I recently came across several black and white photos, reading posts from colleagues and I realized that I haven't taken any photos like this in a long time. I don't know why. Because I like these photos, I started photographing in black and white many decades ago, when color seemed to be a distant possibility for me.
Now it is much easier to photograph in color and B&W has become just a niche, used by great photographers and a kind of game for us amateurs. An easy game thanks to current technology. A desire to be somehow different from everyone else.
Now it has become extremely easy to capture images but difficult to photograph. That is, to want, to try, and to succeed so that the photos can convey emotion. The emotion of the photographer and the emotion of the subject. I tried to do this by photographing a child, a nephew aged two years, Justin-Nicolae. A nephew who had never seen me before, who knew who I was from his parents' stories and who was curious to know me. I chose a child as a model because children do not know how to pretend, their emotions are real and visible. I took the color photos, of course, but then I turned them into B&W because I think they are more expressive.
Kids are fantastic! Especially when they are small enough and still can't speak, they can't express their feelings in words. Their feelings are on their face. Distrust and curiosity.
They (still) don't lie and don't shy away from telling us exactly what they feel and what they want. What I like most is how they look us straight in the eye and try to understand everything we convey. Just as they can't speak yet, they probably don't understand what we're saying and then they are extremely attentive to our face, our grimaces, and the tone of our voice.
God, how much I want to know what is happening in his brain. What he thinks about the man with the camera in front of him, I can only try to guess. First of all curiosity! It is characteristic of all children. A little shyness and fear but also the desire to make friends with the big man in front of him.
But the biggest desire is (I think) to find a playmate. Their main desire is to play and this is what they expect first of all from those they meet.
It is enough to see you friendly and that you want to play and immediately his face shows joy and happiness.
The kids are fantastic. A little tiring, because they are full of curiosity and energy, much more energy than we, the elderly. But, beyond that, if you watch them and interact with them, you better understand life. The miracle of life!
I wrote and posted these B&W photos inspired by Qurator's Photo Quest / B&W Emotions
Because it was about children, I let my granddaughter announce the end of the post.
