An
Empty Union In Black And White (8/12/04)
I love black and white photography. I love digital photography.
But I've always felt like there's something about simply taking
a color digital photograph, and turning it black and white in
PhotoShop that's wrong. It's one of those stupid little rules
that I've set up for myself, that I'm finally finding the courage
in my talent to go against. I've become my biggest critic and
tallest hurdle. As I get deeper and deeper into the realm of
digital photography, as my 35 millimeter camera becomes a relic
of the past, I'm finding that I'm beginning to take many of my
color photographs and see how they look in black and white. I
use PhotoShop every day at work. I know and understand all of
the little tricks of the trade. I know many purist who turn their
noses up at any type of digital manipulation. But yet, I've been
in the dark room. I've learned in the dark room. I've used chemicals
to push film. I've dodged highlights. Burned in darkness. I've
used filters on my camera to make the sky more blue, or make
the blacks and whites deeper in contrast. I've seen roles of
color film come back from a developer full of contrasts or colors
that I know had to do with the way their machines were set. I've
seen images and colors that had little to do with how it looked
through the lens. All of these old school techniques are really
no different than any type of digital manipulation I can do on
my iMac. In my mind, it's a really exciting time to be a photographer.
It's as if my computer and digital skills are finding a marriage
with my old theories and techniques of the past. When I was taking
those computer programming classes back in high school and college,
I never assumed it would have a practical application to my art
and photography. But here we are, in 2004. So, yeah, I took this
color photo. I made it black and white. It just seemed like the
perfect photograph to do it with. |
