Saturday, December 4, 2010

The Allure of Black and White

Gonzales Observatory

Songhees Bench
  
 Songhees Fence

  Windows
  
Click on any image to view larger
  
Black and white images are wonderful for emphasizing line, shape and tones, revealing the underlying geometry and artistry of the world around us. I started the day with a short trip to the top of a local point, high above the ocean. There's a weather observatory there; making this study of the stairs in some ways trained my eye to look for black and white images on a later walk along the inner harbour. I like making images of shadows because of their indirect reference to objects around us: we don't see the object directly, but we can easily visualize it without the distortions incorporated into the shadow. The final image is the exact opposite: indirect evidence of windows from the pool of light they reflected into a deep shadow. I particularly like the ambiguity of that final image: it can certainly be read literally, but is also open to more imaginative interpretations, while the other three images are too specifically defined to have that option.

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