Ankie B&W&R - STEVEN R. TABOR

Ankie B&W&R

How we take the temperature of a portrait?

                         First Blues

                 --Saundra Rose Malley

                   That summer night
                        Was hot
                        Steaming like a crab
                        Luscious under the shell

                        Televisions gone bleary
                        Blinked
                        In front of men
                        In undershirts drinking beer

                        Wives upstairs took showers
                        Caught
                        A glimpse of their backs
                        In hallway mirrors

                        I sat in the dark
                        Invisible
                       On the backporch
                       Drinking in the night

This is a series of portraits of the photographer and model, Ankie van Kasteren, shot in my home studio in March 2022. The portraits were shot in raw and then converted to black-and-white in post. Some of these portraits were shot with a flash fitted with a red-gel, hence the collection as a whole contains images of Ankie in Black (B), White (W) and Red (R). While the absence of color forces attention on form and composition, the addition of a splash of color adds an element of mood and emotion that can be hidden by the strength of a black and white image. This series plays with the notion of portraiture mood and temperature, starting quite cool, and then gradually turning up the heat.

If you'd like to see the full series, download the PDF catalog here.