Light & Dark - an exploration of contrast through photography

Last month, I attended a workshop titled 'The Basics of Photography', held at ERDC.

On the final day of the workshop, participants were supposed to give a presentation of photographs they took over the course of the workshop. We were free to present any of our photography, however, there was one important criteria: the photographs being presented must have some meaning, or tell a story.

I loved the idea behind this assignment, and also the fact that we had absolute creative freedom for it. Although it was a bit difficult to come up with a theme for it (this wasn't part of the assignment, but I wanted my pictures to convey one message, so I felt it was necessary to have one), as there was so much I could do, but finally I decided on one theme: contrast. My presentation was titled 'Light & Dark: An exploration of visual and metaphorical contrast'.

The idea for this was one that had occurred to me before as well, but I never managed to work on it. The workshop gave me an opportunity to finally do it, and I had so much fun in the process. :D It also reminded me of this quote by Picasso I had read sometime ago, one that had stuck with me ever since.

"If you don't know what colour to take, take black."

~Pablo Picasso

A light beam cutting through the dark, a quintessential example of the fight between darkness and light. Also, this reminds me of a beautiful expression found in Urdu poetry, the rozan-e-zindaan (روزنِ زنداں), which refers to a slit or crack in the walls of prison from where lights shines through.

Silhouettes have always fascinated me. :) And the coconuts make for an interesting composition I think.

This picture is one of my favourites among all of the ones I took for the workshop. It reflects contrast of perspectives - the two benches facing opposite directions - but I think there is also some sort of harmony about this picture; the way two different things can peacefully coexist (at least inside the frame of a picture, anyway).

"What does patience mean? It means to look at the thorn and
 see the rose, to look at the night and see the dawn."
~ Shams of Tabriz

This picture shows a plastic caterpillar sitting on real mud. It was an attempt to capture the contrast between things natural and artificial.

I actually waited for twenty minutes for the sun to get in a position where I could capture this so that it looked like the light was breaking the knotted rope. This picture reflects light breaking boundaries (that was what I had in mind while capturing it) but my brother came up with a different, equally interesting interpretation. I guess there could be many possible explanations for this. :)

Sunset. 12/2/2019

I had lots of sunset pictures but I chose this one because I like how the low horizon line reflects the limits of human advancements contrasted with the vastness of God's creation.

"God made the country, and man made the town."
~William Cowper

This picture was one I took earlier, on a trip to Kashmir last year. I chose to include it in my presentation because it seemed to resonate with my theme.

Although in most of the above pictures I have tried to show contrast, there isn't always a fight between dark and light. Sometimes, the dark welcomes the light. The silhouetted leaves in this picture seem to me to be embracing the sunlight that shines through them. 

"We are all in the gutter, but some 

of us are looking at the stars.

~Mark Twain

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Do let me know about your opinion on these! Also, feedback and constructive criticism would be welcome. I'm still a novice photographer. :)

Important update: My Photography blog will be going away at the end of this month. From now onward, my photography will be published on this blog instead. Click here to learn more.