black/white: charcoal/snowy, onyx/ivory, pitch/clear, ebony/alabaster, coal/pearly ….

“Sir Gregory Dodgebourne presented a lecture at the Royal Anthropological Institute in January of 1842. As he stood up to the well-worn oak podium droplets of water fell from his ice encrusted side whiskers onto his offal and snow-stained brogans. Sir Gregory was also a fellow of the newly formed Billingsgate Perambulation Society. His friends all agreed that he was a Dickensian sort of fellow. He fancied himself a living Nicholas Nickleby, having also been deserted at an early age; eventually making his way in the world after much misfortune and the afflictions of the false conviviality of those wishing to do him pecuniary harm. His closest associates called him Nick. In ’89 he was briefly considered a suspect in the Ripper murders because of his habit of occasionally walking in Whitechapel. It was decided rather quickly that the then ninety-six-year-old Dodgebourne could not have wielded the knife with such power and dexterity.

Sir Gregory was knighted just a fortnight prior to the lecture, presently the subject of this writing, by the still young, yet droopy eyed Victoria. As a member of the staff of the Royal London Ophthalmic Hospital, an institution chartered by and of special interest to the Queen, Dodgebourne was making tremendous progress on the diagnosis of astigmatism of the eye. He studied under Sir George Biddell Airy, the foremost authority on the affliction. The Queen fancied herself plagued by a variety of eye disorders. Consequently, when Sir Gregory also diagnosed her with astigmatism, she was beside herself. The knighthood followed shortly thereafter.

As the last participant was being seated, Sir Gregory placed his pince-nez spectacles on the undulating bridge of his boxer’s nose. Then out of the corner of his eye he caught a flash of color in the room of blacks and browns. Miss Jane Wemmick, the daughter of Sir Arthur Wemmick and a very accomplished amateur anthropologist, floated in, to the obvious disapproval of the seated men, on a cloud of blue and yellow taffeta and velvet surmounted by a heavy woolen cape. “Welcome Miss Wemmick,” said Sir Gregory, winking at her father seated in the front row, “Let us begin.”

“As is commonly known, animals can only see the world in black and white, therefore the new invention, photography, is positively fit only for animals. The photographer cannot possibly capture the world as it is in all its nuance and beauty with the same accuracy and splendor as the painter,” said Sir Gregory, setting out the premise of his current dissertation. Miss Wemmick, with her head down, smiled and jotted lines in the leather-bound diary on her lap, “My dear M. Daguerre I am here at the Society in your defense. Dodgebourne will now attempt to warn us off your creation. He has said it is only fit for animals. However, I deeply apprehend the depth and profundity of your child each time I gaze upon my love posed in the garden of our passion, seated next to his wonderful hound. The camera has truly unsheltered his inner beauty, made alive the wistful clouds above himself and even the proud wound on the flank of the beloved canine where the fox turned about on him…” From “The Scent of Mercury Vapor” by Franklin Cincinnatus

JUROR | Michael Kirchoff will be the juror for “black/white”. Michael is a photographic artist, independent curator and juror, and advocate for the photographic arts. He is an ongoing juror for Photolucida’s Critical Mass and has reviewed portfolios for several fine art photographic organizations and non-profits in the U.S. and abroad. Michael has been a contributing writer for Lenscratch, Light Leaked, and Don’t Take Pictures magazine. In addition, he spent ten years (2006-2016) on the Board of the American Photographic Artists in Los Angeles (APA/LA), producing artist lectures, as well as business and inspirational events for the community. Currently, he is Editor-in-Chief at Analog Forever Magazine, Founding Editor at Catalyst: Interviews, Co-Host of The Diffusion Tapes podcast, and a former Contributing Editor at One Twelve Publishing.