Colour or Black and White - Part 2
One of my early black and white photos, copyright shootstreetrepeat.com
Japanese Breakfast….Sneaking in the library….5 hours, no keepers
Now where were we? I’m furiously trying to type something out to the strains of “The Unheard Music” by X*, before what limited creativity I have deserts me — like a wife for a big Alpha Male Squaddie around the time of the Falklands War.
With the safe knowledge that only one of those two highly specific scenarios can happen to me, I can announce that maybe — just maybe — I have a couple of paragraphs in me. Why else would I be here on a Friday evening just after work? Shooting? Don’t be stupid. I only do that when the light’s perfect. How about you?
Japanese Breakfast for Dinner
I went to see Japanese Breakfast at the Academy on Sunday night. For months, I’d been debating whether or not to go. I only really liked one song when I first heard they were playing, so I listened to them a bit more — and one song became two. Was that worth £40? Probably not, especially as the lead singer’s voice wasn’t especially strong live (and coincidentally, and annoyingly, on the two songs I liked in particular — which basically sums up my entire life in a nutshell).
Anyway, I got the ticket for £28 on a reseller app, and whether it was the actual price or just the idea of saving £12 that swayed me, I bought it.
While watching the band, I noticed a photographer in the pit — I’m assuming an official band photographer — really getting in there. Distractingly so. Off this tangent and assuredly back on the rails of this blog’s supposed subject, I started thinking: photos of bands might be a great use case for black and white. There’s the contrast, the emotion, the dry ice, the stage divers floating on top of the audience like a turd in a toilet (fibre content permitting).
Fix It in Post? Maybe, Maybe Not
I’ve seen a lot of people on Instagram complaining about the nightmare of colour correcting gig lights. How hard it is. How ugly the colours are. How impossible it can be to edit.
How about... fuck all that and shoot it in black and white?
I know what you're thinking: it’s a cop-out, you can’t edit, you’ve never shot gigs professionally, etc., etc. But when I think of the most memorable gig photos I’ve seen, they’ve often been in black and white. Maybe it’s the era of music I listened to. But 90s music certainly wasn’t lacking colour film. So maybe it’s something else. Either way — it works.
Nirvana play the University of Washington Hub Ballroom, Seattle, 1990. Photograph and Copyright: Charles Peterson
From the Library to the Pit
Anyway, those are my thoughts on gig photography — and, conveniently, they also tie into the wider theme of this article.
The day before the Japanese breakfast gig I was on a photowalk with Manchester Photography Collective (MPC), check them out on Instagram if you’re a local— or even if you’re not.. We were taking photos at the John Ryland’s Library and I had shot in there years ago and remember getting a decent black and white photo. The architecture’s fantastic, and the light levels are low, which makes it a much easier sell for black and white — especially if you’re not a fan of noise in your colour shots.
Because of that, I approached the space more intentionally, with black and white in mind. I started thinking more carefully about composition, the light, framing, the textures of the architecture — just trying to bring in some visual interest by focusing on line and shape rather than colour and subject.
I came away with a few decent images that day. I’m calling it the start of a potential black and white journey. (Photos below, if you’re curious.)
30 Degrees of Disappointment
If I’m honest, I’ve been getting a little bored of my own photography — the city, the subjects, all of it. I took a half-day on Monday because it was meant to be 30 degrees and sunny. It wasn’t quite that. Why does the entire country — and continental Europe (though maybe we should be careful what we wish for there) — get glorious sunshine while Manchester gets shite?
I spent half the day wandering around, underwhelmed and uninspired, but grinding through four hours anyway — with nothing especially exciting to show for it.
Is that just a fluke or a lack of focus?
I’m not really a documentary or project photographer. I’m an introvert at heart. And to do documentary photography, you either need to be less of an introvert or genuinely enjoy connecting with your local community. Or you need a singular focus on a specific area or subculture. Right now, I have neither.
Unused Gear, Unused Ideas?
I think it’s good to shake things up with creative exercises or by shooting different things. I’ve got a wildlife lens I’m ashamed to say I’ve only taken out once since I bought it. But I’ve got a feeling it’s just waiting for the right moment.
I’m the sort of person who only does things when I’m ready (or — to be brutally honest — when I can be arsed). But I know instinctively: it’ll either get used… or sold. There’s a part of me that loves a pound note too much to let a massive zoom lens gather dust forever.
So, Black and White Then?
Sure, why not? Yesterday I’m a colour photographer and today black and white just because?
Of course I don’t expect it to be that easy. I have nebulous plans forming— watching more black and white films, for example. I’ve already been on a steady diet of classic cinema, so I can just roll things back another few decades and feast on that era.
And when it comes to photos? There’s more than enough from the so-called Golden Age of Street Photography to dive into and come up smelling of roses
Grinding It Out
I’ve been thinking a lot recently about inspiration and creativity, and how fleeting and dependent — and informed by — mood it can be. Some people (see: your favourite bands) are driven to be creative when things go wrong in their lives. Others — me included — create best when in good spirits.
Either way, inspiration is a cruel mistress, coming and going like perfume on the wind. The people who really succeed creatively? They take inspiration when it’s there — but most of the time, they’re just grinding it out.
Creativity’s a mine. You dig and dig and hope for gold. Some days, you find nothing. And the only thing to do is keep digging. Maybe one day you’ll dig and dig — and all you’ll find, all you’ll ever find, is fool’s gold. That’d be a sad day — but at least you won’t be left wondering what could’ve been.
First Albums and Greatest Hits
This happens to a lot of artists. I’ve always been drawn to the first albums of bands. There are lots of reasons why, but maybe it’s because that first record is the purest expression of their sound — and anything else is downhill from there.
Oasis are playing Manchester soon. A lot of people would say that was true for them. One could certainly make a case.
Colour vs Black and White (or Something Else?)
So anyway, I know I’ve been rambling. But what’s my actual conclusion?
Colour or Black and White? For me, it’ll probably always be Colour. But reading back through my own words, I realise this blog wasn’t really about that binary. It’s about being open to change, or not.
When creativity dries up — when your chosen art form starts to feel stale — you’ve got options: be part of the problem, part of the solution, or just part of the landscape. And with Oasis about to descend on Manchester, maybe that landscape is Heaton Park. Sounds like good fun.
Just don’t let your creativity stagnate until you’re looking back in anger at your own greatest hits, a decade or so later, stuck in some self-imposed nostalgia fest. Most of us will never get Oasis money to play our hits. These days, it’s a privilege if anyone sees our work. D’ya know what I mean?
We have to do this for the love of it. If we’re not pushing ourselves — if we’re just going through the motions — the romance dies. And I think we all deserve better than that.
As you were
JB x
* A song I found via the X-Files, in what is apparently one of the worst-rated episodes of the series. The episode’s called “3” if you’re curious. I thought it was pretty good — but what do I know?
