The Color of Black-and-White with David Halpern

One of my colleagues once observed, “Halpern says color is a crutch.“ I never said it, but there is some truth in the statement.

I’m passionate about the black-and-white image. I loved standing in the darkroom with my hands in trays of developer, stop bath and fixer, smelling the chemistry and watching the images magically appear. I delighted in my ability to render values in the print that mirrored my feelings upon seeing the subject on the ground glass of my large format camera. And I’ve learned to see those values in my mind before I record them digitally or on film.

Recently, students have asked me to teach them to “see in black and white.” Not literally of course, but to help them make decisions that produce better black-and-white images. In the process, I’ve found that "seeing in black and white" improves our ability to see subtleties of color and can help us all better express ourselves in our color images.

Learn more from David in his workshop:

Seeing in Black and White
with David Halpern
October 26 - October 29, 2011

And see what he's up to on his web site, www.davidhalpern.com