Visual Journal

In Search of a New Style

I've spent my photographic journey primarily in color. While I love black and white as a medium, my own personal interests, i.e. things like product photography, have kept me from delving too deep into monochrome.

Ansel Adams

Ansel Adams' work has always inspired me. His ability to capture the full range of the monochromatic spectrum is truly awe inspiring, and a question that came to me near the beginning of this term is; while he toiled away in a dark room to create his masterful works, could I find a way of getting such inky blacks and vibrant whites in digital without substantial data loss?

Color First

There exists merit in shooting strictly in black and white. Back in my film days, I gravitated toward B&W film, the analog technology almost demanded it in my head. I spent so much time shooting B&W film that I began to think within the terms of monochrome, developing what I saw through my viewfinder mentally and knowing whether or not the composition would work well or not.

B&W Second

However, given the idiosyncrasies that exist in the digital realm, I decided to keep my camera in color mode, changing each image to black and white in Adobe's post-processing software 'Lightroom', giving me total control over the images.

In this test image, in B&W, I wanted to bring out that rugged, beat-up texture of these old work boots as a first foray into emulating the heavy contrast of Ansel's style.

Sometimes it Just Doesn't Work

Not every shot is meant for black and white. There are very successful ad campaigns with black and white photography at the head, however they are often monochromatic clothing lines, jeans, or cologne/perfume lines selling an aesthetic, a mood, or the brand itself. This product photo of mine specifically loses its mood/aesthetic in monochrome, roller-skating is a fun, vibrant, and therefor colorful activity, making the transition to B&W feel drab and devoid of personality. Context is paramount in the decision-making process here.

Doing the Unthinkable!

My post-processing workflow has never looked so bold, the adage "moderation is key" has for the most part existed as my chosen way to go about getting what I want out of an image. Dragging the sliders to their absolute maximum or minimum always felt akin to a taboo. In my search for an Anselian style, though, it quickly became clear to me that a breaking of my own rules was going to be in order.

In B&W, Color Still Plays a Role

One of my favorite tools when working in black and white has always been the color sliders, and in my journey to this approximative style. The nuances within a composition these sliders are able to bring out are an incredible resource for adding individualism and life to a photo. Imagine taking that grass that just ruins your entire aesthetic and making it work for you, changing it from a dark grey mess to a vibrant grey that adds some much-needed lightness to a specific part of your photo that felt too muddled.

An Aesthetic that Rocks, A Rhythm that Rolls, A Style that Works

I spent a long time trying this and that, finding a new editing rhythm, a workflow that not only brought me to the aesthetic I was looking for, but one that also allowed me to produce a series of photos that felt a part of a set, a series I would be proud to display in an art gallery.

A Reminder that as Lost as I've Felt, I Still Have a Voice

These past three years haven't been kind to a great number of us, and there are those of us like myself that have continued to deal with loss piled on loss. A job, a home, a spouse, a child, and with no end to the sequence of losing in sight one eventually runs out of steam, defeat becoming the norm easily transitions to spending weeks, even months spent staring at the ceiling, paralyzed by depression and fear. And while the COVID-19 pandemic and all the love, comfort, hope, and prospective futures that disappeared as a result has accelerated the growth of an agoraphobic fear of the outside world for me; I still have a voice, I still have value, I still have a story to tell.

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