Quite some time ago I read on the “365 project” a remark that got me thinking about the phenomena Black and White.
Rob Wells took a really interesting photograph of a tree that had obviously seen better days. (http://365project.org/robewells/365/2011-08-13)
It’s clearly a monochrome image and it seems that he was somewhat uneasy about taking a Black&White shot in the summer. I Quote: “…..although I’m not very happy doing b&w in the summer.”
To be honest I usually take colour photos, I actually like colour: The youthful greens of spring, the warm summer hues and the beautiful autumn golds, to say nothing of the somewhat reserved colours of winter. But once in a blue moon I load a B&W film in an old camera to produce something a bit different, just for the fun of it.
Thumbing through various photo magazines I’m often quite surprised at how many photographers still use Black and White to achieve something a bit special.
Could this be akin to the desire to travel in an old railway carriage being pulled by a steam engine, or the primeval urge to light a wood fire in winter instead of just turning on the central heating?
An inexplicable yearning for all things old perhaps? Is there really a truly ‘superior’ artistic quality to B&W pictures that my somewhat limited artistic talent hasn’t quite grasped (yet)?
Anyway, let me return to the start of all this. The “…not very happy doing b&w in the summer” line certainly caught my attention and seemed to challenge me to do just that; take monochrome pictures in the summer.
I had to show myself that B&W pics can be taken without appearing errr, colourless. It’s very doubtful whether I achieved anything other than a few greyish looking photos, but it was great fun experimenting and I don’t think I’ve finished with B&W just yet.
Incidentally, It was very interesting to note that although the fruits of my labours may tell a different story, I was very motivated during the summer months and I actually had my camera with me quite often, thus proving how important it is to photograph with some sort of purpose, however trivial!
Feel free to take a look at all my ‘summery’ monochrome pics at:
http://www.harding.ch/Gallery21/main.php?g2_itemId=873
For the technically interested, the photos in the gallery were almost all original B&W pics, but a few were desaturated with Gimp. A mixture of Panasonic DMC-LX2, Sony-Ericsson W995 mobile phone and Samsung ES30 was used.