Beholding (Black)

Today isn’t feeling like a day for a lot of writing - some stuff came up this afternoon that’s made it hard to focus - but I do want to share the photos from my beholding of black this week, along with a few short thoughts.

Personally, black is definitely a primary color for me, if not my favorite color. It is one of my college alma mater’s colors and it seems a good portion of my clothes are some shade of grey to black, although I have tried to draw in some more vibrant color in recent years. I do think that black is a deeply beautiful color but it is also similar to white in that it is a complicated color to photograph. Just like pure white is impossible to photograph, so is pure black. There needs to be some texture, some variance for a camera even to focus.

I will also share that I have changed in my usage of language around black / dark / etc. When we reflect on depictions and language when it comes to black, it is often connected to villains or evil or of someone/something to fear. There are abhorrent religious traditions that said that the “mark of Cain” was black skin and that it was a punishment from God for murdering his brother Abel. (Genesis 4 does not say this in any way). In the Bible, forgiveness is often connected to the color white which has the implication that sin (or separation from God) is the opposite. Villains in stories are the ones who are often wearing black (the cowboy with the black hat, Darth Vader, Sauron, etc). In coming to see these patterns more clearly over the last several years, I have tried to amend my language to try to not continue to foster that perception. The words we use matter.

I started the week thinking that I was going to be centered on black objects like you’ll see from my first photo (my black Canon camera and one of my Bibles) but then a foggy morning shifted that to mostly focusing on silhouettes. The mornings for most of this week have really lent themselves to silhouettes (getting out before sunrise and mostly clear mornings). So here are my beholdings of black this week:

Wednesday - Like I shared above, I noticed my black camera and this black Bible next to each other on my office table. Both are precious to me but the Bible especially so. It was a gift from my friend Lisa after she died. It was intended to be given to me before she died but her husband didn't find it until nearly a year later. It has a beautiful note written inside as well as her notes from the sermon she gave at my installation service.

Thursday - the foggy morning. When I'm out in the mornings, the "above ground" part of this tree is usually difficult to photograph because the sun isn't above the horizon. So the water reflects the tree from the brightness in the sky but the actual tree is hidden by the background. But with the fog that changed the dynamic.

Friday - the skies cleared in the morning and this is the first of the deep silhouettes from the week. My favorite bird, the heron. So much else but my centering is on the beautiful silhouette.

Saturday - There was a silhouette image from this morning but I was really drawn to this image from later in the morning. I loved the spectrum from the bright sunlight, to the illuminated fog, and then the deep shadows.

Sunday 1 - From the morning. One of my favorite benches once again flooded but the silhouette with the water surrounding was a stirring moment for me.

Sunday 2 - We were doing some photos of our grads on Sunday night since they are both home and my daughter noted how the fun shadow would be perfect for my black week. Mortar boards are pretty distinctive in shadows.

Monday 1 - I couldn't choose between these two heron silhouette photos. One from before the sun was above the horizon and one from after. I'll also include below the overall sunrise that was from that morning. Stunning. Simply stunning.

Monday 2 - So the sun is clearly reflecting off the water and gave another beautiful silhouette. But in this one, I loved loved loved the way that there are the variations between the feathers on the wings.

Tuesday - Just a day or so past the full moon and I wanted to get a silhouette from the other bright spot in the pre-dawn sky.

And Scout has to get in the silhouette mix as well!

How did you behold black this week?

This next week comes quite a shift. We go from black to PINK!

Grace, Peace, Love, Hope, and Joy,
Ed

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