Friday, January 25, 2008 – Down Dark Streets

Film Noir is one of those after-the-fact genres – first applied to certain Hollywood movies by the French critic Nino Frank in 1946, but no one here knew they were making a specific type of movie at the time.  But now we know such films - strange, erotic, ambivalent and cruel, with wet streets and odd angles, the films where it always rains in Los Angeles and the weary and cynical tough guy deals with death and complex situations, where nothing is as it seems and everyone lies.  They don't have happy endings.  Think of the classics - The Maltese Falcon (set in San Francisco), Shadow of a Doubt, Laura, Double Indemnity, Mildred Pierce, Detour, The Big Sleep (downtown Hollywood and Laurel Canyon), Notorious (set in Rio), Out of the Past, Force of Evil, Gun Crazy, White Heat. They have a certain look.

After four days of rain, Hollywood Boulevard is one big noir set.

If you wish to use any of these photos for commercial purposes I assume you'll discuss that with me. And should you choose to download any of these images and use them invoking the "fair use" provisions of the Copyright Act of 1976, please provide credit, and, on the web, a link back this site.

Technical Note:

Most of these photographs were shot with a Nikon D70 - using lens (1) AF-S Nikkor 18-70 mm 1:35-4.5G ED, or (2) AF Nikkor 70-300mm telephoto, or after 5 June 2006, (3) AF-S DX Zoom-Nikkor, 55-200 mm f/4-5.6G ED. They were modified for web posting using Adobe Photoshop 7.0.  Earlier photography was done with a Sony Mavica digital still camera (MVC-FD-88) with built-in digital zoom.

All text and photos, unless otherwise noted, Copyright © 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010 - Alan M. Pavlik