17-Jul-2019
The Sculpture Garden, Boscobel Mansion, Garrison, New York, 2019
This bronze of bust of painter Thomas Moran, sculpted by Greg Wyatt, is one of ten significant Hudson River School 19th century painters honored in Boscobel Mansions Sculpture Garden. The bust has already acquired a green patina, which made a poor subject for an expressive photograph.
I simply converted my color image to black and white. The green patina vanished, replaced by the powerful presence of Wyatt's sculpting itself. The image also becomes a contrast of textures, bust vs. tree. And since Moran was one of our greatest landscape painters, that pairing of the textures becomes even more appropriate. Texture is at the heart of a painters work, and trees are essential players in many, if not most, landscape paintings.
16-Jul-2019
Lincoln at Peekskill, Peekskill, New York, 2019
A train carrying Abraham Lincoln to his inaugural in 1861 stopped briefly at the Peekskill train station. Lincoln emerged, said a few words, and rumbled off into history. That moment is still remembered in Peekskill, a town on the Hudson River north of New York City. The depot where Lincoln's train stopped still stands. It is now a museum. A life sized statue, recently cast and realistically painted in color, stands at its front door. I chose to photograph it at high noon, when the light was extremely contrasty, and Lincoln himself recedes into the shadows. It still did not work -- the color paint on the statue, intended to make it seem more realistic, had the opposite effect in my photograph. Lincoln looked too much like a statue and too little like a man.
By converting the image to black and white, I abstract the photograph and make it less real as a statue but seem more real as a man. My imagination now takes me back to 1861 and Lincoln stops talking for a moment to simply look at us, his face only suggested rather than revealed.
11-SEP-2016
Emma, by Tom Douglis, Chicago, Illinois, 2016
My son, Tom, sent this image to me while researching our family history as part of a genealogy project. He found this grave marker among the weeds of a Chicago cemetery and photographed it with his iPhone 6 camera. He made this picture in color to document the burial place of my Grandmother’s sister, Emma, who died in 1912 at the age of 15.
While not originally intended as a work of photographic expression, my son’s photo of my Great Aunt’s grave marker becomes a powerfully expressive image once I crop it, move in on the detail, and convert it from vibrant color to this soft, sepia toned monochromatic image. The pinkish marble stone and the vivid green weeds recede, simplifying the photograph. The sepia speaks of age, while the detail on the stone takes over – a branch inscribed by man upon the stone leaps forward to symbolically bond with the weeds, a work of nature.
The image now tells the story of a young life cut short, yet still remembered as very much a part of the natural world.
25-APR-2016
Grooming the park, Scottsdale, Arizona, 2016
While accompanying a tutorial student during a shoot on the mall of the Scottsdale Civic Center, I noticed a series of walls enclosing a stretch of grass that was in the process of bring groomed. I organized this image before the man pushing the lawn mower even entered the scene. I moved behind the tree in the foreground to create part of a double anchor for my image, using the trash receptacle to its left as well. Just behind the tree, a low wall borders the grass. The massive terraced wall in the background repeats its shape. Another tree, in the upper left hand corner of the frame, echoes the diagonal reach of the tree in the foreground. As the mower-man moved into the picture, he falls into the shadow cast by that tree. He also leans forward as he pushes the mower before him. His head exactly matches the height of the large wall behind him, creating a perfect backdrop for his partially silhouetted figure. In the original scene, the building rising out of the hedges behind the second wall is painted blue, orange, and bright yellow. The foliage around it is a brilliant green. These colors are so attractive that they would pull our eyes to them, rather than to the man pushing the lawn mower. I solve this problem by converting the entire image to black and white. The competing colors vanish, and I add a slight sepia tone to convey a timeless mood.
28-DEC-2013
Art and Nature, Desert Botanical Garden, Phoenix, Arizona, 2013
Famed glass sculptor Dale Chihuly created these gracefully sinuous leaves, and displays them adjacent to a stand of saguaro cacti. This example of art imitating nature is but one of the many Chihuly glass works placed on exhibit throughout the vast Botanical Garden. I did not have my regular camera with me that day, so I used my iPhone camera to make this image. I later converted the image to black and white to abstract the scene, making it seem more magical and less real. The light playing on the glass leaves creates a mystical glow, a counterpoint to the shadowy and spiny live saguaros in the background. By contrasting the differing textures and forms, I blend art with nature -- the very purpose of the Chihuly exhibition itself.
03-NOV-2014
Yesteryear, Gold Canyon, Arizona, 2014
Monochromatic images can often speak of another time, and in this case, another place as well. I found a western straw hat resting on couple of vintage books stacked upon a curving table, just below a curving mirror. The table and mirror echo the curves in the hat. To make the image say more, I converted this photograph by post processing it in black and white, as well as slightly aging it by using a yellowish tone, and finally forcing the edges of the frame to gradually fade into oblivion. I use such effects in post processing for a specific purpose here – I simply wanted the image to speak of another time, and an “old west setting.” I think it does.
03-NOV-2014
Four Pack, Chandler, Arizona, 2014
I framed this bartender at a local barbeque restaurant through still another frame, provided by an interior window. That window displays the restaurant’s barbeque sauces, along with a poster advertising them, and provides a more dimensional “picture within a picture.” The softly focused back wall, featuring neon advertisements and beer dispensers, intensifies the feeling of depth. The only problem I faced was distracting color, caused by the bizarre blue and purple lighting in the bar area. By converting this image to black and white, I was able to remove these colors and allow my viewers to see the bartender and his unique environment without distraction.
15-FEB-2013
Repetition, Oakland Cemetery, Atlanta, Georgia, 2013
I was drawn to this Victorian tomb by the golden light that fell upon it, and by the deep blue sky in the background. I also noticed that the trees in the background virtually repeated the arm gesture of the sculpted figure that dominates the image. The photograph acquires even more power when the lovely golden tones and rich blue sky are converted to black and white. The colors no longer can call attention to themselves, and the relationship of the gesture and the trees takes center stage instead.
08-FEB-2013
Cormorants, Tamiami Trail, Florida, 2013
The Tamiami Trail (US Route 41) runs from Miami to Tampa. It slices through the Everglades National Park, and continues through the enormous swamp known as the Big Cypress National Preserve. When I made this photograph, the skies along the Tamiami were gray, and a light rain was falling. Five cormorants sit upon this utility wire, while a sixth perches atop a utility pole that completes the illusion of notes written upon a sheet of music. The silhouetted birds, wires, and pole, along with the gray skies, provided an utterly black and white image to begin with.
13-FEB-2013
Fallen column, Rose Hill Cemetery, Macon, Georgia, 2013
A blackened marble column forms the basis of this image – it had fallen off of a tomb, and landed in front of the words defining the scope of a life. There was little color in this image to begin with – only a touch of greenish moss. By converting it to black and white, the image becomes more symbolic and less real. The moss vanishes -- the emphasis changes to the repeating diagonal grooves in the column that abstract the scene and draw the eye into the image.
13-FEB-2013
Barren tree, Rose Hill Cemetery, Macon, Georgia, 2013
This huge barren tree probably dates back to the founding of this cemetery in 1840. By photographing it from a distance, I am able to stress its age though its size, comparing it to a life sized sculpture, as well as three large gravestones standing at its base. It was raining as I made this image -- the only color was in the grass. By changing the photograph to black and white, that color vanishes, leaving the incongruous scale difference to tell the story without distraction.
12-FEB-2013
Georgia Monument, Andersonville National Cemetery, Andersonville, Georgia, 2013
The Georgia Monument in Andersonville National Cemetery, sculpted by William J. Thompson, honors all American prisoners of war. Its location at Andersonville is particularly valid – it was here in 1864 and 1865 that 45,000 Union soldiers were imprisoned by the Confederacy during the American Civil War. Nearly 30 per cent of them died from disease, malnutrition, and exposure. It is appropriate to express the grim nature of this place, and the emotional intensity of this sculpture, in the black and white medium.
