Learning To See
A beginner’s journey through black and white photography
Learning to See follows Alex, a fictional photographer at the very beginning of a black and white practice, through the real stages of learning to actually see. A disappointing first outing. The moment light finally starts to make sense. A perfect frame missed because the camera got in the way. A composition that finally works. And the discovery, eventually, that the hardest part of photographing another person was never really about the camera at all. Alex is not real, but the experience is. If you are just starting out, we hope you recognize yourself in it. If you have been shooting for years, we hope it takes you back to where you began.
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Learning to See: Part 1
We have gotten some messages from people who are new to black and white photography and do not know where to start. Over the coming weeks we are going to follow Alex through the early stages of learning to see in monochrome. This is where it begins.
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Learning to See: Part 2
Alex went out for the second time with a new habit and an obsession. Light. The walls and doorways suddenly had something happening on them that hadn’t been visible the week before. Then a real moment showed up, light and subject together, and Alex froze.
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Learning to See: Part 3
Alex figured out exactly what caused the freeze at the bus stop, too many decisions happening at once, and found a way to remove most of them before the next outing. The fix worked. The moment arrived, the shutter fired instantly, and the exposure was perfect. So why did something still feel off?
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Learning to See: Part 4
Alex fixed the thing that went wrong in the alley, off center placement, real negative space, a frame that finally had somewhere for the eye to breathe. It worked. Then Alex tried something the camera couldn’t help with at all, walking up to a stranger and asking for a portrait. That didn’t go nearly as…
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Learning to See: Part 5
Alex spent a week trying to find the right words, the right approach, the right script for asking a stranger to be photographed. None of it worked until Alex stopped trying to find the right words at all.