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Black and White

I am still in my black and white period. Though I do feel a brightening.

I think subject matter has a lot to do with the success of monochrome images. With colour it is a much simpler equation. With black and white it is all about form and structure and light.

Though I still remember when we only had black and white film as an option.

It is cold. Almost all colour has leeched from the landscape. The fields are in sepia now. We have a lot of wind out here on the prairies lately. After a summer with less wind than usual. It is the epitome of lonely: this howling cold wind.

I got really dark there for a bit.

Now I feel a little colour creeping in.

( I have been working on bread and pasta to create images for the marketing team at work) so here is one of those. Though I am not ready to leave the extreme discipline of monochrome yet.

I need to stay very disciplined to see my plan through. This omicron is everywhere down here. I think it is just a matter of putting on our life jackets and riding it out. These surges are going to keep returning – we need to adapt as best we can. If ever there was a case for building a network of support this would be it. Being a working single parent with school age kids must be so hard, with so much illness wreaking havoc. We need to gather around our little families and BE the village. And so I will.

And a moment of full barn colour before I dip back down again.

I hope you are well. ( such a loaded statement these days!).

Cecilia

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60 responses to “Black and White”

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  2. My seven year old is sitting here with me as I read your post. She really likes the picture of the pasta. She says the bottom pile of noodles looks like an owl and the top one looks like a cat.

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  4. Cecilia, these photos are simply gorgeous. They evoke emotions under the surface. The barely perceptible color in the wheat flour brings such a sense of longing for more. The messy tangle of noodles set against the still curved, but harder lines of the cutting tool gives a sense of life’s chaos and the longed-for order…. I just LOVE this sampling of still-life photos!! You have so many talents!! Thank you for sharing them with us!

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  5. Lovely pictures, especially the cat and pasta (cloud and black and white). That rabbit looks like she’s moved into the house!
    Having spent years (literally) in the dark room, I wouldn’t trade it for Photoshop – I can do everything and a lot more without the very dangerous and polluting chemicals and darkness. Relatively speaking it’s a lot cheaper too!

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    • I was thinking the same thing about Nelson, Mad! It looks like she has moved into the house, at least part time anyway! 🙂

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      • You are not wrong about the price of Photoshop, though film and processing per job (in the 90s) used to cost me about £200, which is considerably more.

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          • I know – there used to be camera and photographic shops in most towns, but now you need to be in a big city. London used to have lots of shops for professionals, along with a good selection of laboratories for processing, but most have gone now. I remember going into Process Supplies (off Farringdon Road), about 10 years ago and they were rationing the amount of 120 film that one could buy – 3 rolls per person! Incredible! I suppose the stuff that is still being made is available online and that’s what’s caused the demise of shops.

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            • Wow, MD I haven’t thought about 120/220 films in years. I used to own (wish I still did) a Hasselblad 500C/M with a 120/220 back. Those were the days and yes professional film development cost a bunch back in the 70s as well.

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              • I had 2 Mamiya RZ 6X7 cameras – by 1999 I hadn’t used either for several years and sold them in order to buy a G4 Mac. That’s long gone too, but I don’t regret selling the cameras, they’d be worth a lot less now. One of the most amazing innovations this century (aside from digital cameras) is the ability to shoot tethered to a computer. You can see the image on a large screen before taking a picture. That really beats peering into a 10X8 camera with a dark cloth and looking at the screen upside down! On the negative side, there’s no longer an excuse for a 2 hour lunch (with a client), while the film is being processed.

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  7. I have loved following these images on Instagram lately, but to be honest, to see smidgens of color pop in here is wonderful. Barn birds in color are like a long awaited peak at the sun appearing through the clouds. Beautiful.

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  11. I used to subscribe to the lovely magazine Communication Arts, and there was a fantastic photographer who ran promotional ads for himself. He worked exclusively in black and white, and claimed that he was so well qualified because he’d been born and grew up in North Dakota. I thought that was so funny…and probably true. I love black and white the best of all. It feels like truth as opposed to the omnipresent mirror. It requires an eye, not just a good smart phone. And you have a marvelous eye! I’m glad you are coming back a bit. That’s good news. x

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  13. I love, love, love your photographs. Especially the last one of your multicolored feathered friends. I also really like the black and white ones as well. That’s sort of how life is, some things are in black and white, periods of time, experiences, etc and other things, are in full technicolor. Shouldn’t have one thing with out the other, it gives a person perspective.

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  15. The black & white is gorgeous, but my personal favourite is where there is just the smallest bit of colour, as if a warm wind has blown over something frozen and caused a very slight melting of the frost. Not full colour, too saturated, but just those little touches. The dough and rolling pin… Stay warm, safe and well, Miss C.

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