The Magic of Vintage Black Glamour

I recently had the pleasure of leading a lighting class on vintage Black glamor. What is vintage Black glamour? It is a celebration of Black beauty and vintage glamour talked about in the incredible set of books titled Vintage Black Glamour by the amazing writer Nichelle Gainer.

I was asked to lead a class on classic Hollywood glamour that was to feature a Black woman as a twist on the classic 1930’s Hollywood glam which was of course nearly exclusively white. The lovely local model, singer, and all around incredible artist Special K was set to model for the shoot and we had the beautiful Oaklander Hotel in Pittsburgh as our location.

Still something about the initial idea bothered me a little. The idea was good, using the techniques of the 1930s to teach lighting. The intention was there, recognizing the exclusion and racism that was central to the Golden Age of Hollywood. However it still felt a bit exclusionary. There were, after all, lots of glamorous Black women photographed in the 1930s, as well as the 1920 and throughout the years before and after. They were just all too often shutout of leading roles in Hollywood because of racism. Still they exist, their photos exist, and they’re just as, if not more glamorous.

I personally felt that focusing on the fact that these women and these photos exist is a better way of speaking about the exclusion and racism that continues to keep them from being spoken about more widely. I asked the organizers if we could retitle it Vintage Black Glamour. They were wonderfully receptive and we ran with the new title. It was during my search for more info on the topic that I came across Nichelle Gainer and her amazing books.

Beginning To See The Light

I cannot stress enough how much you need to buy Nichelle Gainer’s incredible set of books. Even if you’re just someone who loves collecting photo books these are really must haves. If you want to see how exclusion from Hollywood didn’t stop these men and women from being icons of fashion and glamour then you need to buy these books.

Seeing how they’re lit is a master class all of it’s own. Though the books do contain candid shots the posed studio portraits really give you an idea of what lighting was like in the days before widespread and easy to manage electronic flash in ways that studying the same cookie-cutter Paramount lighting photos done in Hollywood can’t.

Nearly all posed studio portrait sessions from the 1920s until the 1970s were done with continuous lighting. Flash was not widely adopted for studio use until the 70s. The benefit of continuous lighting is being able to see exactly what your photo is going to look like. In the days of film this was really helpful.

How To Capture Vintage Black Glamour

I opted to use flash in the in my Vintage Black Glamour class because it was on location. That said having continuous lighting would have been better as it would have given me a greater idea of what the photo was going to look like before. The important thing though was to have hard lighting, not soft.

Since the lighting used for many of these classic portraits was continuous I opted to use a simple 7" reflector on a Godox AD200 with the bare-bulb head. You can toss a grid on there to control the light spill but I didn’t mind it too much.

That hardness means crisp clean shadows, hard lines, and the ability to really define your client/model’s face and body with those lines and shadows. It’s a very unforgiving type of lighting. The challenge however gives you incredible results.

The first challenge is making sure the shadows fall where you want/need and that they look good. Defined cheekbones, a little shadow under the nose, lips, and chin, and an overall sculpted look are the hallmark of hard lighting when done right.

The next biggest challenge with this type of lighting is how much it will show any marks or blemishes. For 1930’s Hollywood this wasn’t an issue because they could over-expose the white women they were photographing and you’d lose those blemishes. That’s not something you can do without creating some ethical questions with a Black model because lightening her complexion should be understood to be problematic given the role that colorism* still plays in our society.

If you’re not familiar, colorism is discrimination of darker skinned individuals. It manifests itself in film and TV wherein actors with darker complexions are often passed up for roles even if those roles were written to be played by someone of their complexion even if the role is of an actual historic person.

One other sizable challenge is getting catchlights into the model’s eyes. You can see in the picture at the top of this article that Special K, has catchlights in her eyes but in the photo just above she does not. Adding another light to just provide those is also an option but I wanted to keep this as simple as possible for my students since many of them are new to lighting and I’d recommend the same for you if you’re also new to using flash or any lighting other than the sun.

You can ask your model or client to turn their face up just slightly or you can lower your light down just a touch and you should get the catchlights back. Pay attention to where the light is and where your shadows are falling. The light should be directly in front of the model’s face regardless of if they’re looking at you or not. The light needs to move with them otherwise the sculpting effect is lost.

What I Love About Vintage Black Glamour

It would be easier to list what I don’t love about vintage Black glamour. That said I do love I’d the fact that we can celebrate the men and women who made and appeared in old vintage Black glamour photos. Despite everything wrong with the world they look fabulous and unshaken.

I also love the lighting technique. It’s hard light with crisp shadows, it isn’t forgiving at all, it requires you to make strong choices, to work with your client, and to make sure you both work with the light actively. It really is a three-way conversation between you, the client, and the light. Done right and the sculptural quality is unmatched.

Plus you’ve got to love the outfits, the makeup, and the whole look. We’re still dealing with a whole lot of racism in this world so I think it’s vital that we show how beautiful diversity is, how magical and rich cultures right here in the US thrive despite efforts to hold them back or extinguish them outright. Given all that’s happening politically right now I think there is no better time to celebrate the past and future of marginalized people, to share their stories, to show off their art and to stop ignoring their history and contributions.

They exist. Actually they do more than exist. Despite efforts to the contrary they thrive, they live, they create, and they’re not going anywhere so make room.

Lighting Classes

I’m planning some future lighting classes here in Pittsburgh. I don’t have them scheduled just yet but you can find out more on my website and can sign up when they are announced. Until then, here is one last photo of the amazing Special K.