The Last of the Black and White

Timeless

I shot my last film when I went to China and Viet Nam about 4 years ago. I never thought I’d use a digital camera. I’m not sure now why I felt that way. I guess because I knew nothing about it. Too, all the film buffs were saying things like, “Well, years from now, you won’t be able to open your digital files because they’ll be obsolete, or if your computer blows up, there’ll go the work of a lifetime, etc.

What convinced me to change was that trip to China. There were 5 of us, plus Keren Su, our leader, packed into a small car made somewhere in Asia. Everyone else shot digital. Just me checking my roles of film, wondering which ISO to use next, fearing I’d get to the end of a role in the middle of some special thing going on.

And I was rationing my film after a day when I blew through 10 roles. I’d never done that before. My gosh! I might run out of film before I even got out of China! I envied the men downloading and beginning afresh with their “huge” 4GB memory cards. And, when we were shooting rice terraces in the fog, I envied them that they could see what they were doing on their LCD display.

I did ration my slide film. I had all my b/w film, though, about 80 rolls, and I was determined to use every last drop.

These pics were taken on that fateful day in Viet Nam when I closed the book on b/w film. Needless to say, most of the pics were shot with the sun high in the sky (sigh). And because of that, they are not very interesting. They don’t give any idea of what it was like in this beautiful area of limestone cliffs and rice paddies and women in floppy pants and smart little jackets and wearing that beautiful straw hat.

Solitude

The thing about me is that when I see that I have taken some loser photos, I immediately try to rectify them, to resuscitate them. An easy thing to do is just to colorize the photo. Sepia tone or a blue/white look is traditional for the film darkroom and it adds to the contrast and tonal separation.

Rest in Peace

But I wasn’t satisfied with that for some photos. I got the idea to make them look as if they were from the days of Indochina…a word that resonates with me after seeing the film Indochine with Catherine Deneuve. (Also, the recent film, The Quiet American, with Michael Caine.)

A taste of Indochine

What could I do to bring some atmosphere to my photos? I could hand color them and blur them, and crop them. I could try to emphasize the light and darks by dodging and burning as I would have done in my darkroom. Hint: it’s waaaay easier with a computer.
I think I made a silk purse here…do you?