When you think of Hollywood in the 1930′s, you think of photographs by people like George Hurrell.Photos of all the greats… Cooper, Harlow, Cagney… Hollywood stars of that era.The difficulty of making these type of shoots work keeps a lot of new photographers away from it all.
At least one photographer, Mark Oristano of Dallas, Texas, has brought back the black-and-white beauty of the 1930′s with a technique he calls “Hollywood/1935.”
“I always loved Hurrell’s work,” says portrait photographer Oristano, “and a couple of years back I studied with Michael Grecco, the great portrait photographer from L.A.We learned all about constant style lighting with things like Mole-Richardsons. When I got back home, I hit ebay and found some old lights and went to work with them.”
But to get the true effect, Oristano decided to step back from digital and return to the film camera. But not just any film camera.
“It’s a 4×5 Speed Graphic from the US Army Signal Corps from World War II. It’s the same model camera that Joe Rosenthal used to take the famous Iwo Jima photo. It’s sixty-plus years old and it still takes great shots. You get detail out of the 4×5 negative you don’t get, even in hi-res digital.”
The old-time look has begun to catch on in Dallas, where former sportscaster Oristano has been shooting engagement shots, senior portraits and more in the Hollywood/1935 style.
“The look on their faces when they see the shot is worth it.they really have no idea, after the long styling and shooting session, how amazing their shot will come out.”
The shoots take about twice as long as an average portrait session given the delicacy of the lighting.The lighting style may be simple to figure out from pictures, but it’s tough to copy on film. But with enough practice, you can be throwing shadows with the best of them and making anybody look like a star.
