Is everything really black and white?
No, life is not usually black and white. But, in the case of my Signature Children’s Portraits everything is black and white—plus many, many grays. Why do I choose black and white for my portraits? It is quite simple—I believe black and white imagery is the most effective way to capture and display a person’s essence.
JUST THE BASICS
My portraits are about the person in the frame and nothing else. My children's portraits are usually created for family and friends of the subject and they already know the person. They know their loved one’s hair color and eye color, so I am not attempting to document those types of traits. I am trying to capture the most honest, simple, stripped-back, and classic image of your child that I can. Color easily distracts from all the subtleties of the human face, so I choose to leave it out.
BECAUSE OF FILM
I was fortunate to have learned photography at the end of the film era. I would confine myself to a room and practice the literal “dark art” of film processing and printing. During those times I fell in love with the feel of a finely crafted black and white print, especially for portraits. Two of my favorite black and white films were Kodak Tri-X and Ilford Pan F. If you're old enough, chances are you have seen an image made with one of these films, and these images can usually be dated only by the subject matter, not the look of the image. They are classic for a reason. While film photography is more difficult these days, I can create the aesthetic and feel film photography with digital methods for my clients. Recreating these classic film stocks digitally lends the final portraits a timeless quality.
MORE THAN A MOMENT
In my back-to-basics, classic portraits I want to capture more than just a fleeting moment. I want to capture the feeling and sense of a season or era in your child's life. When you gaze at the print on the wall, I aim to have many memories from that time come flowing back. Black and white photography makes accessing those memories easier and more automatic. It's all about simplicity.