I wonder whether images ‘choose’ photographers? I think in a way they do, in the sense that any keen photographer will put themselves in the best position for potential pictures to choose them. They know where to go, where (and importantly) how to look.
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The first colour many of us think of when we hear the word ‘night’ might well be black. But as Van Gogh famously reminded us, there are many more colours to be seen then too. And he made his remark before the advent of our brightly lit cities, where many colours are more evident at night than black!
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I am writing this at the end of March and spring seems definitely to have arrived in London. Street trees are in blossom, birds are more active and more vocal, and our garden is awakening. But my ‘story’ starts back in the tail-end of winter, February.
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If a black and white photograph is a 'departure from reality' (and surely it is), then why are so many photographers still drawn to taking them? And what is their appeal for the viewer? Is it merely nostalgia as some have claimed? After all, the oldest among us grew up I'm a world of black and white films, TV and family snapshots.
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Neil Gaiman once said, 'Picking five favourite books is like picking the five body parts you'd most like not to lose.' If you replace the word ‘books’ in that quote with ‘photographs’ you will know exactly how I feel. I have a similar reaction when people ask me which are my top three / five / ten places I’ve visited.
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When we travel, we love to try the food of our destinations. Pasta in Italy (of course!), curry in India, kimchi in North Korea, even grasshoppers in Oaxaca. And on our latest trip to the Philippines we naturally enjoyed many local dishes, and like the Filipinos themselves ate rice with almost every meal.
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What we choose to leave out of a photograph matters as much as what we choose to include. And we are making such decisions every time we point our camera at a subject. But thanks to digital photography it is now very easy to make them retrospectively, when we come to edit our shots. Furthermore, we can take a single shot and test out a variety of options.
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A good portrait photograph is shaped by the connection between two people, photographer and subject. Without that connection the image is at best less interesting, at worst lifeless. When we look at an interesting portrait we discover something about the person portrayed: their life, their character. But we only do so if the photographer has discovered this and brought it out in their image.
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Without the distraction of colours, the focus shifts more to the subject’s face and expression. The eyes in particular seem to stand out more, and consequently as a viewer you often feel more connected to the person. And the absence of colour results in an emphasis on shape and form, often making the people seem more significant than their surroundings.
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Perhaps because Britain is a relatively small island, many of us are drawn to the sea. After all, we nearly all live within a few hours drive of the coast. We grew up with seaside holidays, day trips to the beach. We are known as a ‘nation of seafarers’, based on those days when ‘Britannia ruled the waves’.
