40. Tropical Color in Black & White
I have been musing on photography recently, which is understandable since it has played such an important part of my life. From the time I was a teen, more than 60 years ago, I have often made an avocation and vocation of the image arts.
I recently published a book of 60 black and white photos taken on the island of Puerto Rico. The book is available free online— so this is not exactly a plug, although a print edition is also available for purchase.
Why ignore the blazing beauty of the tropics and do a collection with no color? Let me quote my words from the book:
“When you live on a tropical island, as I do, it is easy to be dazzled by color. Each day the sun bursts from the night sky, swings swiftly along an arc to the western horizon and then sizzles into the sea — as if in a hurry to give our eyes relief. In the course of its journey, it reveals a gamut of hues impossible to name, achingly difficult to perceive. In the tropics, the sky is closer than at any other latitude, and it is not just blue — it vibrates violet and vermilion. The jungle shimmers green and gold. What camera can capture that?
“I remember these lines, translated from the French of Baudelaire: ‘My burnt out eyes can now decry only the memory of suns.’” [Original below.]
C’est grâce aux astres nonpareils,
Qui tout au fond du ciel flamboient,
Que mes yeux consumés ne voient
Que des souvenirs de soleils.
“Tropical Color in Black & White is my vision of Puerto Rico, stripped of the dazzle, but seeking the memory of suns.”
