Monochrome days and nostalgic ways.
Most people love a good black and white photograph and especially one has a story behind it. The absence of colour means that the picture carries a different meaning that speaks to us on a more personal and subconscious level.
Our response to black and white images are more restrained because without colour we are asked to think more about the meaning of the image and see the very essence of the person, place or thing that is being been shown to us in it's simplest form.
The picture above was taken on a sunny day in 2007 but it looks like it could have been taken on a dull day in Glasgow in the 1960s. It is Parnie Street at Glasgow Cross and there is a famous camera shop to the left of the scene where generations of Glasgow press photographers bought and sold their gear.
This scene stopped me and I knew I had to take this picture for posterity. To most other people it will be just a snapshot but to me it is more than that. The first photographer to have any effect on me was Oscar Marzaroli who came to Glasgow from Italy when he was just a baby. A lot of his work features street scenes from the Gorbals, which is just over the bridge from where the above picture was taken.
The old car reminds me of a time long ago and the shop and doorway are very powerful reminders of the tenement close in Dalmuir where my grandmother lived in the 1960s. Next to the entrance to my Grandmother's close there was a chip shop where we used to get our Friday night tea. I swear I could smell salt and vinegar as I took the shot above.
The scene above brought back the sights, smells and sounds of summer evenings long ago when you would see and hear all the kids playing hopscotch and ring a rosie in the streets. Childhood memories rekindled - the past and the present existing together in defiance of the passing of time.
Monochrome newsreels and still shots from Vietnam and the Cold War are still crystal clear in the mind 30 years after first seeing them. Seeing them today they are still powerful and shocking.
There was plenty of colour around in the 1970's too and it was a revelation when people started to have easy access to colour tv sets. Boy! that was something to remember. What a thrill indeed it was - we could watch Celtic and Slade in full technicolor.
The family kept two large tins packed with black and white photographs going back to before the first world war. Every so often the tins would be taken out and we all had a look back into a world that had long since passed.
Black and white is timeless and a portrait shot taken in the 1930s can look as clean and fresh as one taken today with all the fancy equipment now available.
The black and white still shots from old movies such as Casablanca are in a different class altogether because they have a beautiful quality that has been carefully created through the controlled use of studio lighting and the considerable technical skill of the film crews.
So what makes a good black and white photograph?
A good black and white photograph should have sparkle. Whites should be white and preferably have some tone and texture in the highlights. Blacks should be deep but not jet black. There should be good tonal gradation in all greys in between.
Black and white landscape photographs should look like those taken by the famous American landscape photographer Ansel Adams. Technically they should have plenty of detail and tonal range. There is a certain "zing" to a black and white picture that thrills like the spontaneity of a great watercolour painting.
After 30 years of appreciating black and white photography that is all I can say about it. This is because photography should be enjoyed but not over analysed - I just enjoy the simplicity of a black and white photograph.
