I don't really like black and white anymore. I'm not sure why. In terms of cinema I don't mind it, but for stills I don't quite get the enjoyment out of it that I used to, I think as I lean more towards video lately, I have more interest in colour and light. Whereas black and white feels like it's more focused just on contrast and shadows, which I guess is still very much light. I'm not sure what it was that made me remove the colour from these in the end. Perhaps it was a harsher light. Perhaps I just felt a bit of curiosity over how they'd look with it all removed. I still like these, but it did bring up that question to me of what happened with the black and white I used to post so much in the past.
I shot these through the past week. Each image I think has something interesting to me that tells some sort of story. I posted a similar image the other day, but not this one. This one was taken a few minutes later and I completely forgot I had it, though upon discovery I noticed the rather ominous look it has. The elderly man was simply walking towards the stairs and grasping the handrail to walk up. Nothing strange about it. But that one moment I pressed the shutter completely changed the aesthetic. The light beam punching down into the dark. The left side of the image with its small rectangular scene of light.
It wouldn't be Armenian street photography without some sort of vehicular chaos though. I barely had time to frame this as I didn't want them to look at me. Street photography can be a touchy subject here. People aren't used to it. I had the camera set to monitor only and put my eye up to the viewfinder in the moment, totally forgetting the settings. I snapped anyway knowing I had no choice. The front bumper of a brand new trolleybus just casually on the floor with two men standing, hands in pockets, so nonchalantly over the outcome as if it was normal. I suspect it unfortunately is quite normal to them. I want to do more like this at some point, I haven't had the time to really get out and run around all day, especially with shorter daylight hours. Finding ways to capture people in the frames more often. Which brings me to the opposite idea with the last image.
This old Soviet era alleyway had such beautiful light to it. So narrow and quiet, one of my new favourite areas in the city of Yerevan with the old buildings nearby and the trees and leaves. The golden light on old concrete. The weirdly nostalgic feeling of the area. Where statues stood. Few people walked around. It almost felt a bit like being in a dream here. Where time had stopped and things were generally more peaceful. As if it remained within a bubble in the city, shielded from the more modern areas just a few steps away.
