"When I was a little girl, everything in the world fell into either of these two categories: wrong or right.
Black or white. Now that I am an adult, I have put childish things aside and now I know that some
things fall into wrong and some things fall into right. Some things are categorized as black and some
things are categorized as white. But most things in the world aren't either! Most things in the world
aren't black, aren't white, aren't wrong, aren't' right, but most of everything is just different. And now
I know that there's nothing wrong with different, and that we can let things be different, we don't have
to try and make them black and white, we can just let them be grey. And when I was a child, I thought
that God was the God who only saw black and white. Now that I am no longer a child, I can see, that
God is the God who can see the black and white and the grey, too, and He dances on grey!
Grey is okay."
- C. Joybell C.
{KK ugglovebandw, KK word}
I have read that artistry in photography requires the ability to achieve a state of unconstricted awareness, free of conventional ways of seeing and thinking.
And well, I think that is true in life too.
We lose the art of living our own life when we are motivated to please others by conforming to their way of thinking only to be in the group, to win approval, or to feel accepted.
It's funny, everyone wants to be different, they just don't want to "like" different.
People want to stand out from the crowd, but don't want to give permission to anyone else to do the same.
They like the tidiness of black and white. But black and white is about control and if we are always trying to be "in control" don't we miss out on all the beautiful loose ends that end up being life, that just passes all of us by simply because we forgot how to read between black and white.
Because between black and white is grey, shades of grey. And I'm not talking about a book, but about shades of beautiful people that we miss because we have only learned to see contrast, black or white, right and wrong.
{KK Not too shabby}
Between black and white, between yielding and rigid, is compromise. Both in life and photography. Between black and white there are no labels. Frederick Franck said, " By these labels we recognize everything but no longer see anything." Between black and white everything and everyone is important and has value, there is no judgment, no categories.
Seeing only black or white does not give way to flexibility, nor does it give one the ability to deviate from their own so called rules of life. In photography it means always leaning into the "rules of composition", just to miss the essence of what we are photographing in the first place.
Grey is okay. In fact, grey is really good. And a black and white photograph? Its made up of shades of grey.
Life, is made up of shades of grey too.
I don't believe there is much adventure to be found in black and white, you are either a leader or a follower, never both.
Always teetering on the edge of right and wrong, black and white keeps our imagination from our camera and allows us to miss the true beauty of people too.
I've learned that dancing to the beat of my own drum, one that is a shade of grey (definitely with a hint of pink), is a much happier place to be. Like me for who I am, or leave me for someone I am not.
Yes, being a shade of grey means we are different, and different is what makes life interesting. God gave us each a unique shade so that we would be, could be different.
Yes, between black and white are shades of grey and if we read carefully between the lines, those shades of grey, we will also find a hint of color.
God not only dances on grey, but He celebrates it!
Love, Kim
XO
