Chiaroscuro in my words means modeling objects and human figures (traditionally done by painters) using definite contrasts between darkness and light, as in our two photographs on this page. Often you will see deep shadows and luminous whites in the same composition, abruptly juxtaposed.

Why does an image made with this technique give us pleasure?

Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio and Rembrandt van Rijn provide clues; both master painters used the same form of dramatic lighting. Their light came from archaic sources, particularly in their history paintings: candles, torches, lanterns, and other manifestations of fire. They painted using filtered and reflected sunlight. Our emotions — the deepest and most true perhaps — come from the same ancient place. Chiaroscuro could summon these resonant primordial memories, having  the power to ground us and secure us to a larger realm of Being.