Friday. Just in time.
So it's been more than two years since I did this (several broken photo links in that second one, alas), and hundreds more black and white pictures of the Lord of the Rings cast have been taken. I don't think I've repeated any from those previous spams, so you won't see most of the iconic b/w shots here, but what we have now adds so much to what we had, it was worth another round. It was time to go ...







that is so much joy. look at how happy they all are. look at the view from Billy's place. look at Viggo's troll. that is so. much. joy.



Billy in the studio. this shoot by John C. Moore really made it real, this band lark of Billy's, and though some of the pictures are of cheerful mugging or serious muso business, this one is in the perfect middle. he's making a bit of a dream come true, isn't he? lovely.



oh, Viggo. he is dusty and sunburnt dignity made flesh.



I enjoy this picture so much, because it's everything Karl rolled up in one to me. The askew glasses sell it, above those fantastic eyes and in that nnngh hair. you don't know whether he's smiling or snarling or both, and I love it.



Cate is glacial and stunning and not afraid of any lens pointed her way. there are so many sharp edges to this—her cheekbones, the choppy ends of her hair, the jewelry—and then there's the unexpected hungover softness of her smudged eyes and her lips and the ruffles in the shirt. fantastic balance.



the first thing about Dominic is that there is probably no one in this cast more aware of what he (or she) can get across in a photograph. the second thing is that it doesn't matter, as long as the result is photographs like this. he's beautiful, and to my mind ties easily with TBC as the most photogenic member of the cast when it comes to black and white photography.



there are scandalously few black and white shots of Andy. this captures him nicely, though, I think; there's danger and cheek and tenderness (look at his hands) and did I mention danger? and do you not want to touch that jacket? I do.



oh dear god. and I mean that close to literally. there's almost too much detail, but he's earned every line, every prickle of beard, every freckle. and fuck me, his hair. I adore.



Sarah McLeod played Rosie Cotton, and did so with worlds of charm and grace. Isn't she gorgeous?



this is such an almost welcomed punch to the gut—look how young Orlando was under all that, really. tired but sweet, too, and soft.



oh, Bean. my all time favourite picture of him. I think of him making his slow way home in grey dawn from somewhere somewhen, and this is perfection.



why this one first of Elijah? because it's everything off-kilter about him, and to see it packaged so well, right down to the loose and limp shirt and tie is just—wow. it's just very real and edgy fun.



Liv doesn't often throw confrontation at the camera, but here she's her father's child and very much her mother's, too, and not just in the set of her jaw and her lips. there's a real combination of Steven Tyler's bring it and Bebe Buell's bring it *here* in her eyes. I love how unglamorous this photo is, and yet how much punch it packs.



it's no secret that I don't especially love casual shots of Billy, but this one gets to me, because of what my ridiculous writer's brain sees in his crouch and the lean of it: this is the point where he seemed at almost desperate pains to tell the world how absolutely comfortable he was at home, working when and how he wanted and why; it would have almost sounded defensive coming from another actor less gifted with charm. the crossed arms and the slightly hunted expression in his eyes are so completely unlike Billy that the picture's both hard for me to look at and impossible to look away from.

yes, my grammar is shoddy there. I wasn't on the clock when I was writing these.



Wenham! in a suit! what's not to love. when I did my first b/w spam I found I think *one* picture of him. now there are more, and huzzah for it.



WHO'S A GRUMPY TALKS-TOO-MUCH BEAR? YES, YOU AAAARE. *pat*



I don't even know what to do with this. but in a strange way I like it, because it's just that: strange. an odd angle, odd lighting, odd hair in the back, and yet still Dominic, wolfish and sussing out what he's meant to look like and be. I like it. I do.



Miranda can be absolutely beautiful in pictures, but I see in her also a grounded, earthy beauty that you rarely see in pictures of Liv and Cate—there's no picture of her that's all sharp or shrill or untouchable. Cate is vodka and Liv is champagne; Miranda is a bottle of really fantastic amber ale.



has anyone ever been better-suited to a role? this picture gives me shivers and then in the next second warms something in my chest. damn, Viggo, damn.



Marton's an excellent case study in what a difference being out of costume makes. when these pictures came out, I couldn't have named the person in them as Marton if you'd given me a hundred guesses. but my god, look at him. that's a man and a half.



yes, it's enormous. I make no apologies, because hello, he's in a suit, and this shoot with Liev made me want to throw congratulations across continents to him because, hello, Elijah, adulthood is going to serve you well.



I'll be over here genuflecting if you need me. sakhdsjhds HAT.



I'm not entirely sure what's going on here, but it's a really unusual picture, and I think TBC had fun with it, even considering the slightly eep eep expression. also, Billy sends his thanks for the watch. again. :D



oh, Sala. is this not a wonderful picture? all that strength calmed, but there's just enough energy humming underneath.



so fantastic I can't even explain it. salve regina oh my god.



Craig! who is adorable and apparently quite awesome to fans, and who really rocks the scruffy here. <3



from one of my favourite eras of Dominic time. it's such a pleasure to see pictures of him taken by a photographer who focuses so hard and strong and sure on those eyes and so soft on those hands.



Viggo doesn't look entirely comfortable here, but it seems right for the picture; there's a restlessness in his body and his face and in the wild grass. it's rare that there's not an element of serenity to a picture of Viggo, and so this shot really stands out for the lack.



another young picture of Liv. she's like a soft mix of Kate Bush and Anne Hathaway here, but there's more going on in those eyes again. of all three lead women in LOTR, her looks lend themselves best to b/w photos; just look at the Givenchy campaigns.



there's something mad attractive about a curious man who recognizes beauty around him, isn't there? McKellen's blessed us with a lot of informal photographs on his site and elsewhere, and I'm so drawn to this one.



again, it's very big, but how could I shrink down those eyes and the most expressive eyebrows on the planet? to say nothing of kitty hair omg. oh Elijah, your feigned ennui slays me prettily. <3



scary bastard, but no one does it better. I said it the last time I did this too, but I'll say it again: Bean and Billy register least in b/w of the whole cast. but once in a while, they knock one out of the park, and this is an example.



as is this. whoever took this, well done, you, because it is one perfectly held breath of a photograph, and I love it.



in which I give Ian Holm some love. I was struck by how much respect Billy gave him in interviews during and after filming, and even before LOTR I'd read Antony Sher writing about him and his bare bones craft of acting, calling the Ian Holm theory of acting as "anything you can do, I can do less of." you don't really get that sense from some of Bilbo's exaggerated scenes in the films, but it's hard for me to imagine anyone else in the role now.



she has an almost Jodie Foster-like quality here, but again there are curves that round off the edges, that warm any possible chill. so, so fantastic.



I've said it a million times, but god bless Sarah Dunn for what she gets out of Dominic. he's such a coiled spring here—look at the tension in his right hand especially, but in the whole position—and it's hard to make such a soft picture from that, but look, look and see.



all that going on, and what my eyes go to is his smile.



there's something kind of gritty and scrubby about this that I really like, and it's a rare picture where there's no self-deprecation at all in his expression. lovely.



this campaign actually convinced me look at Donna Karan's clothes for the first time in years, hee. but wow, this is around The Aviator time, isn't it? because she has some of the Katharine Hepburn vibe going on here with the flattened pout—the set of her mouth is not as lush as it usually is in pictures—and the steel under the watery eyes. she's just amazing.



there is nothing I don't love about this, nothing that doesn't ring true. I'm not even going to try to explain it.



he looks like he should be writing book reviews or bringing down governments, but he's still so very McKellen, and I praise him to the skies.



did I mention the dignity?



I loved the colour photographs from this shoot, but I like to think of this one as taken after all of them, at the end of some random roll, with his cigarette just out of shot, and him getting ready to head on home and write it off as another day rolling into night while his headphones blow out his hearing prematurely. or something.



there's a "what the fuck ever" to this picture that makes me surprised and mildly pleased for Astin, really.



again, let us cry hallelujah for Sarah Dunn. he could be on the edge of a grin or a grunt, and she caught the sweet in-between.



my favourite picture of Liv, ever. she's not even of this earth. <3



his hair, people. it is really hard to find fault with that hair. and you know, for now he's the world's Romeo, right, but in fifteen years time I wish for him that he makes the most scathing but also strangely beautiful Mercutio. I promise I make sense to myself.



it's huge, but I think what's important here is that smile. so many of those shots were glum and moody and little-lost-dom-chaaaahlie, but this just nails how much fun he can have doing this stuff, that it's not work when you can get mucky and pose out for Rolling Stone.



the stories in this man's eyes.



don't worry, I have no ramble for this picture; it's here because it brings me joy.



it's all about the eyes here, too. she doesn't believe a word, but she'll remember every one. also, look at the jewelry and the dress: they're trying so hard to be the focus of the picture. they never stood a chance.



another example of restlessness, and I think an even better example of a picture where for once he couldn't be pinned down. he's not Dominic, he's not Charlie; he looks like a guy who just wants to get the fuck away from the camera, and that is something well beyond startling.



Elijah's got a gift, man; he makes creepy cute and charming, and he's never afraid to let that come out in pictures.



informal and odd and terribly Viggo. I don't know if I love it, but I damn well approve.



sometimes black and white doesn't work for me, and not because of what the picture is, but because of what it could have been. there's too much in shadow here, and I just want the mood to be a little more one way or the other, melancholy or hearthrobby; there's something not real enough here for me to fall in love with the picture, and I so could with that just that little. bit. more. or maybe even a little. bit. less.

To be continued Monday. <3