12-AUG-2012
Ghosts in the forest, Point Lobos State Natural Reserve, Carmel, California, 2012
In color, this image highlights the dead white Cypress trees as they contrast to green canopy around them. By changing the medium to black and white, the green vanishes, and the dead Cypresses seem to join the forest, rather than stand out from it. The merging of live and dead trees, flung upon the ancient rocky shoreline, speaks of replacement – as a tree dies, another grows to take its place. Yet the ghosts of the past always remain with us as a reminder of mortality, as well as the life cycle itself.
12-AUG-2012
Cypress branches, Point Lobos State Natural Reserve, Carmel, California, 2012
Although Cypress trees can survive for more than a thousand years, this one has perished, leaving its graceful structure for us as a reminder of mortality itself. Its branches seem to be dancing, an echo, perhaps, of its distant youth. I converted the image to black and white to strengthen the flow of the white branches framed within its darker companions.
15-AUG-2012
Hollywood Walk of Fame, Hollywood, California, 2012
The 2,500 five pointed terrazzo and brass stars embedded along Hollywood Boulevard and Vine Streets in downtown Hollywood commemorate achievement in the entertainment industry. I include only two of them here – one honoring the actress Louise Rainer, who at 102 years of age is the oldest living Academy Award Winner. (She won a Best Actress Oscar for “The Great Ziegfeld” in 1936. She had to wait a long time for this star on Hollywood Boulevard – she dedicated it herself in 2011.) The other star in this image honors Red Foley, a country music artist. The stars symbolize fame, and I contrast them to a lone woman, photographed from behind as she waits for a bus. One must also assume that she, like most of us, will have no star in this sidewalk. By converting the image to black and I white, I remove all color and vibrancy from the scene, implying that fame is illusory, even in a place where 2,500 stars seem to make fame commonplace.
12-AUG-2012
Detail, Cypress branch, Point Lobos State Natural Reserve, Carmel, California, 2012
Coming to Point Lobos as a photographer, one is always mindful of the images that Edward Weston made here in the 1930s and 1940s. His family still operates a gallery in Carmel, and many prints of his work are on display. His detailed studies of the twisted, parched trunks of dead Cypress trees are inspirational and compelling. For me, they often seem to speak of life and death simultaneously. Motivated by this idea, I made this image of part of a Point Lobos Cypress branch, concentrating on the swirling vitality within this piece of ancient skeletal wood. The swirls ebbed and flowed as the tree flourished, created over the centuries by both the growth of the tree itself and by its stormy seaside environment. The swirls are frozen here by time itself. As Weston did, I work in black and white, simplifying the complex subject and providing a sense of great age.
11-AUG-2012
At play, Santa Cruz, California, 2012
This youngster was hanging on to an oversized pendulum, an interactive work of public art on Santa Cruz’s Main Street. Her response to the device was ecstatic as she rocked back and forth on it. I was able to freeze this moment where she embraces the huge post with great zest and passion. The closed eyes and clenched fist express such human values quite well here. By converting it to a black and white image, I remove a competing distraction from her vivid blue sweater, and make the photo more symbolic -- less about this individual herself, and more about childhood play as a universal stage of life.
21-NOV-2011
Medusa, Side, Turkey, 2011
I found this depiction of Medusa in the garden of Side’s archeology museum. The shadows intensify the scowl of the creature, an ancient Greek image widely used to avert evil. She always is shown with living snakes emerging from her head, and supposedly can turn living creatures into stone. In this case, the Romans turned the tables on Medusa and cast her in stone. My black and white interpretation reinforces the stony texture of the sculpture.
21-NOV-2011
The gears of time, Side, Turkey, 2011
I found these truncated Roman marble columns lying on the ground near Side’s amphitheater. They seem to be incongruously growing out of rhythmically repeating rectangular slabs of marble. There was no coloration in either the marble or the dark background, so I converted the image to black and white. The monochromatic treatment simplifies what already is a starkly organized composition.
16-SEP-2011
Groundskeeper, Cuenca, Ecuador, 2011
This man was simply sweeping the paths along a hill above some of the ancient Inca ruins that are part of a museum in the center of Cuenca. I moved well below him, entering a chamber of an Inca dwelling. A large stone lintel over the entry to the house soared directly over my head, and a huge stone wall joined it at a right angle. I placed the man at work within the rectangular frame formed by the lintel and the wall. The black and white format abstracts the image, linking the stonework, the man and the trees, as well as the heavy storm clouds overhead, to the man at work -- creating as a seamless expression of labor that seems to stretch back into time itself.
23-SEP-2011
Hungry child, Cuenca, Ecuador, 2011
This toddler was standing in the doorway of a basement room, eating her breakfast. She was wearing a vividly colored sweater and carrying an equally colorful backpack. I wanted to stress her somewhat apprehensive expression, and the coloration competed with it. By making this image black and white, I have made the image less specific in nature, and more universal. It is about a child’s cautious view of the world, not about clothing or color.
24-SEP-2011
The wait, Cuenca, Ecuador, 2011
This woman is patiently waiting for a bus. She stands opposite a white wall and gray street. She stands before a tree in backlight, which offers a silhouette that stresses form and shape at the expense of detail. The black and white treatment creates a mood that is still, pensive, quiet – which reflects her situation: waiting to get on with her life. By removing color, particularly the green foliage, we simplify the point at hand.
15-SEP-2011
Grave marker, Cuenca, Ecuador, 2011
This image, made under leaden skies in Cuenca’s vast city of the dead, shockingly resembled a photographic negative when I converted it from color to black and white. I find it to be an apt symbol – a negative is the opposite of a positive, just as death is the opposite of life.
23-APR-2011
Ceiling fan, Arcosanti, Arizona, 2011
Famed architect Paolo Soleri established Arcosanti 30 years ago, a communal living project that blends architecture and ecology. Today, its dining hall reflects the nature of Soleri’s vision. The multi-story hall features a translucent ceiling and a cooling fan, which I abstract here into a black and white study of light and shadow, structure and function.
23-DEC-2010
Layers of light and shadow, Recife, Brazil, 2010
This image of a cruise ship steaming its way out of Recife’s harbor uses black and white abstraction to stress the play of light and shadow on both the sea and in the sky. I built the image around six stacked layers of light and shadow – anchored by the reflection in the lower right hand corner. The silhouetted barrier reef that gives the town its name (Recife means reef) comes next, separating the harbor from the ocean itself. The dark expanse of the sea leads the eye to the distant ship, its stack lifting a plume of smoke into the clouds overhead. The sun again reflects on water just ahead of the ship, leading it into its journey. The brightest light in the photograph is the sun itself at the top of the image, echoing the reflections below. Using backlighting to make this image makes color redundant. The scene works best in its simplest form – a black and white abstraction.
21-JUL-2010
Robert Frost’s grave, Old First Church Graveyard, Bennington, Vermont, 2010
The poetry of Robert Frost is lean and spare. So is his gravestone, embossed only with a stylized wreath. Black and white is a lean medium in itself, a perfect compliment to Frost and his art. I also liked the dampness that regularly forms around the names of Frost and his wife, Eleanor, which suggests the moisture of tears. They were born within a year of each other, yet Frost outlived her by a quarter of a century. They rest together beneath this marker, the passing of each marked by a phrase from Frost’s poetry.
19-NOV-2009
Profile, Scottsdale, Arizona, 2009
I was having lunch in a restaurant with a tutorial student when I saw the way the window light was falling on the face of a man dining at a nearby table. As he turned his head into profile, the sun illuminated his white hair and beard from behind, making it seem as if he was lost in thought. I made this image to take advantage of the back lighting’s ability to abstract the subject by taking away all color except for the flesh tones in the forehead. When I converted this image to black and white, even those tones vanish, further simplifying the profile, and making it seem more symbolic of thought.
