When it’s been a busy week for us all and there have been very few picks I go ahead an go over my pick limit, (I’d post all of you if I could…) even if it’s only one picture. (I’m not paying the hosting space and bandwidth here… What a great week, I can feel my creativity slowing seeping back and it seems as if all of you feel that too. Here are my picks this week:
When I look at myself in the mirror, I see a person. When I look around, I see people. It’s sometimes so hard to imagine the people around me not being there and the concept of there being a soul and an afterlife is comforting. It doesn’t take away from the fact that when I see people, that’s all they are. A couple of limbs, a head, a body, snivelling, snotty, noisy creatures.
The second the colour drains away from the image though, through black and white, it’s like a lightbulb goes off: I see the world differently. The world does seem more soulful, as if there’s more mystery, a secret just waiting to be told. Details that would somehow be lost if there was colour around.
Is this why black and white photography is on its way back “In”? In a time where we are constantly bombarded with images and messages in our cars, homes, schools, magazines - Buy/sell/need more sex/be skinnier/have more muscles/increase your penis size - is it that hard to believe that we all need to appreciate the small things in life and see something larger than ourselves and consumerism. An associate of mine one day spoke about her experiences living in Germany as a child; when the wall came down and advertising became prevalent in East Germany, people would buy objects because the television extoled their virtues - they weren’t used to being critical about advertising. Living our whole lives surrounded by mass produced marketing in order to induce us to part with our hard earned cash, we have become cynical and untrusting without even meaning to.
Is it that hard to believe that we need to believe in something larger than this whirlwind life and black and white photography forces us to look for that something? To look beyond the snivelling exterior and see something more? Or in the words of some intelligent ananoymous person:
“If you’re photographing in color you show the color of their clothes - if you use black and white, you will show the color of their soul.”
Sorry I’m a day late this week. It was a busy V-Day and there were so many intense photos to comb through. How a lack of colour can create so much more emotional heft is something that amazes me. Here are some of my faves for the week — but man, it was hard to narrow them down. Great work, everyone.
Another Saturday… Sometimes it feel like time is inching by and I just want it to speed up, but lately it seems like the weeks are flying by and I hardly have time to fit everything I need to do in them. I hate to feel so rushed and force this weekly endeavor, and hopefully as I clear my schedule my creativity for will return for this project.
Since my creativity is lacking, let’s look at yours.