Is Black and White Photography Dead?

No, It’s Alive and Well

Black and White photography is alive and well. And there are reasons why would an artist would choose black and white (monochrome) photography over color. In the days of film only, black and white could be processed faster, printed faster and reproduced easier than color images. In today’s world none of that makes any difference. Today’s color printing is as easy as hitting the print command on your computer. 

Why Shoot Balck and White?

So why black and white? First of all, the black and white image immediately becomes more abstract. Lines, shapes and tone dominate the image instead of the bright colors that tend to attract the eye in a color photo. Secondly and most importantly, you can “push” the manipulations of the black and white tonal range much further than you can stretch the color. The monochrome image may get more abstract or moody by becoming darker, lighter, or more tonally compressed, but never unrealistic, garish and harsh as a color image gets when it is digitally over-processed. Finally, by producing black and white images, the artist is following in the footsteps of some of the greatest photographic masters - Adams, Weston and Penn just to name a (very) few.

The Tools of the Digital Darkroom

The tools provided by Photoshop are in many cases the same as you would use in the traditional darkroom. Burning, dodging, flashing and contrast control are just a few of the basic manipulations available. Photoshop also has advanced controls such as curves, layers, masking and levels that were either extremely difficult or outright impossible to use in the traditional darkroom. Black and white photography is alive and well and with today’s digital darkroom the monochromatic image is more powerful than ever.

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Passing Through

As I pass through the landscape I don’t remember all the little details of what I have seen or experienced. I don’t remember the exact spot I was in when I took this photo, but I do recall watching as the mountains met the clouds. I don’t remember my exact thoughts, but I do recall the vastness of the landscape. For me, this image transcends that instant I pressed the shutter release, it reminds me of the experience I had the day I visited White Sands.

White Sands Perceptions Box Set

Waves of Sand, White Sands National Park

Have you ever heard of Lavallette? It’s a small little beach town about one square mile in size and located on a small barrier island of the central/southern coast of New Jersey. My grandparents had summered there for years before they bought two bungalows on Vance Avenue in 1964. At first my siblings, parents and grandparents went “down the shore” for about two weeks around the Fourth of July holiday and another two weeks before the Labor Day weekend. Then, after a few years my grandmother decided she wanted to be there all summer long and I was lucky, I got to go along. That started just before I became a teenager and ended in my late teens.

My first job was at the Lavallette Theater. The building had no air conditioning, the movies and pay were terrible and I don’t think there was ever a full house. But at 16 or 17 years old, who needs money when you get to stay on the beach all day. I spent most of the days with friends, swimming, body surfing and checking out the girls, it was a pretty good life. More than 30 years later I did a project that focused on the very beach in Lavallette where I spent my summers. When taking a photographic eye to the location I noticed things that I had forgotten, or maybe never noticed before. It wasn’t just the new protective grasses and dunes, the painted street signs, or the upgraded boardwalk, it was the ocean itself. I was more aware of the the sounds of the waves and the way they surged on and retreated from the shore line. I watched the waves as they frequently pounded on the surfs edge and occasionally crept up on the beach like a soft breeze.

Often during rough seas large waves would regularly break a couple of hundred yards out from the beach and the churning white surf would kick up seaweed and sand from the bottom. If I close my eyes I can easily imagine the similarity of those large Atlantic waves to the dunes of White Sands National Park. The white of the swirling waves, the regularity of wave pattern, the textures and colors of the churn as the waves move to its final rumble with the beach make the White Sands dunes feel very familiar.

I miss Lavallette and the Atlantic Ocean, but to be able to regularly wander the spectacular White Sands with my camera is a chance few people get to experience.
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Limited addition prints and a box set can be found HERE

From Out of the Dunes

Since living here in New Mexico for the last couple of years, I have found the Yucca to be fascinating because of its human like form. This one seemed to be coming from out of the dunes as dawn broke at White Sands National Park one morning. It was barley visible when I first started to photograph that day, but as the light spread across the dunes and revealed its size, it seemed to get closer to me. I felt the need to introduce myself and take a portrait of him before I lost the beautiful soft light and the dark sky background.