18-OCT-2009
Command, World War II memorial, Kiev, Ukraine, 2009
Monumental battle sculpture lines the sides of an underpass in the Kiev park dedicated to the memory of the Soviet Ukraine’s victory over the Nazis in World War II. The rough textures of the sculptors art here tell the story of command and devotion. Cast in black stone within a gray concrete underpass, the statues did not evoke the stress of battle when seen in color photographs. Black and white is the perfect medium for such an image. It echoes the photographs of the war itself, often seen in black and white prints and filmed footage.
17-OCT-2009
Sunrise, Independence Square, Kiev, Ukraine, 2009
A statue of one of Kiev’s legendary founders holding a goose in one hand and reaching for the sun with the other expresses the start of a new day in the city’s busy Independence Square. By taking the color out of the image and replacing it with black and white imagery, I make the scene less real and more symbolic, a good fit for a statue of a legend.
29-SEP-2009
Pyramid Falls, Alberta, Canada, 2009
I shot this lovely waterfall from through a window on a moving train.
The glass was tinted, the falls deep in shadow. We had only seconds to shoot – there was an announcement made that we were about to pass this waterfall, and the train slowed for “photography” but did not stop. I used burst shooting, and hoped for the best. All of my shots were greenish blue – a bilious color. Black and white saved the day here – the awful color vanished, and we are left only with the soft autumnal flow of water plunging from ledge to ledge.
20-SEP-2009
Sunday morning, Montreal, Canada, 2009
I knew that I wanted this image to be in black and white even as I shot it. He seemed to be biting his fingernails. He was hunched over, sitting alone on a bench not far from the St. Lawrence River. His blue sweater broke the mood – black and white saved it.
21-SEP-2009
Early light, Montreal, Canada, 2009
I used my spot-metering mode to expose for the early morning light on the pavement, throwing the surrounding hundred year old buildings along Old Montreal’s St. John the Baptist street into abstracting shadows. I built the image around a pedestrian – as she reached the end of the street, her head and shoulders were rimmed in glowing light. She is small, the scene large, creating a sense of scale incongruity. I use shadows here as an abstracting medium, and employ black and white to intensify them.
22-JUL-2009
The Liberator, Newburyport, Massachusetts, 2009
While prowling the streets of the touristy town of Newburyport, I stumbled upon a statue of William Lloyd Garrison, the prominent American abolitionist, journalist and social reformer. Daniel Chester French, who later created the famed statue in the Lincoln Memorial, sculpted this statue in 1983 to commemorate Garrison’s birth in Newburyport. Garrison, who edited the abolitionist newspaper, “The Liberator,” was known for his oratory, and French’s sculpture depicts him forcefully gesturing. I moved in on his gesturing hand, silhouetting it against the gathering storm clouds overhead. The ship weathervane atop Newburyport’s old Baptist Church (now a restaurant) in the background points at the menacing clouds. I converted this image to black and white because it further abstracts an already abstracted photograph.
21-JUL-2009
Decay, Castle Hill, Ipswich, Massachusetts, 2009
Over the last hundred years, this elegant figure has endured the battering winds, rains, and snows of the Massachusetts coast. It is one of many that line the Grand Allee of Castle Hill, the half-mile long “backyard” of an estate built by the Crane Plumbing fortune. The weathering of Castle Hill’s ornate statues provides a metaphor for the aging process itself. Yet unlike aging humans, this discolored, softened statue still retains its youthful appearance behind the fuzz of decay. That is the point of my image, a point reinforced by the abstracting power of black and white.
23-JUL-2009
Techno-gull, Gloucester, Massachusetts, 2009
Gloucester has long been home to those who go the sea in ships. Its harbor is crowded with fishing vessels, each of them sprouting masts, antennas, and other essential technology. I found this lone gull stationed upon a towering pole, and framed it incongruously within an abundance of ropes and cables. Black and white simplifies what would otherwise be an overly complex image, honing it down to its essence – a gull making itself home in a place where a free lunch is often expected.
25-JUL-2009
Burying Ground, Ipswich, Massachusetts, 2009
Black is the color of shadows, and of mourning. In this image, a study in contrast, black and white becomes a statement in itself, a comment on the mysteries of death, compared to the symbolic light of faith shining upon a gravestone topped with winged skull. Selective focusing, dappled shadows, and the telescoping effect of a long telephoto lens, complete the picture.
11-JUN-2009
Misters, Phoenix, Arizona, 2009
When the thermometer hits 100 degrees or more in Phoenix, residents appreciate the misting systems that send clouds of cooling water droplets into the air. This fellow is adjusting a misting system in an arcade outside the entrance to a downtown Phoenix hotel. I had to increase my exposure to accommodate the deep shadows under the arcade, which meant that everything outside the arches of the arcade would be over-exposed. I rarely will deliberately over expose a photograph, but in this case, the over exposure works as expression. The clutter beyond the arches vanishes in a haze of white heat, making the mist that oozes from the ceiling of the arcade seem even cooler. Black and white was the logical choice for such an image. It removes distracting traces of color in the over-exposed areas, and underscores the presence of both the heat and the cooling wet mist.
01-JUN-2009
Farewell, Austin, Texas, 2009
I saw this man talking with someone just outside of my frame, and as he raised his arm to say goodbye, I noticed how the diagonal line of his arm echoed the thrusting diagonal limbs of the tree next to him, as well as the diagonal roof line of a building canopy at right. I exposed for the light on the wall, throwing the subject into a silhouetted abstraction. Since there was no color in the image, I converted it to black and white, further abstracting the scene.
15-APR-2009
Happy Holidays, Kingman, Arizona, 2009
This is the door of a toy shop that shut down just after the Christmas shopping season. Someone has used paint to cover the once cheerful slogan and a gesturing Santa. I converted the image to black and white to abstract it and make it more symbolic of a grim situation. The no-smoking symbol remains as well – its red circle now gray. It becomes a symbol that, for the time being at least, has lost its function.
20-MAR-2009
Window, Ellis Island Immigration Station, New York City, New York, 2009
From 1892 until 1924, more than 12 million immigrants entered the United States through Ellis Island. Today, its ornate Victorian buildings stand as a museum and memorial in New York harbor, in the shadow of the nearby Statue of Liberty. Many of the rooms in Ellis Island’s main building have been restored to their original appearance, including this one. I exposed on the window light to darken the room, and converted the image to black and white to strengthen the sense of what it must have felt like to pass through such a room more than 100 years ago. New York City was so close – the end of a long and often anxious journey. Yet the ornate bars on the window, the harshness of the dimly seen tiled wall and ledge, and the confining cloak of darkness must have made a new home seem, at least for the moment, out of reach. For some immigrants, the bars symbolized the threat of denied entry. For most, they were simply a final barrier to the promised land.
09-NOV-2008
Checkerboard cat, Kairouan, Tunisia, 2008
As I walked through the medina of Kairouan, a black cat ran across the street in front of me. While the superstitious might fear bad luck, the cat brought good fortune to me, because it was bound for a street corner appropriately paved in black and white checkerboard tiles. It even turned its head towards me as I focused my camera on it. I originally made this image in color, but the only other color in the photo, aside from the monochromatic pattern and cat, was the dingy gray color of the concrete curb, pavement, and wall. When I converted the image to black and white, the checkerboard pattern becomes even more dominant, providing the black cat with a fitting context.
06-NOV-2008
Morning smoke, Tunis, Tunisia, 2008
This man is smoking a hookah, a water pipe called a Chicha in Tunisia. The pipes are used to smoke tobacco in cafes, and are provided free. The smoker pays only for the tobacco. Chicha smoking is usually a group activity, but this man was smoking one by himself. By zooming in on his face and converting the color image to black and white, I try to reveal more character and heighten his reflective mood. (You can see a color image of this same smoker in my portrait gallery, at
http://www.pbase.com/pnd1/image/106455730 . The red hat and the colors of the wallpaper behind him express an entirely different mood.)
