Black & White Photography
Steve here! I am a black and white shooter, with a street, documentary, snapshot photography style, delivering that wabi-sabi style, where there is beauty in the mess, a realistic portrayal.
Why I do what I do
Photography has been a therapeutic journey. Taking monochrome photos was not an obvious path to self-discovery in the beginning. However, the realisation of understanding myself got more obvious as I furiously went about clicking the camera shutter. Capturing snapshots in life. Capturing fleeting moments. Capturing what catches my senses.
My dominant style is that of street shooter. Words I use to describe myself as a B&W photographer also includes documentary, snapshot. I am a a street, documentary, snapshot photographer all rolled into one.
Beauty in Imperfection
Wabi-sabi:- “a Japanese philosophy and aesthetic that finds beauty in imperfection, impermanence, and simplicity.”
Wabi (侘): Original meaning and reference to loneliness or living in nature. In contemporary times, it refers to rustic, simple, and subdued beauty — finding sufficiency and richness in simplicity.
Sabi (寂): Refers to the beauty that comes with age, wear, or patina (e.g., the rust on a metal object or a crack in a ceramic bowl).
Combined Meaning: wabi-sabi suggests a "flawed beauty," where, for example, a repaired, uneven tea bowl is considered more valuable than a perfect, mass-produced
I do not aim for clinical perfectionist looks. I gravitate towards authenticity, those realistic moments that show the soul of life as is.
Why Black and White?
“Are my memories in colour or is it colourless?”
I asked myself. I think mine are more monochromatic than otherwise.
“Are the pictures in my mind crystal clear?”.
I doubt it and do not recall so.
I reproduce what I have in my head space, my heart space. To be real.
But life happens everywhere.
Life does not just happen in the streets, obviously. My vision of beauty in imperfection also translates into my personal and commercial work. Curated versus real. One may lean towards one against the other. I suggest that both are intimately intertwined.
