Black & White Photos for Family Photography
I think one of the reasons I read so much is I'm always seeking another perspective, another lens through which to see my experiences. Reading a novel from the perspective of a mom with adult children shifts my experience of mothering young kids. Reading books about different family structures helps me to understand my own family better. Picking up a collection of essays by another creative helps me move through stuck points in my own art.
My personal creative practice has been feeling stale recently. I light up when I get to photograph a client in their space, one that's typically unfamiliar to me and therefore feels like the best creative challenge. When it come to pickup up my camera to take pictures of my own family and body and life, I've been feeling decidedly unmotivated.
I finally realized I needed to shift the way I was seeing things. Literally. Just this afternoon I switched my camera into monochrome. This is essentially the digital equivalent of choosing black and white film. The camera is set to only read shades and tones rather than hues. When doing this on a mirrorless camera (which is typically what I'm shooting on), this also means even when I look through the viewfinder, everything is in greyscale.
The second I did it, it sparked something in me. I was noticing things that I usually pass over, so used to their existence in my surroundings. Suddenly, the light reflecting off of our kitchen faucet made me perk up. The texture of our beat up old floors looked completed different, stripped of judgement and nearly a century of embedded grime. Or rather, the embedded grime suddenly looked like charming character instead of something I should be trying to clean. I was noticing depth of field in a way I haven't in a long while.
It was the sense that I was looking through someone else's eyes, taking a break from my own. It felt like both relief and motivation.
This is part of the magic of getting photos taken by someone else. They are able to offer a perspective you are unable to access by yourself. When I show up to your home, I'm seeing your family in a way you can't. I'm witnessing the acts of care and the relationships and the beauty of your world to which you have become blind. You body is being viewed by someone without any judgement and shame you have held for longer than you can remember.
Sometimes it is only through someone else's words or someone else's eyes that we can see things that are right in front of us. It can be a gift to be offered that perspective.
So, whether you want your photos in color or black and white or both, I'm here, ready whenever to make pictures of you through my literal and figurative lens.