06-NOV-2008
A beckoning, Tunis, Tunisia, 2008
The Tunis medina, a labyrinth of twisting narrow streets lined with shops, mosques, cafes and workshops, is over 800 years old. It is a place of many stories. I tell one here in this image of a silhouetted man beckoning to another. Perhaps he is calling to a friend, or maybe he is hoping for a sale. We will never know, but I hope this abstracted black and white image will allow the imagination to fill in the blanks.
16-NOV-2008
After the storm, Tunis, Tunisia, 2008
On my last day in Tunisia, I was driven from street shooting in Tunis by a sudden rainsquall, the only rain I saw during my two-week journey. I watched the rain lash the city through the window of my 15th story hotel room. As it ebbed, Tunisians began to walk the wet, textured streets and I photographed them from above. I counted at least seven in this image. The black and white conversion further abstracts their silhouetted shapes, making them symbolic figures awash amidst a sea of aging buildings, their rooftops bulging with satellite dishes.
11-OCT-2008
Bull Moose in sepia, Grand Teton National Park, Wyoming, 2008
Sepia tone is a variant of black and white imagery – it is nearly as monochromatic, only its tint can add symbolic meaning. This is the same Bull Moose that I photographed on the chase in the subsequent image. An hour earlier, I found it surveying a dry wash running along side of the Snake River. By converting the image from color to black and white and then applying a sepia tone, I made this image even more symbolic and timeless in nature. It could have been made a century ago. The moose becomes master of all it surveys here – a universe of ancient rock. I use sepia tones very sparingly, almost always to add the patina of age to an image.
11-OCT-2008
Bull Moose on the chase, Grand Teton National Park, Wyoming, 2008
This Bull Moose was chasing a calf away from his breakfast area along the
Snake River. It was quite angry and moved out from just below the bridge on which I was standing. In color, this image was awash in early morning light – a scene too pretty for the grimly determined attitude of the moose. I removed the competing colors by converting the image to black and white.
16-SEP-2008
Canada Geese, Drake Park, Bend, Oregon, 2008
The rippling texture of this image drew me to the scene – the image would not have worked as well had the river been smooth. The ripples are backlit by the evening light, which create the texture. I tried the image first in color, but the greenish water competed with the beauty of the rippling textures. The geese are abstracted by backlight as well, and since they are black and white birds, they work beautifully in a black and white photograph.
01-SEP-2008
On the East River, New York City, New York, 2008
I use here the dual abstraction of black and white, along with a silhouette created by backlighting, to isolate an individual in light, time, and space, and make that person into a symbol speaking of introspection. I made this image from the upper deck of a tourist boat that carries sightseers around Manhattan Island. In the color version, the deck of the boat was a greenish blue, creating a color emphasis that competed with the quiet mood I intended to convey in my image. The American flag hanging from the stern of the boat was far more evident in color as well – yet my image was not about national identity. By converting the image to black and white, I increase the degree of abstraction and eliminated the competing color elements from the image.
18-MAY-2008
Abandoned house, Placerville, California, 2008
The subject of this photograph is monochromatic – a weathered gray building that is disintegrating before our eyes. The only color in the image was a sun-struck patch of dead brown grass and the live green weeds in the foreground. The brown and the green colors drew attention away from the dilapidation of the building, which was the point of the image. By converting this photograph to black and white, I remove these conflicting colors and instead focus attention on the decay before us.
18-MAY-2008
Cosumnes River, California, 2008
The huge rocks that litter the Cosumnes River have relatively little color in them. Seen in color, these rocks are largely brown/black, with greenish water swirling around them. By converting the image to black and white, we process this information differently. The rocks become less real and more symbolic. They are now satiny black, the water embracing them in gouts of white froth. The abstracting power of black and white imagery now goes right to the soul of the subject itself, which shows us how the forces of nature have created the world we live in.
24-MAR-2008
Camel herd, Sawai Madhopur, India, 2008
Dozens of captive camels filled the road around our tour bus. I made dozens of pictures of the herd itself but I liked this wideangle shot the best – which I abstracted down to just black and white shadows, legs and feet. I converted it to black and white, which increased the degree of abstraction by removing all traces of coloration from the image. The image becomes more of a symbol and less of a description.
27-DEC-2007
Portrait One, Hoa Phong Lan Handicapped Children’s School, Dalat, Vietnam, 2007
Most of the children at this school were thrilled that we were visiting them. They reacted very emotionally to my camera. This child could not show me his pleasure. He could only look back at me. It was as if he was in one place, and I was in another. Such is the nature of his handicap. He was sitting next to window, his face half in shadow, half in light, a contrast that can be seen as a symbol for the two sides of a mind in conflict. When I first looked at this image in its color, the blue clothing and color in his face neutralized the power of that contrast as a symbol. When I converted it to black and white, the image gives us a better sense of what must be going on within him.
27-DEC-2007
Portrait Two, Hoa Phong Lan Handicapped Children’s School, Dalat, Vietnam, 2007
This child was another who was unable to emotionally respond to our visit. I made photograph after photograph of her, and unlike most of the other children in the class, who were clapping and smiling with pleasure, she remained half turned, as if she was lost in a world of her own. Once again, the color version of this image was filled with distracting detail. Her light blue sweater dominated the image. As soon as I converted it to black and white, the distracting color was neutralized and our attention becomes focused on her distant state.
07-JAN-2008
Flashback, Chau Doc, Vietnam, 2008
I spent about a half hour photographing street traffic from the fourth floor balcony of our hotel overlooking the central square of this town near the Vietnam/Cambodia border. Of all the images I made from that balcony, this one was the most memorable. He came out of the shadow of the tree like a phantom figure from the past, wearing a costume common in rural Vietnam fifty or 100 years ago. Yet there he was, balancing his wares on a single pole, abstracted by his conical hat, his shadow extending from his body like a ghost from another time. This image was a perfect candidate for black and white, an abstracting force that made the image less real, more ghostly and far more universally symbolic of a Vietnam that no longer exists.
31-DEC-2007
Cyclist at rest, Saigon, Vietnam, 2008
This woman must have been waiting for someone for a long time. Is she bored, tired, thoughtful, depressed, or all of the above? Her mask and gloves, intended to counter the ravages of bad air and to protect her skin from wind, sun, and dirt, shroud her in mystery. By converting the image to black and white, I was able to eliminate the color of her clothing and the tourist bus parked across the street, and make her into a symbolic representative of all the harried commuters who run the gauntlet of Saigon’s throbbing, roaring motorbike traffic twice every day.
16-JUL-2007
Bowl, Phoenix, Arizona, 2007
Something a simple as a fireplace ledge holding a small bowl can become a memorable image if textures are called into play. This image becomes a feast for the fingertips. We want to reach out and touch the bowl and the ledge on which it sits. The ledge is next to a floor to ceiling arched window in my living room. It only gets this kind of light for a few minutes each day. When I converted this image from color to black and white, it seems to move back into time. By removing the color we abstract the photograph down to its essence – the timeless interplay of light, shadow, texture, and form.
24-DEC-2006
Place Jemaa el-Fna, Marrakesh, Morocco, 2006
For centuries, this square has been the nerve center of Marrakesh and the symbol of the city. It has hardly changed. I made this photograph from the terrace of a restaurant overlooking the square, and converted it to black and white to stress the timelessness of the scene. Thousands of shoppers visit its markets, stalls, wagons, and shops by day. Outdoor restaurants are set up each evening, jugglers, dancers, and snake charmers perform, and the square echoes round the clock to the sound of North African music and throbbing drums. By reducing all of this to a black and white abstraction, such details are not seen, but left to the imagination. Note the flow of body language that carries us through the entire right center portion of the image – from bottom to top. It begins with the woman at center bottom carrying a large bundle on her back. Behind her, near the middle of the image, a man appears to be reaching for something. Behind him, a lone figure carries a tote bag. In the upper right hand portion of the image a motorbike drives away from the square towards distant carriages and individual strollers. The black and white rendering removes all detail, making these figures into abstract symbols of activity, and defining the essence of this square as Marrakesh’s central meeting place.
