Category: Photography

Recovered from the Wayback Machine.

I pulled together some of the black & white photos from the trip into a little show.

I don’t have a particular ‘style’ of photography, but I do know that I’ll never be a ‘people’ photographer. When I run into interesting people, the camera sits forgotten as I chat, watch, listen.

In Bozeman I ran into a group of kids, modern day flower children, outside a gas station. They were playing music, dancing, trying to get enough money to buy gas to make their way home. One of the women, girl really, had long blond dreadlocks, gauzy skirt and tops, and with absolutely beautify tattoos over her stomach and over both arms. Intricate, traditionally colored tattoos with a strong Eastern accent.

If I were a ‘people’ photographer, I would have taken her picture and pictures of the others. But I didn’t. What I did do was sit with them for a while, hear their stories, listen to their not particularly good guitar playing, and give them a few bucks when I left. As I was driving away, one of the boys, mohawk haircut artfully colored, flashed me a huge smile and waved, and another of the girls ran up with a flower for me that she had plucked from the gas station flower bed. I left to the faint sounds of “Take care, sister!”—driving away with a smile that lasted at least 200 miles.

So, no pictures of dread locked tattooed blond innocence, or the looks on the faces of the people walking past, or the quiet giant in linen shirt and jeans who silently held out a can in one hand and an empty gas container in the other, or the boy singing folk songs as the others danced about.

I guess my photography will go in other directions. For now.

I signed up for a class on B & W photography and darkroom development at the local community college, starting in October. Ever since, I’ve become obsessed with B & W photography. Today I checked out several books from the library that contain photos, and have also spent a little time exploring photos online.

As I look at the photos, I’m finding that there are very few styles I would be comfortable trying. With color photos, I’ll try anything at least once, and be quite happy experimenting around with others’ techniques. But there’s a quality of B & W photography that is very personal. Something about stripping away the color and reducing your palette to shades of gray, the photography becomes a fingerprint, no two styles the same.

Among the books I checked out was Let Us Now Praise Famous Men, a book that’s been making the rounds of webloggers lately. The copy I got from the library was old, battered, with the cover fallling off, pages barely in place; perfect ambiance for the photos and the writing contained within it.

I looked carefully through all the Walker Evans photos and have appreciated them, though for some reason they make me feel uncomfortable. I tried to determine why each photo was special–what I liked or disliked about each–but I have no skill with deconstructing a photo. My analysis is limited to “looks good”, “looks better”, “wow”, “not sure”, and “no, don’t like”. This is not an auspicious start.

To gain perspective, I looked at some of Noah Grey’s photos. If Evans was midday reality (Don’t you feel the heat? Can’t you taste the dust?) Noah is twilight dreamy–cool, soft, smooth. Lovely, but a bit safe? Is that right? They feel safe? Is this a step up from “looks good”, “looks better”?

I also explored Art Zone a web site dedicated to B & W photography. I particularly liked a photo of a sax player, but I’m not sure why. I thought at first it was because of the smoke, but I think it’s because of the shadow. And I was impacted by this photo by Andreas Andriopoulos, though I don’t necessarily ‘like it’. The subject feels alienated in the photo. Is that right? Alienated? Is this a step up from “looks good”, “looks better”?

Regardless of like or dislike, I realized as I explored the different works that trying to copy any of these artists styles is repugnant–it would be like wearing someone else’s skin. I am left with the lowering realization that I haven’t the foggiest idea of what kind of picture to take. And when I have B & W film in the camera, it suddenly feels awkward in my hands, and the scenes seem flat. Remarkably flat. Nothing looks like it would be a good photo.

I guess I’ll have to stumble about taking awful picture after awful picture until I find something that works.

It’s an unusually hot night tonight, even with the air conditioner, and I can’t sleep. So I’ll lay in bed and look at the photos until I fall asleep and maybe my style will come to me in the night in a dream. I don’t know though–I dreamed about King Kong last week so I’m not holding out hope.

Additional Cavern Images: