Zero Saturation
One mans journey into the world of black and white photography
From my earliest childhood memories, I have had a caliginous outlook on life, which is evident in my music and poetry. The story you are about to read is how black and white photography completed my multimedia triad.
In 2007 I went back to school to pursue a degree in Visual Communications. I had been a freelance web designer/developer for close to ten years. Unfortunately, no design firm would entertain an interview for full time employment without a degree, so back to school it was. Little did I know that my reason for going back, and the newfound passion upon graduating would be night and day, or in my case, black & white.
The first day of photography class is engrained in my head as if it happened just yesterday. My professor, an established and well respected photographer in the metropolitan area where I live, handed each student a photography “kit” as he called it, and said nothing more. He never explained the contents and had no intentions to do so until we were ready. “Ready for what” we all wondered?
After four weeks of excruciating classes on photographic terminology and technique, everyone began to wonder if we would ever shoot an actual picture or if this was merely a twisted joke to gain a few credits, however, the moment we had all been anticipating came on week five – the contents of the box and an explanation – we could hardly contain ourselves.
Inside each box were three rolls of film, a small notebook, and three small envelopes. The content, simple as it was, would change my artistic life forever. As the professor began to speak, I watched as deans list students were transformed into intoxicated zombies incapable of forming a complete sentence. It was humorous to say the least.
“Before anyone in this classroom entertains the idea of using a digital camera, you will first use the three rolls of film in your kit. The envelopes are for you to develop your work, and the notebook is for documenting your camera settings so we can match up the photographs when they come back from the developer”
“This guy out of his mind!” We thought. Film? Envelopes? Processing? The professor had surely gone mad! Yet there we were, each with a rented SLR camera provided by the school, and our assignment, should we choose to accept it, was to shoot specific subject matter armed only with what we had learned in the previous weeks leading up to this moment. I still chuckle to myself when I think back to some of the student frustrations trying to load film into the cameras. As expected, many exposed rolls needed to be replaced until it was all said and done.
After a week of shooting at various locations, manually adjusting settings depending on the subject matter, logging everything into my notebook, and a few prayers to the gods of the dark room, it was time to put my film in its capped cocoon and slide it into the envelopes.
The next evening, much to everyone’s horror, we were informed that developing would take a week, and we would review the photos at the next class. “A week!” One student exclaimed, “Are they developing the photos in a cave?” As expected, laughter followed along with a second explanation of the development process by our professor, for those students that were not paying attention during the previous weeks. The laughter stopped, and the room became silent.
The next class finally arrived, and everyone anxiously fidgeted in their seats like a bunch of preschool students waiting to get the toys out and start playing. Our professor called us up one by one and handed back our envelopes now filled with actual photos. I was last to receive my precious cargo due to the alphabetic nature of how our names were called. Whoever created the process of going alphabetically must have had a last name that began with the letter A, but I digress.
I pulled the first envelope out of the rubber-banded packet, and slid the photos into my hand. They were from the black and white roll, and I must have stared at the first picture for what seemed like the remainder of the class. This was the most beautiful photograph I had ever seen, not because it was an amazing photo, but rather the fact that it was void of color, yet vibrant with every color I could imagine, and some that I could not. That one photo changed the way I viewed photography and impacted my artistic life from that point forward.
My professor pulled me aside at the end of that class and told me something that did not make an immediate impact, but would eventually create another life changing impact on my photographic future. He told me that my work was reminiscent of Ansel Adams, to which I replied, “Thanks,” all the time wondering whom Ansel Adams was, and why I should care?
I think back often on the Ansel Adams reference, and realize it is possibly the highest form of praise a black and white photographer can receive; praise that will stay with me for the rest of my life.
Bryan J Zimmerman is a professional musician, writer, photographer, and soon to be author. His first book of poetry and photography entitled “Life, Death, And Other Famous Recipes” is due to be released on 01/01/2011. You can also follow him on Twitter.
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Nice read! I agree that the black and white film era was pretty amazing, we were lucky enough to experience the tail end of it at design school. There’s definitely something about the manual process in the darkroom that you could never replicate on a digital monitor.
Great point Andy, however, with the advent of digital tools like Adobe Lightroom, Adobe Photoshop, and the vast amount of plug-ins available, it is very much like working in a darkroom. You still need to do the leg work, the only difference is that now we have an “undo” feature.
One aspect of a darkroom that no digital technology can touch, is there is no going back with film. When you process your film in a darkroom, whatever comes out is what you are stuck with, and in many cases throughout history those pieces turn out to be some of the best works.
Thanks for the reply!
Great article! I love color, but black and white photography does have its own appeal. You can have the same photo in color and in black and white, but they tell two completely different stories.
It’s amazing how technology has made people ignorrant to the original way of doing things though. When I had my photography class, I enjoyed the process of taking the photographs, but the developing process horrified me. I suprisingly never ruined any of my rolls of film though. The whole dark room experience is just as interesting as it is frightening. Being compared to Ansel Adams is quite the compliment, so you should be very proud.
Wendy,
You touched on a very good point, which is another reason I love black and white photography, and that is the color/bw comparison. As a writer and musician, telling a story is at the heart of what I do, and photography is no different. The impact between the two mediums is truly amazing!
Thanks for the comment!
Very lovely post. Black and White can indeed be inspiring. Smashing Magazine has had some great “inspiration” segments on black & white, and there are numerous Flickr goups devoted similarly. Sometimes being devoid of color is a better way to see the world!
Eric,
Thank you for the kind words.
Smashing Magazine is an awesome resource for black and white inspiration, as well as the Photo Argus.
I cam across an amazing portfolio via Twitter yesterday that took my breath away, and I highly suggest taking a look if you have the chance. The photographer is Kallie Dreher, and her site is http://www.hellodelta.net/portfolio.htm. Her black and white photography is stunning to say the least, and so vibrant. I sent her an email to find out if the pictures are HDR, as that technique is becoming popular with black and white photos.
I also joined Flickr as another way to get my work seen by more individuals, but it’s been stagnant for a good three months; Thanks for bringing it up and reminding me to get off my tush and do some house cleaning!
Enjoy the day my friend!
Great viewpoint! I had enjoyed shooting Agfa Scala b/w slide film until it was discontinued recently. I find you have to think a lot more about what you are doing when shooting analog, and that is the best part of it all. You have to slow down.
Hi Mark,
Wow, what a concept, slowing down! You hit the nail on the head with that comment, especially in this age of instant gratification, however, there is still something to be said about slowing down in the digital age. It has become easy to use a plug-in to convert an image to black and white, and I am just as guilty as the next person.
I have also found that here is still a place for slowing down and processing your images correctly. There are many steps to converting a digital photo from color to black and white, and when you compare a photo that took an hour to get just right versus a photo that was conceived by using a plug-in, there is a difference. It may not be noticeable to the average eye, but to a photographer it is the difference between selling a print and being able to sleep at night, or making a quick buck with guilt as your shadow. This analogy may seem a bit drastic, however, the ethical crowd reading this will surely agree.
Thanks for the comments!