26-DEC-2006
Whitewash, Marrakesh, Morocco, 2006
This subject screamed for black and white as soon as I saw it. A man was up on a ladder, applying coats of white wash to an ancient arch – an entrance to the souks in Marrakesh’s old city. The black and white medium compliments the very nature of both task and setting – the gleaming white arch and the dark black shadows of its interior are utterly without color. I abstract the painter himself in the process. His sweater and skin tones become as monochromatic as his subject.
27-SEP-2006
Firehole Falls, Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming, 2006
Yellowstone’s scenery originates in its volcanic past. The center of the park is a vast caldera, the residue of volcanic eruptions. Yellowstone has erupted three times over the past two million years. The most recent eruption, about 650,000 years ago, created Firehole Falls near the northern rim of its caldera. The Falls surge over giant lava rocks, a perfect subject for a monochromatic image. I used a fast shutter speed of 1/500th of a second to freeze the churning water into lacy threads of frothy bubbles. The black and white rendering makes the image timeless, which is appropriate to Firehole Falls, itself a product of time.
07-AUG-2006
Billboard, Houston Street, New York City, 2006
The face shouting at us through a mass of trees comes from a huge black and white billboard. The leaves, photographed with back lighting, were black. The only color in the scene was a bit of green translucence on the edges of some of the leaves – color that added nothing to the image. When I converted it to black and white, the image became unified and coherent. The shout becomes even more surreal when the reality of color yields to the abstraction of black and white.
27-MAR-2006
Cemetery, Taketomi Island, Okinawa, Japan, 2006
Taketomi is a small island, a ferry ride away from the city of Ishigaki, the southernmost city of Japan. Taketomi gave me my only sense of rural Japan. I photographed this gray granite tomb on a gray day -- a perfect reason for a black and white image. The conversion to black and white simplified the image by removing the only trace of life – the green branches in the trees at upper right. It reduced the image to contrasting tones of granite –- the light pagoda in the foreground and the black tomb behind and around it. The grave itself is in the wall just behind the pagoda, which appears here as a yawning black opening. The tomb is actually sealed, but to many it symbolizes the death that awaits us all.
11-FEB-2006
Back to the 50s at the Bagdad Café, Newberry Springs, California, 2006
While visiting this legendary roadhouse along old route US 66, I made images in both color and black and white to study the difference in both effect and meaning. This café served as the location for 1988 German film that has become a cult classic, and it continues to draw European tourists visiting the Mohave Desert. The café staff is used to cameras by now – in fact, I shared breakfast here with 19 fellow photographers participating in Route 66 Image Quest workshop led by pbase artist Dave Wyman and Ken Rockwell. ( See:
http://home.comcast.net/~wymanburke/Route66.html )
I spent very little time eating at the cafe, and a lot of time shooting its interior and exterior with two cameras. I used my Panasonic FZ-30 for color travel photos (click on thumbnail below ) and a Leica D-Lux 2 for a black and white photojournalistic approach. I appreciated my color images for what color had to say, and I savored the black and white images for taking me back to the 50s again. This photojournalistic image could have easily been made here in the 50s (except for that beer, which would not have cost $3.00, and smoking would have been more welcome. Needless to say, I would have shot it with tri-x film.) We tend to recall our own past through the pictures we have made and seen, and photos of the 50s probably looked very much like this one.
26-OCT-2005
Threes, Guanajuato, Mexico, 2005
I built this image around the presence of three posts and three people. The posts are linked by chains and rigidly aligned. The people are free to go their own way in their own time. I shot the image at mid-day, using backlighting to abstract both the posts and the people. The more abstract this image becomes, the more the posts and people function as symbol, rather than description. Black and white imaging will always increase the degree of abstraction by removing the nuance and meaning of color. Just as backlighting hones this image down to the bone, so too, does monochrome.
08-SEP-2005
Cornice heads, Cathedral of St. James, Sibenik, Croatia, 2005
The most memorable feature of this cathedral is a strikingly incongruous array of 71 human heads extending from the building’s cornice, all of them representing not heroes or saints or biblical figures, but instead every day 16th century people. No two are alike.
I chose to include only seven of them in this image, concentrating on the spot where two cornices joined at right angles to each other. I placed the top head in the upper left hand corner and let them flow from there down to the lower right hand corner. But one thing bothered me – the peachy tone of the church itself. The faces are gritty and intense, but the church’s exterior seemed pleasant and soft to the touch. When I converted this image to black and white, the peach colored tone vanished, and the faces no long had to compete with it. They now stare at each other with all the ferocity they can muster.
11-JUN-2005
Stadhuis, Bruges, Belgium, 2005
One of the oldest and finest town halls in Belgium, Bruges’ Stadhuis was built between 1376 and 1420. I am not interested in making postcard views of historic buildings. Instead I try to express their essence. For me, this building was steeped in history and grandeur. To say it was impressive would be an understatement. I took many photos of it during my two day stay in Bruges, but none of them expressed its character as much as this one. It took an act of nature to help me accomplish this goal. It was early morning, and the sun was just coming up behind the clouds. I positioned the sun behind one of the elegant statues that crown the building, and was awed by billowing backlit translucent streams of clouds exploding from that very point in the picture. In color, the sky was a deep blue, and there was a tinge of reflective coloration in the clouds as well. It was beautiful to look at, but it made the scene look too real. When I converted it to black and white, reality is replaced by symbolism – the clouds represent power and mystery, two of the qualities I sensed in the building itself. So black and white it is. It was worth visiting Bruges for just this moment.
18-JUN-2005
Niche, Leiden, The Netherlands, 2005
One of the most impressive buildings I saw on our quick tour through the streets of Leiden had a number of niches built into its façade. The sun was bouncing off a nearby canal and reflecting patterns of light into this particular niche. Incredibly, the reflected pattern of sunlight here repeated the X shape of the sails on the sculpted windmill in front of this niche. I photographed it several times in color, which emphasized the brown bricks and the tan niche. Those colors competed with the coincidental match of the reflected light pattern and the windmill. When I converted it to black and white, the image comes directly to the point – the repetition of those X’s.
14-JUN-2005
Castle of the Counts, Ghent, Belgium, 2005
Once the seat of the counts of Flanders, the ancient castle that dominates Ghent was built in the late 1100s. For three hundred years it was Ghent's military stronghold, and was later used as a city jail and a cotton mill. These ancient steps lead to the massive turrets that once guarded the city. To me, they were the essence of the castle. Framed in ancient stones, these fan-like steps are worn smooth from centuries of use. I carefully composed the image so that the doorway at upper right was reduced to a mere sliver of light and arranged that sliver within the frame so that it enters the image from the upper right hand corner and leads diagonally in to the steps – the only way in or out of this claustrophobic place. The original image featured brownish grout in the walls and gray-brown steps. When I converted this image to this crisp range of black and white tones, the image became simpler, cleaner, less real but more symbolic of another time. They were no longer tourist steps. They became castle steps that grasp the imagination and carry it back through the centuries.
16-JUN-2005
Silvius Brabo, Antwerp, Belgium, 2005
This is an abstract image of the eloquent figure at the top of the historic Brabo Fountain, a monument to Antwerp’s mythical hero, Silvius Brabo. Brabo supposedly drove off a giant that was demanding tolls from all ships that passed the port. Anyone who refused to pay had their hand chopped off by the giant, so Brabo took revenge by slicing off the ogre’s hand and throwing it into the Scheldt River. The town became known as Antwerp – which means, “hands throw” in Flemish. The statue depicts Brabo in the process of hurling the huge severed hand. Water spouts from its wrist. Brabo gives Antwerp its name with this legendary hand toss. I enjoyed relating the geometric form of the powerful sculpture to the stepped forms of the handsome old buildings that line Antwerp's town square behind it. In color, the statue appeared as oxidized green, and the buildings were dark brown. The sky is an overcast gray. I made it a much cleaner, more powerful image by converting it to this black and white abstraction. It becomes a study in pure shapes and geometric patterns, helping Brabo appear to dance along the rooftops of Antwerp.
