— Healing with Imagery —
Black and White
Absolutes. Black and white. Yin and yang. Binaries. Negatives. They say beauty is in the wildest of colors, brightest of dreams, softest of landscapes, and dreamiest of eyes. And yet, it’s the lack of noise in black and white that stirs our hearts that beats us up with such an abundance of feeling that we have to sit for a breath or two or ten.
For in a world devoid of color, the true power of existence speaks in tunes even the deaf and blind can hear and see.
The static of everyday life is an overwhelming affair — it stirs us, it moves us, it drowns us in feelings we want to simply not feel. The loudness of color burns the eyes, itches the skin, creeps behind us, and blows air on our necks. When you’re already feeling at an edge of a sensory overload, when you’re already battling the feeling of anxiety, when the blueness of life is dragging you down, all it takes is one push for all the dominoes to fall.
But in the lack of noise, amidst a black and white movie, observing an artwork made of sepia and monochromes, or simply staring at a black-and-white photograph, a calm takes over.
They are right, life isn’t lived in absolutes. But sometimes, it’s the beauty of balance that exists between black and white that is enough, the sheer elegance, the beauty, the contrast that lives in between these edges of color. Whatever lies between them is merely an insignificant dot.
Why is it that we crave these extreme shades when life as we know, has never been colorless at all? The world brims in shades of green, blues, browns, reds, violets, indigos, ochres, an entire spectrum of shades that move the heart.
Yet we purposely run toward the glow of what exists outside of these shades.
Think how powerful black and white cinematic movies are, Charlie Chaplin making the saddest of us laugh, Audrey Hepburn’s charm as it captivates our hearts, the way we stir when the “Here’s to you, kid” takes our heart away in Casablanca.
Perhaps it’s the rawness of both these colors that speak to us in a language that only the deepest parts of us can understand.
Perhaps that’s why black and white photography still holds a heart-catching charm that lures us to it and makes us feel everything down to our bones.
We’re made of art, and what else is black and white if not art?
It’s more than a battle between the dark side and the light side. It’s life in its purest, life and its depths, how even amidst the sadness and the downward spiral we find ourselves in, light is awaiting us.
To think in black and white is a sin, but to live in black and white art is nothing less than elegance and pristine beauty in all of its intensity.
So, when you want to build a calming space for yourself, don’t forget to hang out our collection of black and white photographs.
