Noirsville (capturing the remnants of Noir in the 21st century)

[cigar joe]

Get out your cameras and try and capture the remnants of Noir in the 21st century when you find them before they disappear, be it a neon sign, a dive motel, a fire hydrant, use shadows, Dutch angles, dramatic lights etc.

Also if you are near any classic Film Noir used locations capture them in a noir-ish style, it could be fun. Think of yourself as a location scout for a Film Noir project. ;-) You can even caption them noir-listically.

I've been doing this for a while now late 1960's so here are some examples to get the ball rolling. I'll edit the images to give rough date taken also


Nowheresville
It was 1AM. . . and nothing was open in Nowheresville.
(Arkville, NY, 2011)



59th Street Bridge
The sky opened up and the mark I was tailing headed down 59th Street towards 1st Avenue. (late 1960's)


At The Corner of Chiaro & Oscuro
(Hudson, NY, filled in for Melton in Odds Against Tomorrow , this is the corner of 7th St. and Warren the site of the accident in the film where the cop asks Belefonte if he saw the accident. The camera was sitting on this corner filming towards the opposite corner and Robert Ryan and Ed Begley were in the station wagon immediately in the foreground. Taken spring 2010)

[HJ]

Great stuff, Joe! Not living in or near a large city, taking photos like this never occurred to me, but they're some great visuals that fit the subject.

[cigar joe]

Great stuff, Joe! Not living in or near a large city, taking photos like this never occurred to me, but they're some great visuals that fit the subject.

Well I'm roughly 100 miles north of NYC so I can do small town and the city quite easily but, you don't need a large city, just find an old filling station, roadside diner, a rail yard, the most important thing to do is always take a camera and keep the radar up. In some small towns the street level public side of old buildings may be modernized but the second story and back side of them usually aren't.

Even off the beaten path roadsides some times have old cars and junker trucks, and abandoned buildings and old house interiors will give provide some nice subjects, just start thinking with a noir perspective.

Big Tip --- Never shoot on a blue sky day, overcast, foggy or rainy days work best for day shots.

One PS if you have a program such as Adobe Photoshop or Corel Paintshop, you can manipulate the lighting, angles, contrast, add effects, and most importantly remove the color from digital images.

cj

[cigar joe]

another one:



THE SHADY GROVE... a place to drive dangerous curves across dirty sheets


The Shady Grove "Autel" in Missoula, Montana, circa 1970's (Missoula is the birthplace of Neo Noir filmmaker David Lynch BTW)

[Brian]

Once you check in there's no way out...

[cigar joe]

Great, Brian keep them coming:

Here is another:



Shadows on Half Moon Bar (Hudson, NY, 2010)

[Brian]

[QUOTE=cigar joe;10090]Great, Brian keep them coming:]
Thanks, that's a slightly cropped photo of the Renoir Hotel on Market St in San Francisco. There are several good locations here in Jacksonville Florida that I'll try to capture as soon it as it quits being so darned sunny!

[cigar joe]

[QUOTE=Brian;10098]

Great, Brian keep them coming:]
Thanks, that's a slightly cropped photo of the Renoir Hotel on Market St in San Francisco. There are several good locations here in Jacksonville Florida that I'll try to capture as soon it as it quits being so darned sunny!

Well you could also go out at night ;-)



Hotel Milwaukee on Skid Row, Seattle WA (summer 2010)

[cigar joe]

More:



Trash Can (NYC circa 1960's)



Light & Shadows (Hudson, NY nocturne 7th St. spring 2009)

[Brian]

By bhoman57 at 2012-02-07

bus terminal, twilight

[cigar joe]

Very Nice!

[Brian]

By bhoman57 at 2012-02-07

'Flophouses, they were, I guess. They called themselves hotels; their signs offered rooms at twenty-five or thirty-five cents a night, and there were scads of them along there. The entrance was always one flight up, never on the street level.'
from The Black Angel by Cornell Woolrich

[cigar joe]

Nice shot.

Here is a shot taken somewhere in Brooklyn near Montague Street circa late 1960's



Radio Appliances in the Rain

[cigar joe]

More captures:



Tar Beach (Astoria, Queens, NY, 1960's)

[cigar joe]

a rainy night

A nice hard rain washes all the scum off the streets and you know what clean air smells like again. . . (New Paltz, NY, 2009)

[cigar joe]

Another two:



Columbia St. (Hudson, NY, 2009)



Bridge to Nowheresville (Kingston, NY 2009)

[noirguru]

C. J., it seems that Hudson, NY hasn't changed much from circa 1959, when Odds Against Tomorrow was released!

[cigar joe]

C. J., it seems that Hudson, NY hasn't changed much from circa 1959, when Odds Against Tomorrow was released!

Not a whole lot for sure, a lot of the river towns in the Hudson Valley are sort of frozen in time.

[cigar joe]

Montana Noir



Deadline
(Chester, Montana 2010)



Flamingo Lounge
(North-side entrance, Missoula Montana 1970's)

[cigar joe]

Deco-dence
He took a dive from his corner office on the 49th floor.....he didn't make it to 42nd Street. (Chrysler Building 42nd Street, NYC site of the jewelry store robbery in Kiss Of Death )



Abandoned Warehouse
(Hudson, NY)