Black And White Can Set The Mood

I have been 'playing around' a bit more with black and white conversions and experimenting with the types of moods that black and white images can convey.

A few years ago I went on an amazing workshop with Nancy Rotenberg, which took place on the Oregon Coast. One of the most surreal places I have ever seen was Bandon Beach, Oregon. In fact, it was so other-worldly that I took one of my images and made the colors somewhat surreal in order to try to convey the 'feeling' of being in that location, rather than just using the image to show what the location looked like. While I liked the image, I always had my doubts as to whether the viewer would understand what I was trying to say and feared they would just see the image as 'hypersaturated'. Of course, if the image doesn't convey what it is that you, as the artist, want it to, it has failed, at least on some level.

Siren's Song
Copyright Howard Grill

However, when I converted the same image to black and white it seemed to immediately convey to me the surreal feel that I was looking for. I believe it may be a more successful rendering of the photograph. What do you think?

Siren's Song
Copyright Howard Grill

Perhaps, if you agree that it is more successful, the reason might be that converting it to monochrome immediately removes it from the realm of a 'normal' representation of place, as we don't normally see things in black and white. I'm not sure if this explains it, but I thought it was an interesting possibility to consider.

Black And White Vision

I have always enjoyed black and white photography and the way that lines, shapes, and tones play such an important role in the image. Though I had a black and white darkroom when I was a kid, I hadn't done much black and white imaging recently because of the difficulty in making good B&W inkjet prints. Several years back, folks were setting up for black and white inkjet printing using third party inks with dedicated black and white print drivers etc. Many reported excellent results, others, well, not so much. Lately I have been experimenting with black and white printing again, as my Epson 7900 gives really superb black and white output.

One of the photography sites/communities which I enjoy perusing because of the extremely high quality imagery that can be found there is Fotoblur; and there is a good amount of black and white photography on the site.

As I was looking at some of the images by various photographers, I was struck again by how important tonality and simple graphic lines are to a black and white image; even more so, I believe, than for color images. In addition, somehow the 'magic' of black and white seems to be able to transform a scene into 'art' that would otherwise be bland in color. And part of the skill of making black and white images is the ability to visualize this transformation; to see, if you will, in black and white. I saw many beautiful images perusing Fotoblur yesterday, but the one that really drove home to me the ability of black and white to make 'art' out of what we might ordinarily walk by and not even glance at was this photograph by Linda Wride:

"Cubes"
Copyright Linda Wride

Check out the rest of Linda's compelling imagery here. She also has a website that features her botanicals.

B&W

I was very pleasantly and unexpectedly surprised to find that an image I had submitted to B&W Magazine many months back had been awarded a 'Silver Medal' in the Seascapes/Water category. This image is a black and white conversion from a photograph taken as part of my "Twin Jewels Project".

"Fluidity"
Copyright Howard Grill

Shutterbug Image

OK, I know it's not exactly LensWork, but I do have to mention something when I get a photo published. The last few months I picked up a subscription to Shutterbug to read some of the software reviews etc and noticed their "Picture This!" monthly themed feature. So I sent in images for two months in a row since I happen to have had photos that fit the themes. The first theme for which I submitted an image was "Monochrome". I got my issue yesterday and there it was, along with the others they had chosen. Not the worlds biggest deal, but it is nice to see one's image in print!

Reaching Out
Copyright Howard Grill

Black And White

I have always admired black and white photography. The ability to convey feeling through only shades of gray is truly amazing. It has been some time since I did any black and white imaging, though I originally started that way with my home darkroom when I was in 9th grade.

One of the reasons that I have not done much black and white work has been the difficulties that have accompanied black and white inkjet printing over the years. However, these problems have clearly been decreasing rapidly. Lightroom and Photoshop CS4 have made converting color images to black and white much more intuitive. I have also been contemplating buying one of the newer printers that, based on all I have seen and read, are quite capable of producing beautiful monochrome prints.

With this in mind, I recently started 'playing' with some of my already processed color images to see what they would look like in black and white and how 'good' a conversion I could do. For an initial try, I rather like what I was able to produce, at least in terms of how they look on the computer monitor.

"Fluidity"
Copyright Howard Grill

"Siren's Song"
Copyright Howard Grill

"Dreamscapes #1"
Copyright Howard Grill

"Water Painting"
Copyright Howard Grill

Louie Palu

One of the many reasons that I enjoy reading LensWork is that the magazine introduces me to photographers that I otherwise would be unaware of. At times this is because the photographer has not been widely published and at other times it may be because I simply have not been exposed to them, despite their having achieved recognition.

This month, I was particularly intrigued by the work of Louie Palu, who spent years on his project photographing coal miners in Canada. Every aspect of this project , from how he managed to get access to the mines themselves (pure persistence in the face of repeated resistance), to the dangers of being in the mine (which makes for a fascinating discussion in the LensWork interview), and the challenges of photographing in a dark and hostile environment (equipment literally blown up, dropped down shafts, makeshift lighting etc.) is truly fascinating. I couldn't stop reading the interview transcript and am looking forward to hearing more in LensWork Extended.

Finally, the images were absolutely superb! My description and opinion are meaningless compared to having a look for yourself. So here is a link to the portion of Mr. Palu's website that contains images from this project, which he entitles "Cage Call". But don't stop there, the rest of the projects and images on his site are wonderful as well.

The project turned into a book, which I plan to buy. Unfortunately, it currently seems to be unavailable at Amazon and I can't seem to find one for sale anywhere else either.

LensWork: A Journal, Not A Magazine

If you have a passion for photography, or, for that matter, any artistic medium, and do not read LensWork magazine, I would highly recommend that you stop reading this post for a moment (yes, it's that important :>) and visit this page of the LensWork website instead.....but please do come back!

LensWork is a magazine (actually, journal sounds like a better word, as a magazine sounds like something you throw away, and you won’t) that deals purely with the creative aspects of photography.

What you won't find:

Equipment reviews
How-to articles
Technique articles
Advertisements

What you will find:

Articles about creativity and the creative process
Wonderful black and white photographic portfolios (usually three or four per issue)
Cutting humor (c’mon, you know it’s there….Bill Jay’s endnotes, what a great way to end each issue!)
Ideas worth thinking about and discussing

In my opinion, it is simply the best photography journal available today. I look forward to the arrival of each and every issue and can say with total honesty that I read it, literally, from cover to cover. My only complaint is that I wish it were published even more frequently than every other month. It is a bargain at any price.

By the way, take a look at LensWork Extended as well. It is a multimedia extension of the magazine with extended portfolios, interviews with the photographers, exceptional video presentations and articles that are not in the print version. When I first purchased Extended, I wondered if it would be repetitious paired with the print version. Trust me, it is not. It is a whole additional experience that, again, would be worthwhile at many more times the actual cost.

LensWork, the journal as well as the Extended Version, will keep you thinking and open your mind to new possibilities. I don’t know of any better compliment that one can give to a magazine, er.....journal.