Saturday, May 14, 2016

Digital Black and White

 As soon as I move into personal work I return to the black and white interpretation.  Not sure if it's a comfort zone, a resistance to the more complex decisions required to work in color, or if I simply see the world in black and white terms.

I have little reference to black and white in the digital realm and probably won't until I begin making prints on my Epson SureColor P800 printer.  I've not succeeded in climbing out of the urn of inertia yet.

I made this photograph under a heavy sky and was impressed at how textured and overbearing the sky felt without bringing any sort of invasive weather.  Just seemed like God was painting.


I return, over and over, to these isolated landscapes.  I continue to sense freedom in them.  Not so much physical but mental as the noise of modern life gives way to some space for thought.  Looking at this picture I see no cares or concerns -- just a feeling of not being commanded to perform.

Did not make it into the chemical darkroom yet.  I did expose several frames of Ilford HP5 today with the Hasselblad.  This scene as well.  Hopefully something will stir me to process film.

4 comments:

  1. I love how the side of the barn pops out of the scene. It's made smaller and more vulnerable by the sky.
    Have you ever collected all of your "lone trees"? I think it would be very interesting to see them together. I imagine they are strong evidence of the passage of time. But, I wonder if they are also evidence in changes in you---in vision, emotion, etc.

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  2. I love how the side of the barn pops out of the scene. It's made smaller and more vulnerable by the sky.
    Have you ever collected all of your "lone trees"? I think it would be very interesting to see them together. I imagine they are strong evidence of the passage of time. But, I wonder if they are also evidence in changes in you---in vision, emotion, etc.

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  3. It's funny what we see in a photo. I didn't really pay much attention to the barn -- almost wishing it wasn't there. The sky and sense of heaviness attracted my attention. But I've shown this picture to only four people and all four commented on the barn. So there must be something for me to learn right?

    I've never collected all the trees but I have a lot of them. In my head I hear, "they all look the same" but perhaps it's worth looking more closely.

    I made a digital black and white print of the barn photo and it looks great. And still, I'm resisting the digital process and thinking if I could only get back into the darkroom.

    That's crazy right?

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  4. Oi, the darkroom. Here we are short on square footage and I'm using up a chunk on a big sink, enlarger, and a ton of boxes. I need to do more purging of camera stuff---"travel light." But, I keep thinking I'll regret it and wish I had my many extra cameras back. The more likely truth is that I'll feel so filled with peace at having less stuff that there won't be room for regret.

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