Above: “Pear Still Life In Black And White”
by Edward Fielding – https://edward-fielding.pixels.com/featured/pear-still-life-in-black-and-white-edward-fielding.html
Black and white photography is a study of zen, Ying and Yang, balancing the dark shadows with the bright highlights. Creating an interplay of tones from light to dark.
Black and white photography strips away the distracting color and shows the eye a new way of seeing. A world in which only black, white and 265 distinct shades of gray in between can be detected by the human eye.
This is all you get to render a compelling image that stops the wandering eye. Dark and light, creating drama, intrigue, mystery and the exploration of wonderful texture. The skin on a pear. The timeworn scratches on an antique wooden bowl. The deep grain of an old wooden plank.
Stripped of color new information comes to the surface to take its place. Composition becomes paramount. Arrangement of the objects within the scene and within the frame becomes more important than color theory.
Lighting is crucial to the over all effectiveness of the final image. Dull flat lighting creates an catalog image. Something for sale, something to buy on Ebay. Dramatic side lighting raises the grain and emphasizes the time worn materials of the still life. Deep shadows next to bright highlight intensify their distance on the light spectrum.
Three pears, no more no less because three is a magic number. The bowl has a purpose. It holds the fruit naturally as its creators intended, but also holds the fruit close, protecting it from whatever lurks in those deep shadows. The circle. The edge of the bowl, breaking up the background like the edge of the moon on a clear night. Protecting the pears from the harsh horizontal lines of texture threatening to pierce their tender skin.
The fruit itself rendered in soft light exposing the varied patterns of bruises and ripeness. Typically overlooked when shopping the harsh glare of supermarket lights, good boxed and wrapped in plastic, hastily washed and absently eaten as one checks Instagram during a lunch break.
Here in glorious black and white the still life stops time so that we may ponder our everyday surrounding and perhaps see what we often miss.