One of the benefits of being older is the opportunity to look back on the experiences that have brought you to a particular point in life.  It can be summed up in a single word, Wisdom.  Wisdom can only come from insight gained from past experiences and trends that become obvious over extended periods of time.  

   I have gotten to a very high level in Black and White wet process / darkroom photography because of one word, WHY !  The trend can even be seen in the history of my Blog posts.  I’ve shared background stories about images and done research about certain circumstances within those stories unrelated to the image or photography itself, but as to WHY those circumstances happened. Perfect case in point, just this past March I wrote a Blog post about an image I made while visiting Lake Michigan where my hands became almost unusable because of the cold and wind. I did a deep dive into WHY this happened to my hands because I simply wanted that knowledge.  Another example came in this past June’s Blog about the 50th anniversary of John Lennon’s bed-in while he and Yoko were in Montreal in 1969.  I love Lennon’s music and philosophy and simply wanted to know as much about the man and WHY his music and legend have stayed with me since I was a teenager.  So the focus of this month’s Blog is WHY my B&W photography skill-set resides in the rare air it does.

  I’ve detailed in past Blogs I came to photography through the ranks of a professional photography association in Connecticut.  In that sense my interest in photography may have started at a higher level than most, certainly the expectations began at a higher level simply because of those around me.  That said, it was still my choice to aspire and accept the challenge to belong in that group.  The WHY is rooted in an interest in creating something that came from within my heart and mind, something that can’t be seen or measured until I deem it appropriate to share with others. Certainly, there are far more images that never made it out of the waste basket to see the light of day than ones that have. 

   When I look at my work through the context of Heart and Mind, the heart is the easy part.  I simply respond to something as worthy of making a photograph for my aesthetic or not, most times that response is out of my control.  The mind is where the WHY enters the equation.  My mind is left to figure out HOW to execute the photograph that is in my heart. The fastest way to get to the HOW is to understand the WHY component.  The thirst for photographic knowledge in my genre of imagery begins with the WHY.  I could write about this topic for hours because it helps me look beyond the obvious and understand the motivation behind WHY I choose the imagery I make.  However, I want to pass on some real knowledge to those reading this text and will use several of my images to illustrate. 

  My Power of Process philosophy is comprised of 5 components, I will start with the first component, Light and Composition. Before going into the WHY and HOW, it’s important to understand the challenges visual artists who use a camera face in today’s world.  To the average person the camera represents a mechanical “tool” to capture or “take” a recording of what is in front of the camera’s lens.  Cell phones and the pure numbers of people using them as “instruments of capture” only magnify the challenges a photographic visual artist faces.  Almost everyone associates a photograph as an accurate and literal rendering of what is in front of the camera at a given moment.  In the photography I pursue and those I count as my peers our photographs go well beyond a literal rendering, so much so, most of us refer to the act of “taking a picture” as “making an image”.  Simply changing the verb and noun in a simple three word phrase completely changes the narrative on what the Creative Photographer’s end game is !!

  Take for instance Summer House, made in 1984, barely 4 years into processing my very first black and white film. The image as seen here is essentially the view I saw when I decided to make an image, shown below is the exact composition I chose based on the rule of thirds I learned from the pros. The sky is almost always brighter than visual artists want it to be, more on that later.

The rule of thirds paraphrased from Wikipedia says when composing visual images such as photographs the guideline proposes that an image should be imagined as divided into nine equal parts by two equally spaced horizontal lines and two equally spaced vertical lines. The important compositional elements should be placed along these lines or even better the point of intersection. Proponents of the technique claim that aligning a subject with these points creates more tension, energy and interest in the composition than simply centering the subject.  The rule further states that the most powerful part of a visual image resides in the lower right quadrant of the image. That is in large part based on those living in the Western Hemisphere have learned to read from left to right.  Our eye enters a visual image from the lower left and moves to the right gathering information from secondary elements to support the main interest of the image, ultimately forming a response, whether it be good or bad.  I intentionally eliminated much of the foreground land mass giving the impression the white house in sunlight was actually larger than it actually was.  

