Black and white photography on display
Contrast, clarity stand out in black-and-white photos
Black-and-white photography can capture a timeless and striking quality.
Shadows, light and shape advance when color is absent. Clarity and contrast can brighten an image into luminescence.
“Shades of Gray” by the Annual New Mexico Photographic Art Show will showcase that radiance with prints by 137 artists Dec. 4-27 in the Fine Arts Gallery at Expo New Mexico. The show features 220 images culled from 420 entries. The exhibition is the largest of its kind in the Southwest, ANMPAS founder LeRoy Perea said.
“I think black-and-white is making a comeback, a resurgence,” he said. “The software for black-and-white wasn’t very good over the last three or four years. Now we’re able to get the beautiful tones you get in black-and-white.”
Perera said he would have been happy to receive half the responses.
“When I got the 400, I just couldn’t believe it,” he added.
Los Ranchos resident Sandra Lapham captured her “Tree of Serenity” while visiting her daughter in New Zealand in February. The tree’s trunk rises seemingly from the middle of a mirror-smooth lake; its branches covered with black birds.
“This tree grows on the edge of this beautiful lake,” she said. “When I came upon it, it was near sunset.
“All of a sudden, I noticed these birds were flying in and roosting on the tree. Apparently, the lake ebbs and flows, and sometimes it’s on dry land and sometimes it’s under water.”
Black-and-white produced the simplicity she sought.
“I thought the colors would be a distraction,” she said. “Also, I can bring out a lot of tones that can enhance it rather than compete with it.”
The director of a behavioral health center, Lapham says being in nature or seeing nature has a calming effect.
“When I’m out in nature and with my camera, I just feel more alive,” she said.
Albuquerque’s John Gilbert created a steampunk mystery with his portrait “Jealousy.” His model wears the Jules Verne-industrial Victorian style while she holds a dagger by a window. Her mysterious gaze could signal contemplation or plotting.
“She’s looking out the window and her husband/boyfriend/lover is messing around,” Gilbert said. “She’s looking for revenge.
The photographer created a steampunk look from his wardrobe and directed the model in various poses.
“When I get the picture, I ask, ‘What can I do with this?’” he said.
Gilbert was a portrait photographer for 25 years before opening his own studio in 2008.
“I like working with people,” he said. “They’re a lot more interesting than rocks and buildings.”
Helen Johnson captured a smoke-belching Cumbres & Toltec train with “Letting Off Steam.”
The retired Placitas resident chased the locomotive from Chama into Colorado to get the right shot.
She grabbed her camera when it stopped at a watering station.
“I took probably 30 pictures,” she said. “I have the man at the bottom, which gives scale.”
The mountains and treetops peek out from beneath the smoke at the top. She took both color and black-and-white shots before deciding on the latter.
“I thought any color just distracted from the essence of the smoking old locomotive.”
Johnson became a photographer after a friend took her to the Enchanted Lens Camera Club.
“She saw some kind of promise in my snapshots,” Johnson said. “I was hooked, and it became a passion.”
She loves catching an image already formed in her mind’s eye.
“I love looking into the scene, the old house or the train and bringing out that vision.