11-JUN-2005
Michelangelo’s “Madonna and Child,” Bruges, Belgium, 2005
Michelangelo's marble statue "Madonna and Child" is the only one of his works to leave Italy during his lifetime. A Flemish merchant imported it and today it is sealed within a thick glass case deep in shadows of Bruges' Church of Our Lady. I used my telephoto lens at 388mm to zoom through that glass and make the figures pop out of the darkness, just as Michelangelo extracted them out the block of marble with his chisel. The figures seem ready to come to life. By underexposing and thereby abstracting this remarkable work of art, I show less of it and say more about it. This black and white conversion helps as well – when the marble color vanishes, they appear to look more like people and less like stone. And that was Michelangelo’s greatest gift – to make stone seem human.
14-JUN-2005
St. Baafskathedraal, Ghent, Belgium, 2005
The contrails of jet aircraft lace the sky over Ghent's gothic cathedral that was built during the middle ages. The great Flemish painter Jan van Eyck's remarkable 1432 "Adoration of the Mystic Lamb" is on display here, the first masterpiece ever to be painted with oils. By converting the sky from blue to black, I’ve made the dissolving contrail plumes seem less real and more symbolic as they diagonally crown the cathedral and the statue that stands in the plaza before it. They celebrate the splendor of this place, and salute the force of the sun as it emerges from behind the bell tower.
Closeup, Tad Fane Falls, Pakxong, Laos, 2005
This is one of those long, narrow waterfalls that has formed a crater in the middle of its drop. I used a 432mm telephoto lens to zoom in on that crater from across the valley. (You can see the entire waterfall in my Landscape Gallery by clicking on the thumbnail at the bottom.
Later, when looking at the color version of this image, I noticed that there really was not much color showing in my closeup picture at all. The backdrop for the water was in deep shadow. Only a few green trees barely showed in the picture. When I converted it to this black and white version, I honed the image down its very essence – the force of the water, as it flowed into the crater and the out of it again. The black and white version intensifies the crater's effect on the water's movement, and made this photograph much more expressive than it had been in color. (The color version of the entire waterfall, appearing in my landscape gallery, is a wideangle image embracing the view from across the valley. It works because of the way the light falls on the green’s, yellow’s and gold’s in the brilliantly colored foliage that embrace that scene and because of the foreground trees I added to that image.)
When I made my black and white conversion, I enriched the simplifying effect of the black shadows surrounding the falls by removing whatever traces of foliage lurked within them, and substantially abstracting the scene. I also increased the contrast and detail in the water as it smashed into and then flowed out of the crater, by playing with the different “channels” in the “channel mixer” selection box within Photoshop’s “Layers” palette.
This black and white image goes well beyond a travel photograph. Because it is now an abstraction, it becomes art-oriented image as well. It goes well beyond describing the appearance of Tad Fane Falls itself. It becomes a symbolic rendering of nature’s power, a much more universal statement. It is also becomes more mysterious in black and white – when coming upon this image, we might at first wonder exactly just what we are looking at. It almost resembles a fanciful X-ray picture made deep inside the human body. But it’s not – we are looking at my own impression of the massive authority of nature itself. It is up to the imagination of the viewer where it may go from there.
The Hard Work Begins Early, Salavan Province, Laos, 2005
I originally made this picture in color. The warm morning light and multi-colored garments of the young boy gave it a cheerful, almost festive feeling that conflicted with the physical effort involved in pushing a cart loaded with heavy bags of rice. I converted this picture to black and white, and the conflicting colors vanished, leaving us with an image of the timeless struggle to survive. From childhood on, these children learn what it means to work, and work hard.
This image is a good example of travel photojournalism, rather than travel photography. The difference comes in the approach to the picture. I am acting here as a visual reporter. I had no idea I even wanted to make this picture until I saw it happening before me. I was working on sheer instinct. Nothing was previsualized. I saw the cart coming at me, noticed that there were young children helping to push it, and kept shooting as it passed me. Because it is journalistic in nature, the black and white medium intensified its value as communication. The image becomes more direct, and more universal in terms of meaning. It could be anywhere in Asia, and the black and white form lets me imply it could have been made at any time in the last 30 years. It also becomes much simpler in form – gone are the vivid colors of the print design on the young boy’s sarong and yellow shirt. A red motorbike just behind the handles virtually vanishes in black and white. In color it was a prominent distraction.
Above all, the black and white rendering has removed the symbolic promise of a better day by removing the golden early morning light that bathed the scene in color. That warmly colored light is no longer a factor in meaning. Only the hard work is left.
28-JAN-2005
Bargaining, Salavan Province, Laos, 2005
These women are weavers. They are in the midst of a long bargaining session as they try to sell their products to visitors. I originally photographed them in color, but changed the image to black and white in order to strengthen the solemnity of the moment and the intensity of feeling they bring to it.
The color version is more real and more beautiful. The skin tones are lovely, the light warm. The more abstract black and white reproduction makes it more journalistic in nature. The beauty and warmth is gone, replaced by unvarnished intensity of thought. The softly focused woman in the background, who has been wearing red, now fades into the woodwork, a presence, but no longer an entity. The woman in focus is left to make a hard decision. When does she accept the amount that is being offered?
22-JAN-2005
Road Laborer, Luang Prabang, Laos, 2005
She is part of a team of young girls working on a road repair gang. I photographed her while she rested, incongruously wearing a Laotian version of a LA Dodger baseball cap. She had been shoveling loads of stones. Several hours later, she was still at it. The work is hard, the pay low, but she has a job.
When comparing the two images, you will see a striking difference in meaning. The color version is more of a travel image. This black and white version is more of a journalistic or documentary photo. While she is in the shade, there are golden highlights created by the warm afternoon light coming through the trees in the color version. They are gone in this black and white rendition. This more abstract monochromatic image also downplays the emphasis on the colorful skirt she wears in the color version. She seems to be a kid at rest on a rock pile in the color photograph, while in this black and white image she becomes a symbol of child labor in a developing country. While somewhat less real in form, the picture becomes a more universal expression of a social issue when the colors are removed and only the rocks and the young worker remain.
26-JAN-2005
Wood Carriers, Salavan Province, Laos, 2005
Women carrying huge baskets of wood walk the hills of Southern Laos at dawn. Once again, the color and black and white versions of this image have different stories to tell.
This black and white conversion removes the warm early morning light that made the color image quite attractive. We see what the scene would have looked like if we had seen it with our own eyes. It is no longer as attractive an image in black and white. Replacing its natural reality is the harder reality of life itself in this part of the world. People carry these huge baskets of heavy sticks on their back in order to survive. This is what they will cook their food with, and they must find it and walk many miles with it strapped to their backs. Once again, a travel image becomes an example of travel photojournalism, expressing its idea in a different form and for a different purpose.
25-JAN-2005
Child with Offerings, Vientiane, Laos, 2005
Both versions of this image are essentially portraits. Both have the same neutral background, the whitewashed wall of the temple. The color portrait is more real. The black and white abstraction is less real but it takes you more deeply into the subject. The color version buffers her plight with the warmth of her complexion, and the multi colored dried plants she is holding. The abstracted black and white version, on the other hand, makes a more direct impact on our imagination. She seems more vulnerable once her color “cover” has been removed. By removing the symbolic warmth of the color in the flowers, they become essentially dead sticks in black and white. By removing the reality of the child’s skin and clothing colors, and presenting my viewer with a monochromatic image, I’ve once again raised questions involving a social issue – child labor – rather than just making an attractive portrait of a young child holding an attractive floral offering.
Both images function effectively. It comes down to a choice based on the purpose of the picture. Travel photo or documentary image? Take your choice.
