Photography began as a monochromatic system. This because of the fact that the technology did not exist to create color images until much later. Looking at the history of photography, many call the early days out as a black and white period, although this is not a true representation of the art form. These types of images don’t necessarily need to contain blacks, whites and tones of grey. There are processing techniques such as cyanotype which produces an image with tones of blue and white or the classic look of the sepia which introduces hues of orange into an image as well. Some of the processes of creating a monochromatic image have histories dating back over 150 years, making a monochromatic image a classical form of photography. Regardless of what era a photograph has been created in, for some reason there is a timeless characteristic to the monochrome style of imagery.

There is a growing trend in photography to head back to its roots of monochrome. I think photographers are discovering how easy it is to work with any type of image in the digital darkroom, thus the final product can be any form of creative expression that one can dream up. Gone are the days of chemical baths and refrigerators worth of varying film types purchased in bulk ready for any occasion. My personal mission is to experiment with most of the images that I capture to get the best and most creative look possible out of all of them. This may include of course monochrome, color, and other more obscure styles such as bleach bypass.

As you know, in the past weeks I have been writing about my experiences in China–a trip that challenged most of my emotions and experiences thus far in my short career as a professional photographer. Some of the locations in China have lent themselves to the creation of a series of monochromes. This has in part been because of the gray weather and light-blocking pollution that was a mainstay for most of the seventeen day trip. The other side of coin is that there is an old world history to China. This is a place that has a record dating back thousands of years as compared to the United States’ hundreds. This history just screams black and white to me.

There are other reasons for my monochrome hang up with China. I created my first black and white photograph a couple of years ago in Castle Valley, Utah. The image was a byproduct of a contrasty, hazy scene, but it opened the doors for me to see monochromatic images in a new light, sorry for the play on words. There is a power to black and white. It is a simplification of your composition, simplistic tones to bring your viewer right into the heart of the matter. There is a such a graphic communication of the design elements as well. Lines, textures, shapes, and patterns stand out in a simplified rendering of monochrome. Thus, a perfect opportunity for me to highlight a final and yet an additional side to the country of China.

I know there might be some of you out there wondering what the actual method I used to create these images was. Today photographers can create a black and white image with the drag of a slider or the click of a menu option. There are more options than ever before in the monochromatic arena, but I have decided that Nik’s Silver Efex Pro 2 plug-in available for Aperture, Lightroom, and Photoshop is my creative weapon of choice. All of the images in this post were created using it. There is a simplicity to the Nik interface that I just get and within that interface multiple preset options that allow me to easily preview what I am about to convert. They have also created a selection system by which a photographer can add control points to any location on an image that automatically generate masks based on the users pixel selection. This method works almost flawlessly to generate targeted masks in half the time it takes to make selections in Photoshop.

Have you ever wondered why a certain grandparent goes beyond your parent’s ability? I am not criticizing my parents by any means, they are still raising me to this day, even when I think they shouldn’t be. Something happens though when a person takes over the role of a grandparent. It is like they are instilled with a form of wisdom that doesn’t exist prior. It is probably because by the time a family member makes it to the status of “grandparent”, they have seen and experienced so much that there is a level of intelligence that did not exist before. Or something like that, I might be able to offer more insight on this in 30 years.

My grandmother was born in 1911, she was a first generation American, her parents immigrated to this country through Ellis Island from Austria. She grew up in a house that was a block from where she passed away in Little Falls, New Jersey. I began visiting her by myself almost weekly at the age of 15 when I got my moped license. Yes that is right, a moped, the top speed was supposed to be around 25mph, but my friends and I learned how to customize them to go almost 50. We were the kid versions of Wildhogs, only we dressed in jean jackets that we drew our favorite eighties band logos all over, instead of that modern day yuppie Harley Leather. We were the punks of the road.

I believe my grandmother enjoyed my visits as much as I did. She would always tell me about how she saw the invention of the light bulb, the automobile, electricity in every home, and even a television in every home. She had see two World Wars, Vietnam, Korea, space travel, even the moon landing. I don’t know how many presidents she was alive for, but she passed at 94, so over 20. Listening to her talk, was almost mind blowing. A history that I will never know or see. Every visit that I had with her, always ended with a bunch of rolled up bills stuffed in my pocket and some quote that I would think about until I saw her again.

This lasted until she had a severe stroke at 92. She became completely incoherent at this point, mixing all seven of the languages that she spoke, and not really recognizing anyone. It was at this point that I began remembering her for who she was and what her love and life story had meant to me. She once told me as I was leaving after a visit, “The journey is worth the experience.” Then proceed to stuff a hundred dollars worth of twenties in my pocket, “Until next time, have a hamburger or two.” Unfortunately for me there wasn’t a next time. She passed away a few months after my daughter was born. She always told me that she was sticking around so that she could see her first grandkids. Somehow, I truly believe that she did.