Limited addition prints and a box set can be found HERE

The Chimney Sweeps

The Project

The uniform is often a signifier of how we want people to perceive us. What we wear is often just a public persona of a greater personality. In my new ongoing series I use portraiture to connect the persona with the person. 

In this series the term “uniform”is explored as a contronym. I photograph my subjects in their uniform, thereby identifying themselves as an individual of an organization or cultural group. The next step is to ask them to list who they are. The list deconstructs the uniform narrative and exposes the common bonds between us, blurring the lines between our public personas and revealing the uniformity of the human experience. 

My First Subjects

My first subjects in the project were a two men that came to my house to clean my chimney. Ricardo and Cristhian Hernandez were unlike the chimney sweeps in the movie Mary Poppins, they were not dressed in all black or top hats nor did they do any singing and dancing on our roof, Their uniforms were hoodies and jeans, no different than the way most of us hang out and many of us do our work. 

The Clues

Without the obvious dress clues, how do we determine what they are. The wire brushes each of the men hold tell us they are scrubbing something, something big. These brushes are used in the chimney to loosen the dirt and soot. In this case it’s not the dress or the tools the men use that identify what they do, instead it’s the hands that give it away. Some of the soot that is loosen and cleaned out of the chimney ends up in the cracks and lines of their hands revealing the dirty work and hard job they do.

Who Are They?

But these images are only telling us the what, not who. Although Ricardo did not reveal anything else about himself, he seemed friendly and cooperative to sit for my art project. Cristhian divulges a bit more about himself, he writes:

Cristhian Hernandez
Son
Brother
Likes Soccer
Cleans Chimenys
Cleans Dryer Vents

The Reward

The tools and the soot may be signifiers of what they do, but not who they are. Instead of being “the chimney guys”, I got a chance to meet them and find out a little more about them.

I feel rewarded for my effort.

On Becoming An Artist

When I arrived in Las Cruces 15 months ago, I partnered with the Southwest Environmental Center to produced two photographic exhibitions of other artists works. That was the plan, to create an environment for photographers to exhibit. While producing these exhibits, I did not include any of my own work. In fact, over recent years I have not exhibited often or widely. 

But that has begun to change. Currently, I am exhibiting my work in the exhibit FIRE & ICE at the Unsettled Gallery here in Las Cruces, New Mexico. The gallery is small, but a really charming place to exhibit with its whitewashed adobe walls and wooden vigas across the ceiling. I got the opportunity to pitch an idea to have my photographs of Death Valley (FIRE) and my friend Alex Tullis’s work of Iceland (ICE) shown In the gallery. Each of us has one of the two major rooms in the gallery. Together the exhibit is a contrast in landscapes, colors, themes and styles.

I was recently pleased to hear that I have been awarded a solo exhibition in another gallery here in Las Cruces. The work is more current than the Death Valley work, and I believe a next creative step compared to the current show, FIRE & ICE.

So now I have to confront how I am going to present myself as an artist. How do I market my work, how do I find a wider audience for the work I do. There are a number of ways to go; I know many photographers that go to local fairs every week and they do O.K. I know some photographers are in galleries, but they only sell occasionally. And we have all heard of people in New York, L.A., or Santa Fe that have sold prints for thousands of dollars. I have a e-commerce web site, so with a lot of marketing online sales is a possibility. There isn’t one answer that fits all that I want to accomplish.

Since my latest series has not yet been shown, in fact not even completed, I have to make a decision on how I will proceed to present, market, and show my work. This requires a road map, a plan to get from where I am now to where I want to be a year or two down the road. 

So right now I am beginning to lean in one direction and with a little more consideration over the next few weeks, I will make the final decision and tell you why I chose that direction. 

Stay tuned!

Photographing From the Levee in Las Cruces, New Mexico

It was a chilly day of about 50 degrees with a breeze that made it feel colder. When you look behind me, you see the Organ Mountains to the east, and the city of Las Cruces to the west.

Finally at the end we take a look at what I captured on this day.

Thanks for watching.

55 Years of Running

I have been running for 55 years, it all started on a bet…