Black and white photography-1 Beauty in contrasts, stark reality and silhouettes
Photos & Text by Rathin Das
When photography was invented in the early 19th century, it was the first time that human eyes saw something only in two basic colours — black and white. Till then, all eyes in this planet were habitual to seeing everything in myriad of colours that nature had created millennia back. The land, trees, leaves, rivers, stones, mountains, sky, clouds and all else presented themselves in various hues of colours — none in plain black and white.
The birth of photography in its modern form reduced the rainbow of colours in nature to just two — black and white and the various shades of grey in between. And yet, no one accused the art, or science of photography having robbed humans of its pleasure of viewing colours. That’s the beauty of black and white in photography — minimising the number of colours but still remain soothing to the visual senses.
Reduction of every object into just black and white sometimes creates a dramatic effect on the scenario, often bringing out the stark reality too.
The fisherman walking along the sea beach.
the little boy holding the stick.
The fisherman walking along the sea beach and also the little boy holding the stick in another photo are classic examples of this phenomenon — the black and white contrast bringing out the stark realities of their existence against backdrop of the vastness of the sea.
While effective use of light and shade alternately creates a dramatic impact on the scenario, placing the object directly against a strong source of light can bring out wonderful silhouettes in black & white photographs.
The black pillars on the left half of the photo of ancient box camera being used to take a portrait of a man is an example of alternating the two colours.
The sunrise photo (at Kanyakumari) has silhouetted three boats and the fishermen visually but also throws some glimpse on their harsh life beginning at dawn. This photo would have looked beautiful in colour too, but the harshness of the boatmen’s lives would have been drowned in myriad colours of the rising sun’s rays reflected on water and deflected through the sky. Similar reduction of all the natural colours into just black & white has brought all the attention on the duck in the photo of the pond and the palm tree.
Light from the back or sideways can sometimes work wonders in black & white photography, example being the photo of the school girl’s preparation for her exams. The sunlight through the window at her back can be thematically linked to ‘ray of hope’.
In black & white photography, sidelight from a low angle on face, forehead and eyeballs give a special effect on the person’s profile, the proof being the girl’s portrait in ‘half-light’.
Very beautiful and impressive photos.