I think one of my favorite things about photography is the immediate emotional response.

You look at an image and regardless of what it is you feel something right away. It could bring out something dark, it could make you laugh, it could make you smile, it could make you completely dismiss it; I’ve always thought the visual mediums were very unique in that sense.

Of course the performance styles of art also bring out emotional responses, but they aren’t as instant. It takes you a minute to decide if you like a book, song, dance, play, etc. Not to say there’s anything wrong with that, I love them all. But I like the idea of the instant response. What was your first reaction? What thought first popped into your mind? What feeling filled you up?

I think that’s probably why I ended up spending so much time on these photos and why I ended up with two versions. Anyone who knows my work or has met me knows I love color. If I had to pick something that represents my shooting style it would be bright color and high contrast. (And the occasional strangeness 😏)

But with this picture, my first emotion wasn’t like my other works. It felt like the image was telling me it wasn’t supposed to be bright and colorful. It had a mood all to itself, and changing it would somehow take away from the image.

And I have to be honest, I fought it a bit. (Inner monologue: “No! I’m the colorful photo guy!”) but even after all the colorful edits, it just looked... wrong. So I deleted all the adjustment layers and brought it back to its core. In a way it felt like I owed it to the photo to let it be true to the feelings it created.

And even then I tried playing with my other favorite look, contrast. But I don’t know, I still feel like the original holds something that no edits should be allowed to take away.

But I’m curious to hear what you think. In the comments let me know which you like more? Color? or Black and White?

(And many thanks to Jess [Instagram @ jesss_16] for being the model for my noir inspired shoot.)