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B&W of the Month for March 2008 is Steam Vent, Waldorf Astoria, BELOW:

This shot was made with my Olympus Stylus Epic, a seriously tiny but wonderful & sharp (fixed focal length) point and shoot. I carry this tiny gem everywhere, loaded with Tri-X.

These steam vents in Manhattan are fascinating, especially in wintertime (Manhattan has long had an underground high-pressure steam delivery system. The steam is used to power heating and cooling systems in the densest parts of the city. These vents appear from time to time; I’m not exactly sure why.) I was passing by this one almost every weekday; it was on the southeast corner of the Waldorf Astoria hotel. I just like this shot; the way the highlight area (upper left) balances with the darker tones diagonally across the frame, and how clearly we see the Chrysler Building in background, surrounded by the blown-out sky. It also has a sort of classically timeless B&W photography feel to it, no? The crisp silhouettes also work, I think. I’m not saying it is a world-beating shot, but I think it has something going for it, and so it is my B&W of the Month. (Tri-X, processed normal in D-76; printed on Ilford Gallerie grade #2; Dektol 1/3 dilution; Zone VI Cold Light head on Beseler 23CXL, with Schneider-Kreuznach 80mm enlarging lens. 8x10” Print scanned on Epson CX4200; significant curve adjustments made in Photoshop to increase the contrast of this somewhat underexposed negative. )

--Eric Rudolph

Below, B&W of the Month for April 2008:

Iggy Pop, Academy of Music, NYC, early 1980s.

Iggy, all alone out front with, of course, no shirt and only his trusty Shure Bros. SM 58 mic. I saw him surrounded by all this darkness, with these four lights diagonally across. I thought, “I should take this picture; it is just sitting there waiting for me.” Olympus OM-1N, Vivitar 75-205mm f3.8 zoom, wide open, probably at 75mm setting, Tri-X (probably exposed and processed at 800 ISO). “Vintage” custom lab print, with curve adjustment in Photoshop to make onscreen image resemble actual print.

Above, at RIGHT: Marty Balin, his dog John and VW Microbus, on Blithedale Ave., Mill Valley, CA., April 1972. CLICK ON THE PHOTO to enlarge image

Balin, former lead singer of Jefferson Airplane, was still a few years away from topping the charts with hits like “Miracles” and “Hearts.” Mamiya-Sekor 1000TL w/ Spiratone 21mm lens, Tri-X, gorgeous vintage 1972 print by Meridian labs, NYC. Thanks to Paul Blank for the use of his screw-mount 21mm lens. This photo appeared in Crawdaddy! along with my extensive interview with Balin, his first since leaving the Airplane. I was a teenager when I took this photo....really.

Below, B&W of the Month for March 2008 is Steam Vent, Waldorf Astoria, taken by myself in February 2007.

At LEFT: Bikeguy, 3rd Avenue, NYC. CLICK ON THE PHOTO to enlarge image

I had a mini-project of shooting bicyclists, near my former office at 3rd Avenue and 48th St. The pictures were all really boring. So I ditched the point-and-shoot and got out the Bronica RF645, w/ strobe, set the shutter speed to 1/15th or 1/30th, zone focused and calculated a reasonable f-stop. All well and good, but it came together here, with the black SUV contrasting with the rider’s face, the white truck contrasting with his black hair and the cool dude w/ the baseball cap in the SUV doing a modified Gangster Lean. I love the surfeit of motion blur, contrasting with the super sharp areas where the strobe hit the subject strongly and stopped the blur. This guy was riding fast, in heavy Midtown NYC traffic.  And I think this shot conveys that idea.

I’ll highlight one B&W photo each month, and talk about how it was made and why it might be worth looking at.  So far we’ve got Iggy Pop, live and in his prime; Jefferson Airplane-founder Marty Balin, and a steamy scene in back of New York City’s famed Waldorf Astoria hotel. And, BRAND NEW, for August 2008, a daring guy riding a bike really fast up 3rd Avenue in NYC. (All photos Copyright Eric Rudolph) Below, B&W of the Month for August 2008: