Spokane photographers Bill and Kathy Kostelec bring a vintage feel to their B&W images

Photographers Bill and Kathy Kostelec have spent the past year exploring, physically and artistically. This weekend they will share their new perspectives (and selected older works) with a three-day exhibit at their renovated 1910 home on the South Hill, also known as Cherry Street Studios.

Their show, “Celebrating 2016: A Year of Exploration and Imagination,” covers new ground for the couple. However, the century-old equipment and dark room processes they use to produce their black-and-white photographs still exude a vintage feel. In the best possible way.

Included in the show will be images of St. Francis Church in Rancho de Taos, famously rendered by the late Ansel Adams and Paul Strand. This fall the Kostelecs produced their own takes on the subject, after spending several days in a rigorous workshop under the tutelage of a former assistant to Adams.

“We worked our tails off for three days straight,” Kathy Kostelec said.

“We learned a lot of practical darkroom information, and refined our way of metering, which is a big deal for us,” Bill Kostelec added.

It is a big deal because film photography, and the people who can make a living from it, have been dwindling, along with 8-track tapes and landlines. But anyone who has ever worked in a dark room, smelled the chemicals, and seen the finished product, can appreciate the artistry and appeal of an old school black-and-white photograph.

The Kostelecs have spent the past two decades lugging antique, heavy cameras on tripods, burying their heads under cloths, and using accordion-like bellows to focus inverted images on glass screens. Then it’s off to their garage-turned-darkroom with the negatives, where they mix chemicals and developers to bring their images to life on once blank sheets of paper.

The couple typically shoots on large sizes of sheet film, such as 5-by-7s or 8-by-10s. The level of details, textures and tones they are able to capture on this antiquated medium often leads to striking results. Blades of grass and rock formations stand out in even distant landscapes.

But old-time methods means luxuries are few. No digital manipulation to cover mistakes. No transferring images with the press of a button.

What the Kostelecs lack in speed and convenience is more than made up by the character and depth inherent in their final product, they say. “Black-and-white digital imaging doesn’t perform as well (as sheet film),” he said.

A glance at one of Bill Kostelec’s framed images of Spokane’s first public swimming facility proves his point. The bricks on the building’s façade are so crytallized, a viewer could believe the photo might be rough to the touch.

Other photos have a softer feel or tone.

“Different films have different ways they treat grays,” Bill Kostelec said. “Part of the fun we have is using the different equipment and film to get different effects.”

In addition to the Southwest photo project, Kathy Kostelec has been experimenting with extreme closeups of vintage objects. Her husband has been delving into photographing antique bottles and the effects they have as a lens.

“Our direction has evolved into where we are opening things up, other worlds up, for other people to see what we see,” he said.

Photography was what first brought the couple together, but music has been another shared passion. Bill Kostelec was teaching photography at Gonzaga University in 2000 when Kathy, who was working for the Washington State Attorney General’s office in its consumer protection division, attended one of his get-togethers for community artists. Eventually they married and formed a duet called the Blue Ribbon Tea Company. They perform folk, blues, dance and children’s music and have produced six original albums so far. They have been a fixture at KPBX and KYRS events and area folk festivals, with Kathy Kostelec also heading the Spokane Songwriters Association.

Their musical style shares the same quality of historical preservation as their visual art. Just as Woody Guthrie’s music is still relevant today, so is the forgotten art of film photography.

With the help of Window Dressing’s Creative Enterprise program, the couple is working toward expanding their home studio business by opening their first store-front next year. Their proposed creative enterprise is one of several that the nonprofit Window Dressing has chosen to receive leased downtown space, rent-free, for six months.

If the plan takes off, the Kostelecs would maintain a working studio and gallery where they could shoot portraits and do matting, framing and shipping of their prints, card sets, calendars and mugs.

The time feels right to open a gallery and shop, Kathy Kostelec said. There appears to be a resurgence of interest in film and vintage cameras. When they hit the road to photograph with their vintage gear, they sometimes struggle to fend off interruptions.

“I always say, ‘Just carry an old camera around if you want to start a conversation with a stranger,’” Kathy Kostelec said.