Liberation of Limitations: B&W Photos
I hate color photos.
There is just too much going on. Too many directions the photo can be taken. Dark with a blue cast for melancholic tones, or a bright and a subtle blue cast for a cold and clinical mood? And you can do this indepentdent of the composition or subject matter. It's too many variables. When working in color I also feel the need to replicate reality as I remember it, or else the photo looks odd to me. Disjointed from my memory when I was physically there. The same type of tree in two different scenes can be totally different shades of green. Which is "correct"? Which did I intend? I have no idea.
Black and white allows me to focus on the fundamentals and get really low level about composition and exposure settings. Using B&W allows me to go much deeper than I otherwise could if I was doing color work. When shooting B&W, I look for composition; framing, structure, layer, forms, texture, and the tone I want from the tones. All of the colors get collapsed into shades of gray, I think about the exposure settings and can directly set them in the final image. More light will move all the shades lighter, happier, and less heavy. Less light will make all the tones darker, fuller, weighty, sulky. Changing the exposure like this with color changes the saturation, the hue, and the brightness. In editing I'd get caught up in those things, rather than the subject and the message I wanted. For me working in color its a mess of "well these colors are all recognizable and sorta accurate... hmm"
Its been fun exploring and experimenting with so many films over the past 3 years. But now I feel I've sampled enough to get a sense of what my style is. I like black and white with black blacks. Pure blacks and strong forms. I like texture, I like isolated forms, I like juxtapositions, and contrasts of form. I've used alot of Ilford HP5, both at box speed and pushed to 800 and 1600 iso. I like the looks of 1600, because it is very easy to get black in the shadows. I also use alot of Kentmere 400, its less grainy than HP5 especially when pushing 2 stops like I tend to do for low lighting situations and getting those blacks. This realization led me to splitting my film work. I'm enjoying doing color work by way of funky film stocks alongside my "more pure" black and white. Stuff like Lomochrome purple or 20 years expired stocks.
If you have unlimited options, how can you focus on something? Instead, just focus on the concept of what you are doing.
I think people often carry too much stuff and they get confused on what to use at what given point.
These quotes from Alan Schaller remind me of analysis paralysis and the paradox of choice. By forcing yourself to use a single filmstock, one camera, and even a single lens, you can really lock in your refining skills and hone your craft. With all the superfluous stripped away, you're left with only the core task. Making a photo.
With black and white it feels "more pure". Easier to handle. The image is stripped down to tones and composition. There is still mood but your limited on a line of dark to light with your editing, the mood you want to convey must then come from the content and composition. If you want ominous, go darker. If you want happier, go brighter. The rest is the composition and subject matter.
This leads into why I love film in the first place, its intentional. Its slow, methodical, mindful. With 36 images per roll, and with the cost including development sometimes working out to a dollar per image, I frequently ask: do I really want this shot? I am limited in how many images I can make. With B&W, I think more on the composition; what am I trying to say with this subject? Does this viewpoint convey how tall they are?
The liberation of limitations.
Of is the key word. I think from would give the wrong message. From could be read freedom from limits, I am free to do anything. And thats the exact opposite.
You can't do anything, you have to do other than x. Limitations force you to be creative in order to get around them, to supercede them. And the result is disproportionately more creative and interesting than without the limits in place.
Any material prevented directly by the limitation is completely overshadowed by the work actually produced with limits enforced. The work grows into other directions that would not have been previously considered. The limitations set the creative process spinning. Vines need a brick wall in order to climb. It is creative liberation by way of enforced limitations. I have to do other than color. I cannot use greens to convey life in my image.
What things in your life are too open ended? What creative task is too unobstructed? Creativity breeds under constraints. Limitations set it free.
-Bruce
