Iconosophy

Storm in a Léman Teacup (Photo: Simon Meeds, 1982) I wrote this post sometime in 2014. I have no idea why I didn't publish it at the time. I eventually published it in 2015 in a now long-abandoned blog. The only reason I mention it is because it refers to events in the recent past, which are now very old. I am a member of a camera club. I won't mention which one because I don't want anyone to get the wrong idea: I like my camera club but there are some things about camera clubs in general that annoy me. I sometimes discuss them with other members but I want to set out one of them here, especially in the light of some things that happened in the last few days. Up to about twelve years ago I was a member of another camera club, about a hundred miles away from my current one. Our established members were adamant that in our internal competitions the judge should not know the title of the photo he or she was judging. Photographs had titles but they were simply to allow the comp...

Ribs (Photo: Simon Meeds, 2022) What is black and white? On the face of it, this question is a simple one. Let's be clear I'm not about to argue the fine line between "black and white" and "monochrome". Strictly an image is "black and white" when there is no colour in an image: everything is black, white or shades of grey, whereas in a "monochrome" image the blacks and greys can be replaced by tones of any single colour: blue, brown, etc. But it's common to include all monochrome images when we talk about black and white. I'm asking when is an image black and white or monochrome? Black and white film When I started in photography, and for the first 25 years or so of my photographic "career", at least 99% of black and white images were created by starting with a film with a monochrome emulsion, what we would call "black and white film". So when you set out for a photographic session with such a film you knew you...