How-To

 Chris Clor’s b&w photographs are stunning, but often begin as humdrum color pictures. Want to convert a color shot? We got Clor to share his secrets so you can try it, too.

What led you to photograph model trains?

Are you hankering for an interesting subject for your next photo adventure? How about something light years away? Swiss photographer Fabian Oefner read Stephen Hawking’s popular treatise on recent advances in theoretical physics, The Universe in a Nutshell, and felt challenged to find universal truths—as Hawking does so well—in realities that are surprisingly close to home.The result is Oefner’s series of images titled “Nebulae,” all of which, like the example above, could easily be taken for images made from the outer reaches of our solar system by the Hubble Space Telescope.

When Ilona Szwarc moved to New York City from Warsaw in 2008, her goal was to be a street photographer in the tradition of her heroes Garry Winogrand, Joel Meyerowitz, and Bruce Gilden. So, like them, she began shooting the crowds along Fifth Avenue.Now 28, Szwarc might not have known she was shooting near the flagship American Girls doll store had she not noticed a trend pop up in her images—little girls, all holding dolls that look like they do, customized in hair and skin color as well as fashion. After stopping a few of them to learn the story, she became fascinated.