Obviously, her words meant a lot to me, they still ring in my head after all these years. There are times when she appears in my dreams, and I have thoughts of her passing through my head during the day. I am not a firm believer in ghosts or the afterlife, however, I often wonder if those dreams and thoughts are my grandmother just letting me know she is still there. Making sure I am experiencing life to its fullest. I thought of her often when I was in China–when the food was bad, the air polluted, the overall way of life so different from my own. The journey is worth the experience. And in the end it was. China, a duality, a cultural overload, abstraction of beauty, so different and so wonderful that I cannot throw the experience out the window and declare it a waste.

It is those journeys that make you grow as a person. You figure out how to find what you are lacking during those 17 days “at sea”. Whether it be an American owned pizza place or a creative bug that needs to be exterminated. You learn to better yourself, your life, your passion, and of course your experience. Thank you gram. Thank you for instilling a bit of wisdom, a bit of history, and a comforting remembrance, when all is thought to be lost.

Culture. My first thought was that cultural photographs would have to contain people in them, right? You can’t have a culture without people? That’s correct, but does a cultural photograph need to have people in it to be successful? Culture is about customs, art, food, clothing, etc. This very concept is something that would trouble me for hours while on the plane flying to China. I needed to solidify it in my head before landing. My first photos were going to be of a culture that I have never visited before and I did’t want to head out there shooting blanks. I was traveling with Art Wolfe for heaven’s sake. He shoots cultures like I shoot buildings. I can’t look like a chump in front of my friend. A George Costanza line in Seinfeld just kept screaming out to me, “And you call yourself a marine biologist.” Yes, Yes I do call myself a professional photographer. So how and why do you take photographs of culture? Then, how do make those photos successful? Hell, I don’t know. Are you starting to feel my dilemma?

It’s only a thirteen hour flight, I can figure it out. Sure, before I knew it that seatbelt sign was on and we were skipping across the surface of Japan, about to touch down in Korea, and I haven’t confidently figured anything out. I hate when that happens. The main reason for my concern was due to the fact that I did not want to copy Art. Yes, I could follow him around take the images he was going to take, and then call those images my own, but if you know me, I argue against those types of photographers every single day. BORING!

Then it came to me as I was waiting to de-plane and a guy right in front of me asked if I was returning home or visiting from Seattle. Now I don’t know why in a million years the movie Sleepless in Seattle would come to mind at this point, especially since I just finished watching The Matrix, Inception, and The American, but it did. And the scene that was right in front of me was when Rob Reiner and Tom Hanks were walking down the street talking about dating, and Reiner was giving him advice about getting back into the game–the line was something like, “No, you do it in your own creative way, tell her you want to look at swatches.” You do it in your own creative way. Ding. My own creative way. Of course, how stupid could I be? I shoot three very different types of photography, if I can pull that off, why not just add another to the mix and see what happens. What’s the worst case scenario…I fail miserably and head into a life of seclusion.

It’s like a simple recipe really. All you have to do is miss a gram of this or a gram of that for the whole thing to fall apart. Just like the whole Inception script. Oh, great, I thought I would breeze right through this and immediately become a cultural photographer. Like my friend Younes Bounhar writes about me, “he’s a bit of a smart ass.” What if I shoot it like me though? Take everything I know and apply it. I spend countless hours chasing really fast skiers, mountain bikers, runners, hikers, animals, that has to add up to some kind of reflex control. There in became the mission. No portraits, that’s not me. Well mostly no portraits. Never say never, just follow the subjects and the light and see what materializes. From there, be creative. Oh and don’t screw up the controls on the camera. Also, forget the tripod, too much to set up with that thing. Hey, I barely ever use it while shooting action, unless I have the 600mm hand canon out. Free the mind and the soul will follow.

It all clicked when I visited a market in Yuang Yang. This was a whole new experience for me. I remembered the post that I wrote about my daughter Jade being open to experience and began shooting. Anything and everything. Looking with open eyes, not at what others were shooting, but my surroundings. The smells, the light, the people. Wow, this is what another culture is all about. How fresh is a chicken that you have to kill yourself? Or riding a bike everyday because that is the way to get places. Discovering a garage that looks, well, a lot like mine. Or parking your cow at your front door. And then coming to the reality that most photographers face at some point–no matter how old a culture is, there is going to be a point, maybe not in my lifetime, but in my daughter’s or my son’s, that it declines. Modernism and Westernization always seem to find their way into culture. Maybe because Apple’s marketing is so good that everyone will eventually want the iPad. Or maybe, people can get into reading a magazine on the toilet instead peeing on a tree. Regardless, I think I am to blame too, I go to places off the beaten path with my iPhone, laptop, and digital cameras that are producing 20 megapixel files. I am part of that seed planting machine. Then, the rest quickly becomes history doesn’t it?

I got my shots though. Too bad for you. And now we’re walking…