Making light of darkness (photographic expression in times of doubt)

There has been some discussion here about how photography can help with mental health and also, as part of another thread how challenging times & mental health problems can affect our motivation, both in a negative way by causing a lack of inspiration but also in a positive way by being a kind of inspiration to create.

In this topic I want to focus on the latter:

The attempts to make something creative out of a challenging situation, our fears, doubts and other bad feelings, a loss or problem etc.

This being a photographic forum, I think it's natural to put an emphasis on the medium of photography, but I'm personally not opposed to also include anything else. So, if you have other ways of turning these negative emotions and situations into something use- and helpful, creative (or whatever, something different at least...) please let us know about it as well. Perhaps there are some photographs of it (like there often are with sports, paintings, sculpture, performances...) to accompany it anyway.

Please feel free to describe what, how and why you created something if you are comfortable doing so, but please don't feel pressured to say anything, if you don't want to... after all an image is worth... you know the saying!

As you can see with the title of this thread, dealing with such (serious) themes doesn't always have to be a completely dark and brooding matter, but can also involve a lot of humor. I've personally always been thankful for having the ability to laugh about things, no matter how bad it gets.

With this being a very personal topic in nature, I would particularly ask everyone to keep any feedback or thoughts friendly and constructive. I hope some of you will join me on sharing some examples of Making light of darkness!

Magistral 🎓

I particularly like the first photo, it's a very powerful image, that says a lot about the human condition.
I don't think there are many respondents with such photographs. I have the feeling that you're the only one here who does this kind of research.

But I could be wrong, Congratulations again! 👍🏻

Both are excellent, each in their own way, from concept to execution to impact.

Surely there are others who have done this kind of thing to stay sane and creative during difficult times. I did a series during the Covid shutdowns that dealt with the theme of darkness. It was my way of coping with what I was experiencing as I could not travel, could not see or do things with loved ones, and was shut off from sources of inspiration that normally sustained me. Everything wasn't dark, I did self challenges too - how many ways could I photograph an apple and how many art pieces could I make out of a single capture of a simple object. All of them are composites using photos I made.

Since all that, I've experienced a more personal creative darkness during a long year of health limitations. It was different, since I was limited in my ability to use camera or computer. I didn't really develop a body of work dedicated to how that darkness felt but it slipped in. The stuff I made was mostly from phone camera shots and iPad paint programs, and they were a big hit with the grandsons, who thought up the ideas, found the props and posed for the shots.

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Off and On

In this topic I want to focus on the latter:

As you can see with the title of this thread, dealing with such (serious) themes doesn't always have to be a completely dark and brooding matter, but can also involve a lot of humor. I've personally always been thankful for having the ability to laugh about things, no matter how bad it gets.

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Taking on a lot...

😂 Indeed! I'm somewhat glad that I'm not nearly talented enough, so I had to look for other people to join me for my music experimentation, otherwise I would have attempted what (the incredible) Steve Vai is doing here and it wouldn't have ended well. 😉

Not gonna lie: of course it's a lot... it always is! But if you're someone driven by creative impulses, you barely got a good alternative...

Taking your title rather more literally than you probably intended, I enjoy experimenting with removing all the "darkness" from an image, leaving just the colours (all at maximum brightness). I've talked about this before, but here is another example, with the original image first, followed by the processed version:

The result is certainly less realistic than the original, but I enjoy the bright and light appearance, coupled with the ghostly abstraction or vagueness that is often present.

The method (for those who are not already familiar with it):

Create a new layer above the image layer. Fill the new layer with white and set its mode to "HSV Value". That's all.

I use GIMP. I don't know which other photo editors have the mode "HSV Value" or something equivalent.

Your process and results are interesting - though I'm not sure they are to my taste...

Nevertheless, thanks for sharing your method. That's what this site needs to be about - sharing ideas, techniques & experiences (and, of course, images)

Tim

Thank you so much - I'm glad you like it! Of course that's a risk, but as you can see there are others who have highly interesting things to contribute already, which I'm very thankful for.

Thanks a lot for both - sharing your thoughts, as well as the wonderful images! I find all of them very interesting, beautiful and meaningful in their own way. I also appreciate the different styles and looks you used for them.

These two speak to me in particular - I just love the many ways they can be interpreted in and the combination of light and darkness is highly effective in both of them. I'm also really glad to hear that you got support from your grandkids with your creative endeavors. That's a fantastic thing to have and I feel like being around kids can be really effective at getting our minds out of too many dark thoughts in general. I get some help from my kids as well from time to time and my older one is a wonderful companion in thinking about themes, meanings, symbols or moods and it's a pure joy to hear her articulate her thoughts and feelings about my ideas and images.

I'm very glad you were able to keep your creativity up and spirits high through all those challenging times - that's certainly not a small feat! Thanks for sharing your wonderful images - they are indeed (some quite literally) light made out of darkness! 👍

Thanks a lot! Of course that's fine as well. I actually love the (quite literal) approach of taking out all the darkness of an image and have already admired a number of images made with this technique here. While I've also started a couple attempts at it, I wasn't very successful in finding effective images for it yet. The one you posted above is excellent, a.) because it's a highly unexpected, very colorful result and b.) it changes the meaning and mood of the image, like it's revealing something we weren't able to recognize. I'm certainly fascinated by that thought and will continue trying your approach till I find something worth showing. Excellent work!

Many thanks for joining in as well. I agree and hope that wil be an integral part of this site, both in the forum part (where all of us can actively try to make it a reality) as well as the upcoming editorial content!

Sometimes context is important to an image...

For many years, decades in fact, it was my habit to travel hundreds of miles to make images in out-of-the-way locations. The Big Bend region of Texas is one of the grand American landscapes where exotic is commonplace.

The crossroad town of Marathon is where I met Billy Faier sitting on the patio of my usual coffee stop playing the banjo. He was a veteran folk singer, friend of Ramblin’ Jack Elliott, traveling companion of Woodie Guthrie, contemporary of Pete Seeger and practitioner of progressive politics. It was clear he was someone special from the moment I heard his music. You don’t find many musicians in those parts playing folk tunes from the forties and fifties. Given where he was in remote West Texas it was like he had beamed in from another place and time.

We talked and I listened for about half an hour as he played and told stories. He fiddled with the banjo constantly as he spoke of his experiences. He had the wry sense of humor of a literate man well met. I bought a couple of CDs and told him I’d see him next time I was out that way. Sadly he died before I got back to Marathon. It was a privilege to meet Billy Faier.

Very interesting story of this meaningful encounter - thanks for sharing your story and your excellent (and colorful) portrait of a highly charismatic and special human being from your description!

Your description makes me smile. He was colorful and extremely interesting as far as our discussion went. I would describe him as an old unrepentant Lefty who knew plenty of other lefties and played the banjo rather well. Google can tell you more. www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-1-d&q=billy+Faier

So, I've promised some more lighthearted takes, I guess... 😅 Here's one on a topic I always had my struggles with:

You know... to emphasize the 'simple' part of my name, I guess!

Sometimes my creativity feels bottled up, like Paddington trapped here in my grandfather's old whiskey bottle.

(I didn't really stuff Paddington in there, it was PS trickery)

Really interesting - I love the look you've created here and the effective use of colors!