Photography

Black White Photographic Arts – that’s me. Or at least the name of my photography business. It doesn’t mean that I don’t take photos in color because I do. But I have a deep love of black and white photography and a respect for it as well. It’s more complicated then I imagined and requires me to be thinking in black and white rather than in color as I compose an image. It asks me to pay attention and not just pull the shutter. It asks me to keep learning.

Photographer Ted Grant once said, “When you photograph people in color, you photograph their clothes. But when you photograph people in Black and white, you photograph their souls!” But I think that applies to this fine, furry fellow named Beau. His soul is right there, drawing you in, and asking you to feel something more then just, ‘here is a photo of a dog’. Is he a black and white dog? Or a brown and white dog? Are his eyes blue or brown? Where does he live? What does he do? Is he a farm dog, a working dog, or someone’s house dog? What is his story? YOU get to decide. What ever is happening in this image is up to you.

There is something about black and white photography that asks the viewer to think and feel. Color is simple. You know the sky is blue, you know the grass is green, you know the sun is yellow, and in color photos you know everything about the person, the color of their eyes, their clothes, and the environment around them. In black and white it isn’t that simple. It’s like the difference between a book and movie about that book. You read the book and you imagine the characters, you imagine their environment, you give them form and shape and color and depth and emotion. And then along comes the movie and all that is done for you and many times it’s disappointing because it stripped you of your vision and emotion. It robbed you of something you created. That movie relies on the vision of someone else to tell you the story.

Black and white photography asks you, the viewer, to feel more, to find more, to participate more, and to discover more with your eyes, mind, and heart. It asks you to find the story, create the feeling, imagine the emotion, and make up your own mind.
And really, that is what art is all about.

“Color is everything, black and white is more.” – Dominic Rouse
“I want to be MORE” – Vicki Zoller