Guest Post – Jean H. Herskovits

Black And White Photography, Photography

Jean H. Herskovits is featured in our fifth installment of our guest post series. Jean uses a Nikon D90 camera and also is an avid user of his mobile phone a Samsung Galaxy S1 for images.

Swing2WMresized

My name is Jean and I was born in Bucharest, Romania.  In 1969 my family moved from Romania to Paris, France when I was six years old..

I still speak Romanian and have recently spent six years in Bucharest as an expat, from 2004 to 2010.  You can say I have two cultures, but the French one is predominant.

I bought my first camera which was a second-hand Olympus OM-1 with my first wages from a summer job, in 1985 or 86, and started shooting regularly.

If you are from a generation old enough to remember these silver paper times, you will probably also remember that B&W was way cheaper than color photography.  So that’s how I started.

In my opinion, beauty in photography (as in all graphic arts) has to do with balance.  Balance between shapes, colors, shadows, light and dark areas… Sometimes beauty comes from the deliberate absence of balance, but even then, balance is the keyword.

To me, the following picture has quite a good balance of shades and shapes.
I call it  “Dim Swing”

More of my images can be seen at – Jean.H.Herskovits

14 thoughts on “Guest Post – Jean H. Herskovits”

  1. Stacy P. Fischer's avatar

    Welcome, Jean! (Yes, I’m a bit behind in my commenting on Monochromia, but am enjoying catching up today …). Great thoughts on balance in photography, and your photo is a great illustration of it – love the shadows, but also love that you captured the little feet! As a fellow D90 user, I’m looking forward to seeing more of your work 🙂

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  5. Jean Hugues Herskovits's avatar

    Thanks for your comments, friends.
    I’m sincerely moved by your kind words.
    As to the composition, I belive the two little feet at the top gives reality (objectivity?) to a somehow irreal scene. They thus contribute to the overall balance of the whole.

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  7. kilted1's avatar

    Very nice work Jean. I love the composition. This shot is a 1st class addition to Monochromia.
    BTW. I too am from an age where film taught me so much. I’m amazed at the amount of people that have never tried it.

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  8. LB's avatar

    So very glad to see your guest post, Jean. Nice to “meet” you!
    This image is so intriguing … makes me want to keep looking at it. Nicely done!

    Like

  13. Mike Pratt's avatar

    Shadows can often make very powerful and at times evocative subjects. As photographers, becoming aware of everything around us – including shadows can help develop our skills. This is a nice image, Jean!

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