skip to main |
skip to sidebar
MEG member Susan Meyers shares some insights into her new series, It's All About Color, as well as some thoughts on getting out of your comfort zone with your photography. It's All About Color is on view at Multiple Exposures Gallery through May 6, 2013.
Your new show It’s All About Color has been described as a real departure for you. How so? This work is different for me in two ways. First, it’s intensely colorful, which is something I’ve never presented before. Pre-digital, I worked mostly in black-and-white with some subtle hand coloring. I never did any color darkroom work. Since converting to digital photography, my photographs have been in color, but in most instances, still strongly monochrome with maybe a few pops of color.
Second, the images are much more abstract than anything I have done in the past. My comfort zone has been capturing images of places and things. Moving to the abstract was a big change.
 |
| (c) Susan Meyers |
 |
| (c) Susan Meyers |
What sparked this creative shift? During a visit to the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, I saw an exhibition of work by glass artist Dale Chihuly and was taken by the beauty of his work. I knew my two-dimensional camera wasn’t capable of capturing the full complexity of his three-dimensional work, but I still wanted to convey what my mind’s eye was seeing. Rather than simply record the installations, I focused on the color, light, movement, shape and texture of small sections within the larger whole to capture what I was feeling.
Now that you’ve ventured into intense color and abstracts, will you do more work in this area? I hope so. But this series came as a total surprise to me. I had no idea that the Chihuly show would have this impact on me when we decided to drive to Richmond for the day. A friend went to see the show and came back with many positive things to say about it and my sister-in-law has been working in glass for many years. So the trip to see the show just sort of evolved into a family outing.
Once there, I just went with it. Some of the installations took up entire rooms. From the start, I knew I’d be focusing on small areas. Because it was a low-light situation, the movement and flow in the pictures just came naturally. There are additional photographs from that day that I haven’t had time to work with yet, so I still need to go back and see what other little “treasures” I might have hiding. This is also the first time I’ve used some of the special effects available in Photoshop in any serious way (only two images in the current show were manipulated).
I don’t like to use a tripod, and find that the more equipment I carry and the heavier it is, the fewer photographs I take. So, this type of work seems like a natural progression for me.
What advice can you give photographers interested in moving out of their comfort zones? What is the benefit of trying something new? We’re living in an exciting time in the history of photography. It has never been easier to experiment or try new ideas. Once you have a camera and a chip, the sky’s the limit.
 |
| (c) Susan Meyers |
I’m especially excited for the kids of today. Many of us had cameras as children, but in my case, and I’m sure many others, I was dependent on how much my parents were willing and able to support my interest. We were limited by how many rolls of film our parents would buy and pay to process. Now, most families have computers and once you have a basic set up, there is no limit to the number of pictures you can make at a very low or no cost. And, because it costs nothing, there's no reason not to experiment.
Try some crazy idea. If it doesn't work you don't have to show it to anyone. Just as photography emancipated painters and gave us Picasso and Dali and Pollock, I wonder who digital photography will give us.
MEG member Eric Johnson shares some insights into his latest series, Square Meals, as well as some tips for producing outstanding black-and-white photographs. Square Meals is on view at Multiple Exposures Gallery through May 6, 2013.
Is it true that a photograph of a waffle shop led to your latest show, Square Meals? I had walked by the Waffle Shop on many occasions, and planned how I wanted to photograph it in my mind long before I actually took my camera there to make the exposure. What I was hoping for was early morning twilight, with the lights inside the building balancing the light on the façade, and a sliver of dark sky at the top to balance the
 |
| (c) Eric Johnson |
well-worn asphalt street. But on the morning that I went to finally realize this vision, I found that the Waffle Shop was closed. Permanently. After over 50 years in that location, they had closed the week before to make way for a planned redevelopment of the block.
While I was still able to capture a different image of the now-closed Waffle Shop, the experience made me think how we sometimes assume that just because a place has been around for a long time, it will always be there in the future. That is obviously not the case for buildings in a dynamic, urban environment and that realization led me to begin a project that documents similar restaurants and small markets in the various stages of their lifecycles.
 |
| (c) Eric Johnson |
The images often evoke a feeling of nostalgia in individuals when they see them. Did you intend to make a statement about loss? The locations depicted in this body of work vary in their current uses – some have been in continuous daily use for years, some have been adapted to other purposes, and some have been demolished to make way for revitalized neighborhoods. Despite this disparity, all have retained their unique character that sets them apart from the increasing homogenization of the contemporary landscape. However, these images are not intended to be an indictment of the inevitable progression of the urban landscape, but rather an acknowledgment of the transitory nature of these everyday places.
The series is a beautiful example of the power of black-and-white photography. Where did you learn your B&W skills? I started out in photography shooting and processing black and white film. I did my own developing and darkroom work, and by doing so I developed my love of the medium and an appreciation for the challenges of creating strong images of a world rendered in shades of gray. Now, when I’m out photographing I can look at a scene and visualize how I want it to look in black and white. I look for compositions where the colors are not really an essential part of the image; instead I’m more focused on lines, form, light, and shadow to build the image.
 |
| (c) Eric Johnson |
What do you think differentiates a great B&W print from merely a good one?
Assuming a strong composition and interesting light, I think that one of the things that differentiates a great black and white print from an average print is that the tonal range and contrast must be appropriate to the subject. It is particularly important to preserve detail at the extreme ends of the tonal range, particularly in the shadow areas, where it is easy to lose detail if the exposure is not optimized at capture. I pay a lot of attention to the histograms on both the initial capture and while processing the image on the computer, so I can ensure that there is adequate detail in both the highlight and shadow areas.
Do you have any advice for someone interested in developing their digital black-and-white photography skills? I think that someone who is new to black and white should first try to get a feel for what a great black and white image looks like. Pick up a book with high quality reproductions of photographs by, for instance, George Tice, Brett Weston, or Ansel Adams. Or look at a copy of Lenswork magazine, which publishes several portfolios of exquisite black and white photography each month. Take note of how the photographers handle lighting, tone, and contrast, and also the types of subject matter that are amenable to rendering in black and white.
After you have an idea of what type of image you are aiming for in terms of tonal range and contrast, experiment with some of the many software applications of plug-ins that enable conversion of black and white images to color. Entire books have been written on the topic of converting black and white digital images to color, but you don’t need to have that type of encyclopedic knowledge to begin. Instead of trying every different conversion technique, I would recommend focusing on one method until you are proficient and feel comfortable with the results.
Posts
