Odd Reveries

Black and White Tales

I believe black and white photos can lead to more intimate imaginings.

You see the captured moment, a display of stark elements, and from that moment a story emerges — maybe you start at the beginning, maybe the end, most likely somewhere in the middle, a breath held in a long tale.

I love that.

I love letting an image run loose in my head. I love hearing the tales that come out of other people looking at the same photo — that still second, a captured eternity that lives and breathes independently in each of us, never the same: often slightly, sometimes hugely, different.

I think black and white photos help tell deeper stories. Shadow and contour and the things hiding in the grey between them.

  1. Milk!

    Is today's silence worse than yesterday's screams?

  2. A pale, cracked mannequin face with an open mouth, emerging from shadow.

    1950s CPR Doll of Nightmares

  3. Rocket engine nozzles seen from below in stark black and white.

    The Saturn V!

  4. A round tunnel receding into darkness toward a pale light.

    A Black River, A Grey Tunnel

  5. A tangle of fine white threads across a deep red background.

    A Chaotic Web

  6. Two human skulls side by side on a dark ledge.

    Best Buds in Death

  7. Close-up of rough, deeply fissured stone.

    A Craggy Face

  8. Rock pitted with honeycomb-like hollows, fading into black.

    Honeycomb Rocks

  9. An old keyboard instrument with missing keys, in heavy shadow.

    No More Keys

  10. An old radio among tangled debris in an abandoned room.

    Silent Radio

  11. Dense, feathery fronds filling the frame.

    Fronds, close up

  12. Graffiti of strange creatures painted across a curved wall.

    Slovakian Imaginations

  13. Two lights glowing through darkness and fog at night.

    The Midnight Train

  14. Looking up through a square opening in stone toward a white sky.

    View To a White Sky

  15. A carved stone memorial set in a crumbling wall niche.

    Truly Forever Silent