25-JAN-2005
Chicken Seller, Morning Market, Vientiane, Laos, 2005
This lady had the biggest selection of chickens in the market. She impassively swept a small mop from side to side -- keeping the flies away. The greatest strength of this image is its incongruity, at least to a Western viewer. To those of us not used to seeing a table full of dead chickens with feet up in the air being serenaded by lady with a feather duster,
this image might come as a shock to the senses.
You can see the color version of this image in a travel article I posted on my Laos trip at:
http://www.worldisround.com/articles/139137/photo61.html . It is an excellent travel picture. It’s an exotic image that conveys a sense of place very well in terms of its reality. Its colors are part of that reality. The yellow chickens, her pink duster (and matching pink shirt), and the many colors of a busy market behind her, all work to give the viewer a good sense of this chaotic Laotian market scene.
Now abstract all of that by converting it to black and white. The yellow color that gave these chickens their immediate identity vanishes and they chickens essentially become creatures. The colors of the marketplace behind this lady no longer compete for our attention. We become fixated on those dead birds that ask us a big question – what is going on here? We must study it a bit more closely to find out. And that is what abstraction does so well. It asks questions and demands answers of the viewer. This becomes a more personal image in black and white, more challenging to the imagination, and considerably more incongruous as well.
Whether or not we convert this image from color to black and white is not a matter of right or wrong, good or bad. It depends upon how we want to use the picture and what we want to say to our viewers. I feel this shot worked very well in color in my travel article on worldisround.com. But if I wanted to make my viewers think, wonder, and feel – black and white would be my choice here.
22-JAN-2005
Onion Vendor, Luang Prabang, Laos, 2005
The colors in this image are quite exotic – a rose colored mat matches the colors in her skirt and shirt, the warmth of the brown earth is picked up in the tan of the baskets, and the green onions make themselves boldly present. You can see it for yourself, posted in my worldisround.com travel article on Laos at:
http://www.worldisround.com/articles/139137/photo106.html .
However, I also think this image functions very well in black and white because it places greater stress on the gracious body language of the vendor herself. There is no color to compete with her gesture of acknowledgement. She is, in essence, spontaneously and incongruously posing for us! She does so by leaning back, throwing her arm up, and running her hand through her hair. Just like those glamorous movie stars of the 1940s and 50 used to do. She never said a word to me. Yet she radiated warmth and pride.
I posted this image in color in my travel article because I was using it as expressive travel photography. And it worked very well. The gesture is still there, and so, are the warm, vivid colors that give her identity as a seller of onions in a marketplace. Without the colors, the image becomes something altogether different. An abstract, incongruously humane portrait of a Laotian market vendor posing as an archaic movie star would have posed 50 years ago. Once again, it is not a matter of asking which picture is “best.” Each of them tell a different story, and in a different way.
03-FEB-2005
Lacquerware worker, Mandalay, Myanmar, 2005
Stops at craft shops and factories rarely produce expressive photographs for me, but this busy fellow at work in a lacquerware shop proved to be an exception. By using a slow shutter speed, I was able to blur his hands, arms and machine to create the illusion of a hectic pace, a sharp contrast to his matter of fact expression. I posted this picture in color in my Myanmar travel article posted on worldisround.com at:
http://www.worldisround.com/articles/139134/photo70.html
You will note that the color brings an edge of reality to it that works quite well. The warmth of the woven matte on the wall behind him complements the color of his skin, and his blue sarong identifies him as Burmese. It makes an effective expressive travel image.
This black and white version neutralizes the advantages of the color image. Instead, it presents an array of its own advantages. The abstracted black and white image allows the machine to seem to move even faster because it now has less to compete with it.
The black and white image is all about the blur, the invisible arm that is moving too fast to photograph, and his casual expression. It now has nothing at all to do with complexion or wall materials, or national dress. He now shows us that he does what he does so well that he need not even look at what he is doing. All of this was present in the color version as well, but it blended into the reality of the scene itself as documented by the presence of color. Take the color out and the image accelerates before our very eyes!
27-JAN-2005
Husking Rice, Salavan Province, Laos, 2005
Rice is the most important crop in rural Laos. The husking process --using a wooden mortar and pestle -- is brutally physical. The husks are smashed with an enormously heavy pole. The toll it takes on both body and spirit is evident in this portrait of a rice husker.
In color, this portrait tells its story through reality. In black and white, it tells its story symbolically. Abstraction leads to symbolization, and that is what happens in this case.
She is very tired. We all would be exhausted after lifting that huge wooden mallet over our heads time and time again. Yet she stands in a warm environment. The colors are often warm and quite real. The reds and browns of her home, the earth upon which she stands, her colorful skirt, her enormous mallet, complement her tanned complexion. All of these colors share equal billing with her torn shirt, her somewhat impatient body language, and her solemn expression.
In the black and white version, the body language, expression, and torn shirt take over. Everything else becomes context for them. It is a more poignant image, expressively journalistic in nature rather than an example of expressive travel photography. Each version tells its story well, but differently.
21-JAN-2005
Woman with Ladle, Luang Prabang, Laos, 2005
Luang Prabang is a place that lives in the past as well as the present. This woman, poised with her ladle over a serving table at a street-side restaurant, may just as well have been standing here with ladle in hand 100 years ago.
I placed this woman within three frames simultaneously – the frame of the camera itself, the frame of the doorway, and the frame created by the awning overhead and the low wall in front of her restaurant. It was, I felt, like looking at her through a time tunnel. That was the point of my image. Many of the contemporary plastic food containers piled on the tables in front of her are in vivid colors. Even her red ladle is plastic. I thought these colors, with their evocation of the present, contrasted nicely to her timeless doorway pose. (You can see all of these colors by viewing this same image in its original form as posted in my travel article on Laos at:
http://www.worldisround.com/articles/139137/photo32.html )
When I converted this photograph to black and white, that contrast vanished. The contemporary food containers are still there in black and white but are not emphasized. Because she stands by herself within the black entry to the restaurant, she is emphasized, and so is her timeless pose. I thought this black and white version was more of a trip through a time tunnel. Yes, all the plastics are still there, and so is the electrical equipment on the wall. But in black and white, everything now revolves around the woman with the ladle and her timeless duties as a preparer of meals.
01-FEB-2005
Curious Monk, Shwedagon Pagoda, Yangon, Myanmar, 2005
A Buddhist monk enjoys a surprise while studying the spires of Shwedagon through a powerful telescope. The famed Burmese pagoda is plated with over 8,000 solid gold slabs and topped by an orb studded with 5,000 diamonds. No wonder this fellow seems stunned! He was just as surprised in living color, but the vivid hues of his maroon robe and the yellow building in the background definitely shared equal billing with that surprise. I abstract the picture by converting it to black and white, shifting the emphasis to the monk’s astonished expression. By carefully leaving a thin ribbon of negative space between his mouth and thumb, and his nose and telescope, I add tension that brings more energy into his amazed response. I give the viewer less information, leave more to the imagination, and convey my story in a more universal manner.
01-FEB-2005
Exit, Shwedagon Pagoda, Yangon, Myanmar, 2005
Late afternoon visitors depart from Shwedagon's massive lobby. Thousands visit the huge temple complex from morning to night every day. The original color image, bathed in golden evening light, is strikingly beautiful, and made a perfect picture to end my sequence on a visit to Shwedagon in my Myanmar Travel article on Worldisround.com. You can view it at:
http://www.worldisround.com/articles/139134/photo13.html
The basic concept of the image itself is to show less and say more by using backlighted underexposure to create an abstraction. The color version places all of these people, including the lone child who seems somewhat lost at the bottom, into a context of golden warmth. Visitors generally feel spiritually fulfilled after a visit to this incredibly beautiful gathering of Buddhist temples, and the color version fits that mood well.
