Getting the picture: Barrie Mahoney shoots in black and white

‘I was not blinded by the effects of colour and gadgetry.’

Some of the strangest thoughts and ideas pop into my mind during the stillness of Meeting. Yesterday, I started thinking about photography.

I’m referring to ‘real photography’ involving non-automatic cameras, analogue film and chemical processing, which I have not thought about for many years.

Several weeks ago, I bought a camera that I had longed to buy in the late 1960s, when I was a teenager. It was small and highly engineered for its day, as well as very expensive. Indeed, the late Elizabeth Windsor owned a gold version. I couldn’t afford the standard model until I discovered one for a fair price online.

The camera is beautiful, heavy, and well made, and I am thrilled with it. Since it arrived, I have had great fun shooting a roll of black and white film. Unlike photos taken with my iPhone, when I can press a button as many times as I wish, and delete them if they are not to my liking, I had to carefully compose the shot, consider the speed of the film and shutter, adjust the exposure, and judge the distance. As there is no zoom lens, I had to walk closer to or further away from the subject to fit it into the frame; only then did I press the button. Knowing that I had limited exposures made me very careful in selecting the subject, as well as care when composing the shot. How my brain ached afterwards!

When I had finished the roll of now-quite-expensive film, I posted it to a processing company and waited anxiously for the results. Ten days later, a package of prints and negatives finally arrived. I’d forgotten how exciting it was to receive and open the wallet of black and white prints, wondering if they looked alright, or whether I had made some terrible mistakes.

I was fortunate, since all but two photos looked rather good, and I was particularly proud of four of them. I noticed that there seemed to be more depth and clarity than I remember in the creations taken on my iPhone. There was more detail, and I was not blinded by the effects of colour and gadgetry.

As I reflected upon my achievements, I began to realise that I had once again been given another of life’s lessons. How often have I been blinded by gimmickry, pizazz and irrelevance? How often do I move sufficiently close to look at the detail in front of me? Do I ever consider moving further backwards to get a wider view and understanding? Am I blinded by an irrelevance of colour, gadgetry, and cleverness, rather than seeing the unvarnished truth in front of me?

I am not saying that life should be all black and white; it would be dull indeed without colour. Maybe the lesson is to look at the detail more closely, from different angles, and not to be tricked by first glance. It is easy to be seduced by the tricks that gadgets can perform, but maybe from time to time we just need to load our metaphorical cameras with black and white film to fully appreciate what we are seeing in our lives.

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