I Wish the World Was Black and White

If I had it my way, every single one of my photography clients would request each and every photo be in black and white, with a little bit of grain for that old newspaper look that gives a layer of character. I just think the entire world looks better through that lens. It forces us to look beyond what we see and into what we feel.

Ted Grant said, “When you photograph people in color, you photograph their clothes. When you photograph people in black and white, you photograph their souls.” Similarly, in the words of the great Ansel Adams, “To see in color is a delight to the eye, but to see in black and white is a delight to the soul.”

With black and white photography, you have to say something that counts. You don’t get to get away with tricks and colors and distractions. You have to actually take a good photo. You can’t just document the moment – you have to interpret it. You have to feel it. It’s more like reading a book than seeing the movie.

(Here are some of my very favorite black and white photos I’ve done.)

There’s something about black and white photography that deeply grips me. To me, the images are like the chalk paintings on the sidewalk in Mary Poppins and I want to jump right in to the story.

What was happening in that moment?

What were they feeling?

What did it mean to them?

There’s something about that deeper layer that you have to hunt for that grips my soul.

When I stand on a porch in Tennessee or the Rocky steps in Philadelphia or with my toes in the Atlantic Ocean at sunrise, I don’t want to just capture what I see. I want to capture what I feel. When I’m clicking the shutter, I’m already thinking in black and white. I’m already thinking in greys and grain. I already have the deeper moment in mind.

That, or I took what I thought was a bad picture, but in post-processing I noticed something beautiful I hadn’t seen before. I change the color image to hues of grey and deeper contrast and all of the sudden, I’m taken by it’s beauty. I see what I had missed in the moment.

I think we’re programmed to grasp for meaning. We’re wired by Jesus to think of life as a story. Whether we’re conscious of it or not, we do it every time we use our imagination or enjoy a film or listen to a friend talk about their childhood. We’re designed to look for something deeper, beyond what’s actually presenting itself.

But can I be honest? I absolutely do not always do that in life. Instead of sinking in deep and soaking in the moment, it’s often easy to see it for what it is and simply react. I metaphorically click away, documenting facts instead of intentionally framing the moment. I wonder how different life would be if I saw it like I see photography.

What if instead of trudging along with day to day activities, I took a deep breath and chose to remember a beautiful moment? Or perhaps, when I realize I missed one, I go back and choose to reframe it with beauty in mind? What if I couldn’t just get away with recognizing what was presented to me, but chose to look through a different lens and dive into the story? What if I looked for the soul of the moment?

It’s really not about colors here, clearly. I’m glad for blue skies and green leaves and golden hour and the way the world says “I’m alive again!” in springtime with pink blossomed weeping cherries and lavender sunsets. My point is not that I wish the entire world looked like a newspaper from 1920, though I wouldn’t be opposed.

My point in saying that I wish the world was black and white is this: I wonder what it would be like if we searched, in each and every moment, for what was actually going on. For what the Lord may be trying to say or what He may be doing. I wonder what it would be like if we chose to stop and stare at beauty, to be intentional about standing in front of it, remembering and celebrating it, and diving into the story. Because it’s a delight to the soul.

Today I’m challenging you (and me) to be intentional in our lives. To not just assume that what we see at first glance is the real story. To stay in a moment and see the beauty of it. To ask the Lord, in each and every moment, “What are YOU doing here? What do YOU see here?” And to let it hit us in the core of our souls.

“So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but what is unseen.”

2 Corinthians 4:18

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