from the 1930’s of Christopher Isherwood’s Berlin: Depression, Depravity and Divine Decadence! A time for Cabaret, burlesque, striptease, night clubs and living dangerously. Throw in Bob Fosse, Lou Reed, Leotards, leggings, sweat and All that jazz, and you have a heady mix that is suddenly frighteningly relevant again. So Bienvenue and Welcome! .. Its Showtime! Let’s take you for a Walk on our Wild Side!

Retro look glamour
Gallery: Stepping Up

Retro look glamour
Gallery: On the Rocks

The images here were a experiment. We wanted serious source material for painting and drawing. but on the way we also had a lot of fun! Discovering a world of boudoir glamour, fine art nude photography and even erotica using a relatively inexpensive digital camera, some rickety studio lights and a combined wealth of cinemagraphic and cultural references.

We decided very early on to set the camera to black and white. Possibly a bizarre choice given the capabilities of modern cameras but, I have taught photography, was weaned on Ilford HP5, FP4 and PanF, have blundered around blindly in a darkroom slopping about chemicals and have often forgotten to wind on my venerable Nikon FM. I have underdeveloped, overdeveloped and scratched hundreds of negatives and wasted endless packets of expensive paper!

Retro look glamour
Gallery: Between scenes

Retro look glamour
Gallery: Bubble Wrap Blonde

Sheet Music - Retro style burlesque black and white photographs with a sensuous taste of nostalgic boudoir and pin up glamour

Retro look glamour
Gallery: Sheet Music

Retro look glamour
Gallery: Beyond the veil

Ghost - Retro style black and white photographs with a sensuous taste of nostalgic boudoir and pin up glamour

Table for one - Retro style burlesque black and white photographs with a sensuous taste of nostalgic boudoir and pin up glamour

Retro style glamour
Gallery: Table for one

Marilyn Revisited - Retro style black and white photographs with a sensuous taste of nostalgic boudoir and pin up glamour

Retro look glamour
Gallery: Marilyn Revisited

Slipping Away - Retro style black and white photographs with a sensuous taste of nostalgic boudoir and pin up glamour

Retro look glamour
Gallery: Slipping Away

Retro look glamour
Gallery: Laid Back

Laid Back - Black and white photographs with a Sensuous taste of nostalgic boudoir glamour

SENSUOUS NOSTALGIC BLACK AND WHITE
PHOTOGRAPHY IN A DIGITAL AGE

WHY BLACK AND WHITE PHOTOGRAPHY?

It seems odd to many people that black and white photography has not only survived the digital revolution in photographic technology but has thrived and flourished. To understand the enduring appeal of black and white one has to understand the differences between an image presented in black and white and one in colour. The subject may be the same but the artistic considerations are completely different!

Black and white photographs record the amount of light reflected off a subject as a linear tonal progression from white (maximum light reflected) to black (minimum light reflected). Colour records the wavelength of light reflected.

Freed from the mass of variables and surplus information presented to the eye by colour, black and white photographs emphasise composition, texture, tone,contrast and detail. This coincides neatly with the "onboard" editing process artists use when drawing or painting.