Black and white or monochrome
Having your picture taken by a stranger in the street or in the studio can be an uncomfortable moment for many people.
For many years, black and white photography made me uncomfortable like a moment of vulnerability with a person who impresses us. Observing these photos sent me wandering in my thoughts to a distant time of which I was not yet a part, but strangely, I found myself there as if I was there. When I started in photography, I loved the play of light, composition and colors but it seemed to me that there was something missing in my images. I couldn’t put my finger on what was missing from my images, as if they lacked soul or as if the emotion sought was not manifested.
One day I got myself a TLR camera (twin lens reflex) a Rolleicord IV 1954 with a 120 film of ilford HP5 then I sent the film in development with no idea what was going to come out of it. I had a bit of nerve-wracking anticipation as to how my images were going to come out, and then I got the email that they were ready. So I jump in my car and rushed to Gosselin Photo to pick them up. When I got home, I made myself a coffee, I settled myself comfortably in my workspace, a little anxious, I opened the images and then at the first glance, I noticed that the soul that seemed to be missing from my photographs was present. The composition was not precise, the image quality was far from that of a CMOS sensor and the exposure was not optimal, but to my great revelation, the soul, the emotion, the melancholy that I was trying so hard to express in the color photos in vain were there.
Always a little intimidated by monochrome photography, I continue to tame it because without being able to explain it, I feel more emotions when observing a monochrome photo than in color.