What underlies our affinity for black and white photographs? Nostalgia, I think, is one of the main contenders. But surely there is some need for a certain level of congruence between subject and colour setting for this to work. How nostalgic can one get about, I don’t know, the Ilford HP5’s rendition of a clear hallmark of modernity in our year 2025? Like a big, fat labubu.
Zagreb made my heart ache.
In the way the quiet lull of a hot afternoon makes my heart ache, in the way children’s shouts echoing off blistering tarmac makes my heart ache. In the way peeling posters advertising a show I’m three years too late to catch makes my heart ache.
Or in the way a funicular system under construction makes my heart (and feet) ache.
(Maddie and I swapped shoes at one point. She slipped into my splinter-inducing espadrilles and said “Bold. Choice.” - but wore them heroically in place of her sensible mary janes the whole trek back to our accommodation.)
Speaking of congruence between subject and setting, someone once described the Fomapan 100 as “a slow and unforgiving black-and-white film.”
It’s nice to entertain the idea that that might be the reason I have never felt so easily transported back to a time and place such as Zagreb when looking at these shots. Slow, as a city tends to become in an early spring heatwave, and unforgiving, every corner a sharp turn, every hedge trimmed back to precise angles. Unforgiving stone-paved streets and historical stone gate in the Upper Town.
The hardness of it all made my heart ache.
College pals at our friendship source, we lingered at University Park the longest, watching people and their pets come and go through the fountain and the respite it afforded. An urban watering hole for all creatures, great and small.
I think nostalgia isn’t inherent.
It has to be called forth, and even then, will only present itself depending on a few complementary factors. In this case, it was a city full of stories and empty storefronts, interacting effectively with a last-minute purchase of a roll of cubically grained film suffering from its traditional upbringing (paraphrased from Josh Solomon).
Final two photos were shot on Ilford HP5. As such, there’s less nostalgia involved, and more recent promises to continue a daisy chain of friendship across multiple cities.