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Tuesday, July 12, 2016

An Infinite Palette

In black and white
photography
there is rarely
any pure white,
and rarely is there
any pure black.

Most images are in
subtle shades of gray.

Different skin tones
are gray.
Snapshots of the sky
are a different gray.
Spilled blood
reflected in the sun
is a yet another variation
of gray.

I used to think
using black and white
in a colored world
was an affectation,
a pretense.

Now I see
that truth is like
a black and white photo:

a little black,
a little white,
and an infinite
palette of gray.

[Written for With Real Toads - go and read and praise.]

8 comments:

  1. Oh yes how much I sympathise with this.. I wonder how we can ever boil it down to just two alternatives...

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  2. What a great write, Mosk!

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  3. Yes, truth is exactly like that, always very subjective as well, in the telling. Sigh.

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  4. Yes, the grays are infinite. Thanks for the visit, btw.

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  5. great grey this is.

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  6. And yet, in black and white it seems like we see more clearly.

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  7. Infinite palette of gray...how true that is. Great write.

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  8. You know what blood looks like in a black & white video? Shadows. Shadows!!!!
    (Sorry, I had to channel John Prine there for a moment.)
    You are right, it is an infinite palette of gray. And those who spin the truth are... oh I can't even finish in your metaphor. Well done, Mosk.

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