It keeps calling and discussing with my wife have steeled my resolve.
Black and white is the polar opposite of my work processes, so hopefully it will re-kindle my creative side.
It is different in every tangible way and really, it needs to be;
Subject matter. Criteria will change and subject relevance also.
Processes. This includes gear, chosen specifically to be different. Software will be the key.
Pre-visualisation. It is different and will need a different creative outlook.
Expectations. My own only, no boss, no mainstream destination, no specific requirements.
Audience. Unknown and largely irrelevant. Me shooting for me.
Obstacles. Making a subject mono relevant, without colour or context to support it.
Advantages. No colour to fight with only tones and textures.
Promise. The difference mattering more creatively and the growth resulting from it.
Relevance. As above, mono is timeless and largely free of the need for gross technical power.
Being different is of course not enough, it has need to be, all on its own and of late it has. It may be spring, it may me missing travel, or a little of both, but I feel inspired to shoot for me. That has been missing for a while.
Possibly the main difference is a lack of any distractions. I get my fill of colour, warts and all, all day every day. Something that always provided an insurmountable creative tension previously is now in chalk and cheese contrast.
In colour, images like this tend to just blend together for me. They are, if anything too easy, relying on the colours inherent to their nature, which is often the attention grabber that got it taken, but reducing their overall impact. If they “take” in mono, they are all the more powerful. This image could have been taken in 1930 on a large format film camera, in the 50’s on medium format in the 90’s in 35mm or yesterday on the Pen F, but was actually taken with a IDs mk2 Canon, a camera that was already old at the time of taking the image (about ten years ago). Images from this camera still hold up in colour, but are showing their age a little like a built in time stamp. Mono does not care about the technical elements, only how you use them.
Some more favourites below, all hopefully highlighting the timelessness of mono (mixed cameras and lenses, taken over the last ten plus years).
