Early April monochromes!

What’s up, Hive! I’ll be honest. I almost missed tonight’s post. I was invited to post in Photography Lovers Community by Hive account@castleberry and I thought this would be a good opportunity to make my introduction. I started the Photography community here on Hive when communities were still in beta, so I’ve always just posted in there. I thought I’d take up the offer and share some of my work with a new community, so hi! I’m Lars Kommienezuspadt. I shoot a style called dark pinup. It’s a more serious, darker interpretation of vintage and pinup and I’ve been doing it for about 20 years.

Once a month or so, I do a selection of black and white photography. Much of the vintage and pinup models I work with have a classic Old Hollywood look and style. When I return edits back to them, they’re typically in color, so occasionally, I’ll convert these to monochromes, like this first shot of Ellie Rayne. We shot this together specifically for my book, Dark Pinup, by Hive account@wcpublishing. Shortly before the book’s release, a model pulled out of the publication and Ellie, almost single handedly, saved the project. We’ve shot together several times since and she’s become a really great friend and collaborator since this night.

This next photo is one of my longtime friend Hive account@michelinepitt. It’s up there for one of the most memorable nights of my life. She and I had been trying to shoot together for over a year and this was the night in LA that circumstances finally aligned for us. Additionally, the shoot happened at Hive account@thomaskuntzart’s spirit room. He’s become one of my best friends since and the two of them are both incredibly inspiring creative powerhouses. This shot, as a black and white, even challenges me of which I prefer between monochrome and color.

Lastly, this last shot was from Viva Las Vegas in 2017. With the exception of 2020 and 2021, I’ve gone to Viva Las Vegas Rockabilly Weekend and this afternoon was with a model name Cheekra. She was featured in the Dark Pinup book and the Dark Pinup NFT set on WAX. This was a great shoot for me as the pinup scene lacks a lot of cultural representation. I loved having the opportunity to shoot with her and collaborate, creating a classic image that adds more diversity to the scene. This is still one of my favorites as her gaze commands the eye.