Photography Hates Black

Here is crappy picture of a good painting that I finished a few weeks ago.
My paintings are notoriously hard to photograph, since like Odilon Redon I believe, "Black is essential."

In the world of impressionists, black is considered taboo because they think it is less interesting than mixing colors to get the impression of black. But I find black extremely interesting since it catches the light and you can play with hidden shapes and figures in it that only can be seen when light hits it in certain ways.

In paint, black can be like a mirror that reflects the world around it when refracting photons at the right angle. Black can hint at deeper meanings and cover up hidden worlds. Black can be white with the right reflection, as seen in the highlights in black hair.

But unfortunately black and photography do not mix well since by its nature it absorbs and reflects light at the same time fooling light meters into reading wrong and causing lamps to show up as bright spots. I even paid a professional photographer to photograph my paintings once, and the results were actually worse than what I had been doing on my own.

One day, I know I will be able to figure out how to take proper photos of my paintings, but unfortunately today is not that day.