Black and white?! BLACK 'N WHITE!

I struggle with shooting in black and white.  On one hand it is considered by many to be the purest form of photography.  I attribute this to a few things.  One, people are curmudgeonly stick-in-the-muds who are scared of the future (and the present) and assume that just because something is old it is somehow better and more pure than something new and modern.  Two, for whatever reason (art-school propaganda, museum snobbery) black and white photography is seen as more serious than color.  Now, keep in mind that I'm a reactionary crank who likes to twist the nipples of people with strong opinions no matter what they might be.  I say that because I suspect I would feel as strongly suspicious of color photography if people in general felt that was more true to the spirit of photography than black and white.  But that's not the case.  So it's good ol' B&W that gets my dander up*.


My Zelig-like personality is sometimes a burden and is never more so than when I'm reflecting on what kind of photographer I consider myself to be.  When I first emerge from my backyard sweat lodge my mind and body free of impurities I know I am a photographer who will pick up whatever machine is closest at hand, be it digital or analog, and use it to craft beautiful images that are mine and mine alone.  That me doesn't care if the results are in color or in black and white.  All other times I swing wildly from one extreme to the other when I ask myself "WTF am I doing with this camera in my hand?"  I'm a genius, I'm a fraud, I'm a professional, I'm a hobbyist, I should shoot in color, I should shoot in black and white...and on and on.


Obviously I need to spend much more time being beaten by my shaman into a Zen-like trance of submission bliss with birch switches while sweat pours from my pores.  But keeping that sweat lodge toasty is expensive and shamans don't work for free so it's up to me to fight the demons of my mind and ego and come up with the answer to who I am as a photographer.


I know what you're thinking: 


-What the heck is he rambling on about?  


-You know what I hate about blogs?  Bull-shit, self-indulgent claptrap like this.  


-Forget photography this guy should write for a living.  


-What does this have to do with black and white photography?  


Those are all great questions.  I'll answer the last one.  I prefer to shoot in color.  *PRETENTIOUS ART-SCHOOLISH SENTENCE ALERT!*  I "see" in color. But now and then I feel a compulsion to take some pictures in black and white to prove to myself and the 6 other people who care about this that I can do it and that I am a "real" photographer.


I just hope Henri Cartier-Bresson is happy.  I see in color.  My God.

The first group of photos are from a project I'm working on based in and around the Alewife T-station, a hulking concrete eyesore that squats on the wetlands down the road from my house.  

The second group is made up of random shots from around town that caught my eye.  As always touch the images and they'll grow.


*Old-timey phrases are better and more pure than new ones.  

Assignment #5: SPRING

This one made me cringe a little as I tend to experience sentences like, "Find where you connect with the annual spring experience..." as vomit inducing rather than inspirational in a more traditional sense.  That said I knew that like all these assignments what it really means is, "Go out and take some pictures.  Bring in the 10 you think are your best, we'll tell you if you were right or not."  Backyards are getting me all atwitter right now so here you go, a truncated tour of the backyards of Somerville.

The following four are my "best" from my week.  Touch the pictures to make them grow.  See?  I'm into spring and making things grow.  So there.

And now, the best of the rest!  

Week 4: "New Topographics" or, Beauty in the Banal

This week our job was to find inspiration in the work of the uber-influential photographers of the New Topographics show of the mid-70's. I think the work of these photographers is mind-bending in its celebration of not only the banality of urban and suburban sprawl but in its ability to find beauty in the ignored corners of our "human-altered landscape". I'll let Wikipedia do the heavy-lifting for me here with the added bonus that the information you get might not even be accurate! It really is worth a read, especially if you're at work killing time.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Topographics

As always the following images are the ones my non-daft classmates found the most compelling.

And here are a few more I liked but were rejected as sub-par...jealous basta...I mean, astute aesthetes.

Assignment #3: The Rule of Thirds (NYC!)

I either blew this assignment or I nailed it. I understand the rule of thirds but misinterpreted what our job was relative to it...or something like that. I was supposed to disguise my use of the rule (Google it if you really are interested), instead I celebrated it. Or maybe I just took pictures of things/scenes that I thought were fun to look at. I was in NYC for a few days so I shot there. I could take pictures in New York all day/week/month/year/life-long and not get bored. Enjoy. Click to make big. These five are my A-edit as usual courtesy of my classmates and teacher. Thanks Gang!

Here are others I picked for my critique:

Assignment #2: ICONIC IMAGES

Assignment #2 in my Urban Landscape class was to make images of a city that you consider iconic. Uhm, no...take pictures of things/topics/stuff that you consider iconic, in a city. I have always considered the ignored infrastructure of our urban areas to be emblematic of cities so it was there I went in search of iconic images. These first four are, again, the photos my class found the most pleasing to their well-trained eyes. For this assignment I did indeed limit myself to 40 pics in sequence. Click on the pics if you want to make them bigger so your eyes can drink in all the intricate detail and majesty of my deeply personal and profound vision.

Here are some others I liked from my shoot. All photos are shot in Somerville.

Spring class...URBAN LANDSCAPES

The spring workshop offering from NESOP that caught my eye was/is Urban Landscapes taught by Michael Hintlian. It took me a while to get used to his style and the assignments but I'm digging it and being pushed by it.

Week 1: Take photos no more than 100 feet from the front door of your home. The following four photos were those selected by my classmates out of 8-12 that I submitted as my favorites. We are supposed to be limiting ourselves to shooting 36 frames. In the spirit of full-ish disclosure I'm shooting more like 50-60.

Others I liked are the following:

I have always found it much easier to be inspired and feel creative further afield than at home so this assignment presented many challenges for me. I'm glad it bore some interesting fruit.