it’s black and white

To see in color is a delight for the eye but to see in black and white is a delight for the soul.
~Andri Hery

 

The question has returned. I don’t get asked nearly as often as I did when I first began making portraits, but as we’re quickly approaching the “busy season” for those of us who are photographers, the question now creeps into inquiries almost daily.

“Do you shoot in color, too?”

I sorta cringe when I must respond to this question. Perhaps because I fear to answer with “no” makes me appear inflexible……less versatile……..even narrow-minded, and these are adjectives that I would hope don’t generally describe me. But maybe in this case they do?

I want to be accommodating to my clients. I want to earn their business. This is my livelihood, not a hobby. But in the past when I’ve agreed to go ahead and shoot a roll of color as part of a session, I can feel my heart not at all into those frames, and my eyes are confused when looking through the viewfinder and the image I see automatically transforms in my mind to black and white. I have to constantly remind myself, “this is color, Cynthia, look at the scene differently”. And then I rush the roll through because deep inside I’m afraid that a magical moment will appear and I will have “wasted it” by shooting in color. Oh dear, I am narrow-minded after all.

All this isn’t to say that I don’t appreciate and find beautiful a photograph made in color. I see many gorgeously created rainbow-hued images with surreal aquamarine skies and succulent skin tones that are breathtaking and truly a delight for the eye. But they don’t typically hold my attention nor pull me in closer. I look and appreciate and move along. I suppose because photography for me is first and foremost a spiritual journey, and I‘m desiring to go deeper than the surface of “pretty“.

I make photographs and I view photographs because I want to feel life, not only observe it. I want to experience that which pulses at the core of your being, and at the core of my being, and ultimately discover them to be one and the same. I want my heart cracked open by the rawness of a moment set apart from ordinary because of this collision of souls. I want all else that is extraneous stripped away so as not to impede truth from being revealed. And I find that it’s within the highlights and shadows of an image made in black and white that I’m most effectively and purely transported to a place of stark emotion and divine awareness. It’s certainly not the only path, not necessarily the “right” path……it simply is the route that feels most true to me personally as I travel along it.

If Joseph Campbell is correct in his assertion that we should all “follow our bliss”, then I’m certain, at least in this moment in time, that my path toward bliss is plainly paved in shades of black and white.

 

~Cynthia

I think I’ll contemplate this subject again at another time, it feels more complex than a single journal entry allows for.