 In Black & White photography there are techniques to steer or guide the viewer to a more clear understanding and dramatic response to the photographer’s original motivation to create that image.  The eye and brain relationship is an incredibly fluid and unique response within each of us. Take for instance in the lighter photo above, the blue sky beyond the white house is perceived by our brain as darker because of it’s color as a backdrop to the white house in sunlight. This mental response does not translate to a piece of film or even a digital sensor, the sky is simply brighter than most visual artists wish to portray in a final image.  Therefore, there is almost always corrections or steps taken to direct the viewer away from the skies brightness but at the same time create a purpose to show such a large area of sky as it relates to the image.  In the case of Summer House, a polarizing filter was used to reduce the brightness of the sky while increasing the contrast relating to the white clouds. Further reduction in film exposure reduces the skies brightness, by increasing the chemical development of the film essentially only moves the brighter parts (sunlit house) to a higher film density.  Those three adjustments essentially cause the sky to be much darker while the white house’s brightness to be much greater than they were in the original literal scene as seen by the film.  Further adjustments in the printing of the final image subliminally suggest to the viewer the power of this stately home high on a hill. Such as, the very top of the sky is printed darker so any sign of the clouds or distractions are eliminated.  The perspective I chose to portray the house with both sun and shadow on the house provides the impression of depth and dimension.  Each corner of the photograph is printed slightly darker. These subtle but important adjustments in the final presentation further draw your eye into the main elements of the image. The dark sky, random clouds and sunlit house interact with one another to make up what has become my signature image, an image I made less than four years into creating Black and White images with a camera. 

   Most of what I learned about B&W film photography was self taught.  The biggest thing I took away from the working pros was that of constant self promotion.  Something I don’t enjoy, nevertheless understand the need is essential.  Without really knowing I had no business pursuing big name galleries,  in 1985 I brought a portfolio of large B&W images to the prestigious Robert Klein Gallery in Boston.  Klein kept 8 of my images from that first visit and offered the following quote, one I’m not comfortable with but it’s his words, not mine, “your images provide and affordable alternative to Ansel Adam’s work”

   The second image is a distinct departure from the compositional rules of the first image.  Nevertheless, the image is powerful, but from a different approach. This image was made with a Hasselblad camera which uses a square 2 1/4″ x 2 1/4 inch film format.  The color photo below is what lead me to make the image. The wind was howling so, there was no chance to use a view camera, otherwise, the composition seen below would have been a perfect setup for my 7×17″ panoramic camera. The Last Supper as it is titled was conceived in 1984 by the late Belgian-Polish sculptor Albert Szukalski. 

   I am certain I chose three figures indicated by the arrow for several reasons, the background sky was likely the most cloud free at the time.  To me, any white clouds would only serve to draw attention away from the main interest of the figures against a strong dark sky.  There is only enough of the wooden base to convey the idea of support while not being integral to the image.  Lastly, the mountain side and the wooden platform have been printed much darker than they appear in full sunlight, again so as not to distract from the white figures against the deep sky.  It’s interesting to note, and I’m sure intentional by the sculptor, each grouping of figures is an odd number, 1 or 3 figures, and a total of 5 groupings of figures.  The rule of 3 states, people are more visually engaged when they see a group of three items. According to eye movement tracking studies, a group of three encourages the eye to move about and take in more detail. A group of three is also a more memorable grouping. The image was dictated by the square nature of the film used, nevertheless, the combination of an odd number of figures within a 4 sided symmetrical format adds another layer of interest and tension.  

   Next month I talk and illustrate my thoughts on the 2nd component of my 5 Process components, Exposure and Negative Design.  As an FYI, all my Premium videos, ONE on ONE Workshops and Mentorship Subscriptions are discounted by 20 percent for the month of December, use discount code   “cyber20”   here  https://gumroad.com/stevesherman