Industrial Decay, Water and Children...In Moody B&W

Sorry I've been very busy for the last week, and until I get my class schedule straightened out for the next term (along with a few other things), my next couple of posts may be brief.

Anyway, I've often noted that the search for good black and white photography on the web is a challenge...but if the images are good and use black and white effectively for mood, then the viewer can fill in the loss of detail or subtlety. A few finds recently:

Bruce Haley is an Oregon-based photographer who photographs old factories in Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union. His 8x20 panoramas are presented rather small online, but are still interesting viewing. He is also featured in the February 2004 issue of B&W, and has a book out as well.

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Bruce Haley portfolio image

One of Haley's key influences is the legendary German photographer Albert Renger-Patzsch. The latter was certainly prominent in my mind as I viewed Haley's industrial images. More of Renger-Patzsch's work (which is scattered in multiple places around the web) can be found here.

Generators, 1927, Albert Renger-Patzsch

In a different direction, Brian Oglesbee uses water imagery in interesting ways to depict transformations and illustrate impressive detail and light. The "Toward Metamorphosis" series occasionally flirts with new age concepts in its depiction of dream-like states, yet it's also the most ambitious and interesting of his water series to my eye. A interesting essay on the series can be found here.

Brian Oglesbee image, from "Toward Metamorphosis"

And finally, there is nothing like black and white combined with an master artist's sensibility to convey a questioning, disquieting mood effectively. Ingar Krauss, another excellent German photographer, does this very effectively with children in a way that evokes one of my favorites, Sally Mann. (thanks to Conscientious for the reference)

Ingar Krauss image