This black and white version, on the other hand, is not as beautiful as that color image. But in some ways it may involve the imagination of the viewer to a greater degree. Without the golden light reflecting off the tiles, we are free to focus primarily on the varying forms. All of them, except the child, are wearing the sarongs that are the Burmese national costume for both men and women. In the color version, the child is an incidental afterthought. In the black and white version, however, the child becomes more of an issue. Is he lost? Why doesn’t anyone help him? What will happen to him? The image, which formerly was an exercise in symbolic mood, now asks questions and demands answers of the viewer. It is now a double abstraction, both in terms of the use of light and the use of color (or no color.) Rather than a just a good picture to use to end a sequence in a travel article, it now can stand alone as an expressive image that can trigger thoughts in the imagination of the viewer.
Pot Carriers at Rest, Mandalay, Myanmar, 2005
In Myanmar, it is the women who seem to bear the greatest physical burdens. These women have been carrying a basket full of huge pots on their heads for several miles. We saw them stop to rest, and I made this image of them as they took a well-earned breather.
In color, the image speaks of reality. The pots are stressed – the tan color of pottery dominates the image. You can even see the streaks of Thanaka on their faces – a yellow makeup paste that Burmese women wear to soften the skin and block the sun. This makes the image quite specific in terms of both task and place.
In black and white, however, we get more depth of feeling into the image. That’s because the picture is less real and more abstract. The Thanaka and the brown pottery take second billing to the weary expressions, and the exhausted hand gesture of the woman in the plaid shirt. In the color shot, her red sarong was a startling distraction, but there was no way to take it out. In black and white, her sarong is becomes a neutral gray.
Each version tells a different story. We choose the story we want to tell in light of our own intentions.
03-FEB-2005
Plates, Bagan, Myanmar, 2005
Once again, we are expressing ideas about a photographic subject with only one basic color in it. When we remove the color, the meaning shifts. The color version, which can be seen in my Myanmar trip article at:
http://www.worldisround.com/articles/139134/photo50.html , shows the plates with a golden hue. It may be due to the material of the plates, or perhaps the reflection of the color of the light coming into the tent where these plates were being displayed and sold. The golden hue suggests wealth and power, or perhaps tarnish, depending upon the context you bring to the picture. The light that falls on the plates abstracts them to a degree. The interplay of light and shadow in the reflections make the image less literal, and more interpretive. This color version is quite real, attractive, and perhaps a bit ambiguous. I thought it worked well in my travel article, giving the flavor of what you might want to shop for if you were to visit.
My black and white abstract version removes the color and the ambiguity that came with it. It also removed the emphasis on reality and turned these glistening discs into symbols of Burmese skill at making such handsome products. Because they have been abstracted twice, once by light and shadow and again by conversion to black and white, they acquire a mysterious dimension as well. They almost look like ancient breastplates or shields, lined up for display in a museum. They engage the imagination to a greater degree. Though a bit less real in black and white, these plates become more symbolic in their monochromatic incarnation.
21-JAN-2005
Baci Ceremony, Luang Prabang, Laos, 2005
We were invited into a private home in Luang Prabang for a Buddhist Baci ceremony performed in our honor. This ceremony wished us good fortune and welcomed us to the most beautiful city in Laos. I photographed our hosts in prayer. Their intense sincerity, religious devotion, and kindness toward us, was obvious.
A color version of this image can be seen in the travel article I put together on my Laos trip, posted on worldisround.com. It’s at:
http://www.worldisround.com/articles/139137/photo34.html . The reality of the experience is expressed in that image. Its colors are primarily skin tones, which make the people seem more lifelike. An appropriate choice for a travel image designed to make an experience seem as real as possible.
This black and white version simply eliminates those skin tones. It is not longer a matter of replicating reality. Instead, we are symbolizing a particular aspect of the trip, in this case, the spirituality of the Laotian people. I made this image in a room illuminated only by candles, using a quarter of a second hand held exposure. There a slight bit of camera shake softening the image, which in this case is an asset, particularly in the highly symbolic, less realistic, abstract black and white image. The softening effect makes the prayer seem that much more intense.
02-FEB-2005
Heavy Burdens, Yangon, Myanmar, 2005
Young men, some of them very young, carry huge bags of rice from ship to shore on Yangon's jetty. They must be paid for each bag they carry, because they move very quickly. The image is primarily built around the fellow in the middle, who carries the hem of his sarong in his mouth so he won’t trip, and flashes the white of his eyes as he carries his burden toward us.
Once again the difference between the meaning of the color version (which can be seen in my Myanmar travel article posted at:
http://www.worldisround.com/articles/139134/photo29.html ) and this black and white image, comes down to portraying realty vs. creating a meaningful symbol.
When the purple and yellow clothing, along with the tan roofs and ground, give way to black and white tonalities, the determination of the young man in the middle seems to grow beyond the case in point. His effort becomes a symbol, representing the struggle of all who must carry heavy burdens in order to survive. In color, we see what the scene looked like and felt like. In black and white, we see what these workers represent.
Barred Entry, Yangon, Myanmar, 2005
Most of the people I saw on the busy streets of Yangon seemed relatively relaxed. This woman, however, looking out at me from within this caged doorway, seemed to be an exception. Is she concerned about her own safety and property, or is she being restrained within that entryway?
The color version of this image can be seen in my Myanmar travel article posted at
http://www.worldisround.com/articles/139134/photo22.html . The warm sun dominates that image, making it seem as she is looking out at us from behind a protective gate. She sees to feel safe in there, at least for the moment.
When I converted it to black and white, the meaning of the picture seemed to change significantly, at least for me. The colors of sunlight have vanished. In their place, the shadows of the bars, particularly those moving across her face, are emphasized. She formerly seemed to watch us. Now we seem to watch her. Is she free to come and go? Or otherwise? Our imaginations must supply the answers. Such is the power of black and white abstraction. It has turned a street scene into a question mark.
05-FEB-2005
Maker of Rice Bowls, Mandalay, Myanmar, 2005
The rice bowls carried out for alms every morning by the monks of Mandalay are manufactured by hand in a small "factory" just outside the city. This is one of the workers, taking a stogie break.
This is an effective portrait in both color as well as in black and white because of the degree of abstraction created by light and shadows falling upon the subject. I wanted to express the character of this man – tough but thoughtful, confident, skilled and experienced at what he does.
In this black and white version, the interplay of light and shadow alone is stressed. It brings a sense of the unknown to the picture. Each version has its merits. For sheer realism and presence, the color version is hard to beat. The black and white version stresses the mysteries of life, and his thoughtful approach to them. He becomes a universal symbol when another layer of abstraction, this time the removal of all color, is applied to the image.
06-FEB-2005
In the Halls of Maha Muni, Mandalay, Myanmar, 2005
Mandalay's most important religious structure is the incredible Maha Muni Pagoda. Built in 1874, this glittering Burmese temple complex houses a gold plated image of Buddha that draws pilgrims from all over the world. More interesting to me, however, was the life that goes on within the walls of the Maha Muni. It is a labyrinth of corridors, linking courtyards, shops, and religious shrines. Here, a little boy carries his young brother on his back as he scurries through one of them. They are probably the children of one of its many shopkeepers.
This is basically an example of street photography. (See Gallery Sixteen for more on this subject.) Street photography often lends itself to black and white imagery, because of its hard-edged grittiness. In color, even sad things can sometimes be made to look at least somewhat pleasant. The color version of this image soothes the loneliness of these children, and works very well as an expressive travel image, showing off both the beauty and reality of the Maha Muni. You can see it in color in my travel article on Myanmar posted at:
http://www.worldisround.com/articles/139134/photo97.html
As well as it worked in color, I think this image works even more forcefully and memorably as a gritty black and white “street shot.” Once I’ve taken away the warmth of those red and gold walls, this little boy and his brother suddenly become more forlorn and vulnerable. They are trapped between what now become two grim black walls on each side of the image (they used to be brown). They represent forces seemingly beyond the understanding of this uncomprehending child with a blurred foot and sleeping burden on his back. He now must dodge menacing figures while navigating a labyrinth of cold, tiled corridors, instead of strolling through that warm and welcoming gilded world of the Maha Muni we saw in the color version.