Photography and the black and white perspective in Daydreaming on the Porch

My latest copy of the excellent photographic publication, B&W Magazine, came the other day. As always, it is a treat to glance through the pages at the fine examples of black and white photography contained in the portfolios and in photographers’ display ads which usually feature a representative photograph which leads me to want to discover more about their work.

However, in my view, the finest publication for black and white photography is “LensWork” a magazine of the highest quality. Each issue contains artistic work of great interest to me, having been a student of fine art photography for decades since I first discovered the work of Walker Evans in college.

Photography has been a major interest of mine since I was a child and took most of the family pictures at holidays and when on vacation at the beach. Or at least it seemed I did. In high school I was editor of a section of the yearbook, and one of my jobs was to select and crop photos taken by our intrepid yearbook photographer. He seemed to be so truly interested in what he did, and when you are a teenager and see that quality in someone, you are impressed.

I think I have always been a visual person, someone who is fascinated by images and what they tell me about other realities and lives. Photographs are frozen images in time, but they are also dynamic and constantly reveal inner truths and meanings. Each time I look at a photograph, there is something different to discover. Even the most “ordinary” photograph has a story to tell. That is what I find so fascinating.

In college I took pictures only a few times and primarily during my senior year. It was not until I had graduated and moved to South Carolina to take journalism courses and prepare for a newspaper career that my photographic interests really took off. I met two friends who would go with me on photographic travels on back roads in the countryside. Then we would head back to Eddie’s house and use his darkroom to develop our film and create prints in the chemical trays. Of course, everything we did then was black and white because that was for decades the primary fine art medium for photography.

There is an indefinable quality about black and white that totally sets it apart from color photography. In a sense, there is more depth and meaning on some levels because one is not distracted by a chorus of colors or resemblance to what we are accustomed to seeing in our everyday world. Photographs in black and white make us look at the world differently, in other words.

That was what was so exciting — my friends and I were creating art then. It was a powerful feeling of accomplishment. I cannot describe the satisfaction one gets when near perfect negative yields a finished print that comes out exactly as you want it to.

I miss those days and have matted and framed photographs on my walls to attest to, and remind me, of them.

Although I haven’t been in a darkroom to produce photos, I have become acquainted with how to take color photos and digitally convert them to black and white. The results are astonishing.

All of these photos were originally taken in color. What a stark contrast the black and white versions are.

In black and white:
https://www.flickr.com/gp/camas/H7iq5F4Le5

In color:
https://www.flickr.com/gp/camas/juYd1o5pj7

One of my early black and white photographs of a small, abandoned town in South Carolina, taken in 1974, and which was in a solo exhibit of my black and white photography in 2008.

https://flic.kr/p/2nNEReg

Vivian Maier, the nanny street photographer whose work was only discovered after her death:
http://www.vivianmaier.com/

Walker Evans, the first major influence in my photography:

https://www.moma.org/artists/1777

LensWork Magazine

https://www.lenswork.com/

Black & White Magazine

https://www.bandwmag.com

Last updated September 24, 2022