ALL ABOUT BLACK AND WHITE PHOTOGRAPHY

There is Black and white photography, monochromatic images, and monochrome images. There are photographs that cover a wide variety of areas of architecture. Many architectural details and photographs of urban scenes of notable buildings, remnants and vestiges of former architectural glory. The photographer who takes these black and white photographs focuses in on certain abstract features of the buildings or structures. At first the viewer may only see a play of light and shadow on some portion of a structure or rooftop or architectural feature. The image will seem very abstract or semi-abstract, or it may be an undulating pattern that reflects, in miniature, the overall architectural style or theme of the building, structure, or bridge. The black and white photographs, or also the monochrome photographs, make the viewer grasp at a sort of universal architectural or natural theme, as well as glimpse a previously unseen beauty or magnificence in what we take for granted or treat as mundane on a daily basisÑsuch as contemporary architectural forms, or skyscrapers, or stone buildings, or I-beams, or bridges of steel girders. All of the modern, contemporary forms are captured by the black and white photographs and revealed to contain something a little more sublime, a vestige of former greatness, a glimpse at what was once contemporary and modern and abstract, and at other times whimsical or derivative.

These black and white photographs are fine art. These images, although rendered digital on this website, are a high quality photograph. These are not posters of buildings or structures or architecture that just happen to be black and white. These are photographs. The photographer sells these black and white photographs either individually, or matted to a particular size, or both matted and framed to a particular size. Each black and white, or monochrome photograph, is signed and numbered by the photographer, Ken Kochel. There are 6 different galleries, which are the scanned images of these black and white photographs, or monochrome photography. The galleries can be broken down into the abstractions gallery, the patterns gallery, the features gallery, the portraits gallery, the quirky gallery, and the figures gallery.

Another area that Ken Konchel zooms in on with his black and white photographs, or photography, are some of the neglected or overlooked architectural details of notable buildings. For example, youÕll find black and white, monochrome photographs of statues, or frescoes, such as the stone or concrete blooms, which are stylized floral buds atop the Continental Life Insurance building in St. Louis, Missouri. There are also decorative floral reliefs atop this same building. There is the one called Brotherhood II, which is a stone relief on the International Brotherhood of Railway & Airline Workers Building in St. Louis, Missouri, or the Battery Carrier fresco which is affixed to the side of a building. The artist and photographer captures these black and white photography as a sort of historical homage, a hunt for what is architecturally significant, to save these images for posterity.

The black and white photography and the monochrome photographs contained within the abstractions gallery are images of portions of modern buildings with abstract and semi-abstract patterns or structures. One is called Serration, one is called Angularity. One is called Tubular, and one is called Rooflines. The images in the quirky gallery contain unusual black and white photographs of architectural structures or buildings which have fallen out of popularity or style or fashion, such as an old drive-in theater, and an abandoned Phillips 66 Gas Station with a gracefully decaying arch. Also the Tangy-est catsup bottle water tower in Collinsville, Illinois.

Ken Konchel is drawn to the expressive power of buildings. Although it is true that buildings frequently form dramatic skylines, he is much more attracted to individual structures, their forms and their features, and the way they relate to each other. Photographing those perspectives in an original way is his passion.

As an architectural photographer, Ken Konchel is inspired by two very different motivations. Most exciting for him is the artful recording of architecture. In this effort, he attempts to not merely reproduce, but create. He attempts this creation in numerous ways...by photographing a building in a way that causes the viewer not to immediately recognize it as such. By concentrating on a building's sculptural quality, or removing a building from its context, or isolating a particular detail of a building, or focusing on the play of light and shadow on a building's surface, or flattening the space, creating relationships to buildings that are juxtaposed on the same plane, or using the sky as an integral element of the composition in order to accentuate the building's shape, or emphasizing patterns that reinforce a building's identity or style, and by highlighting the abstract in a building's design. Through all these approaches, Ken Konchel hopes to provocatively present the 'idea' of a building.

The second motivation Ken Konchel has as a photographer is to document architecture which evokes a particular time and place. All too often, our rich architectural heritage can either suddenly, without warning, vanish, or slowly, painfully come to its untimely demise. Tragically, this has occurred far too frequently since Ken Konchel began this pursuit. In photographing buildings, Ken Konchel hopes to perpetuate their legacy.

Art should captivate, stimulate, enchant, and challenge. Notable architecture must do even more. It must satisfy very practical needs. People live, work, play, and worship in buildings. Buildings that successfully facilitate those activities, and through their aesthetic, invigorate us, truly qualify as art. Architecture that possesses this rare combination of utility and beauty deserves our praise and definitely inspires Ken Konchel in his photographic pursuits.

Among many attributes, buildings can be graceful, abstract, whimsical, bold, formal, imposing, derivative, grand, dramatic, or nostalgic. By capturing those characteristics in a compelling way, Ken Konchel hopes it will become very clear that our architectural surroundings should never be taken for granted, and that they contribute immeasurably to our quality of life. He contends that a society that encourages originality and diversity in building design, and values preservation of its architectural past, will possess a quality of life far superior to one that rejects those ideals. And that this enhanced quality of life can raise our collective spirit.

It is Ken Konchel's aim to convincingly and eloquently demonstrate that belief through the photographs he takes.

This site features black and white photography of buildings, primarily abtract images of architectural details. The photographs reveal beautiful abstractions, patterns, forms or features within a buildings architecture that are not apparent at first glance. These are monochrome, fine art, black and white photographs of stone buildings, skyscrapers, sculptures on and within buildings, and many other architectural features such as rooftops, bridges, support beams, frescos, statues, and vestiges of architecture that has historical significance. These are black and white photography of urban images, cityscapes, and the study of light and shadow upon contemporary architecture and steel, glass and stone buildings.

For processes and materials, Ken Konchel uses a Linhof 4" x 5" large format, monorail view camera with a 150mm lens. This larger negative size produces images with superior contrast and sharpness. There are two types of film that Ken Konchel uses; they are Agfapan APX 100 and Kodak T-MAX 100. The photographs are printed using a Beseler Dicho 45s diffused light enlarger with a 150mm lens on Ilford multi-grade, air dry glossy, fiber, archival paper. For mounting, the photographs are mounted and matted using acid-free, archival materials