The story behind my main Instagram account, @nocolor_jte, is a funny one. During my second semester studying media arts at LIU, I was in a social media class. The idea behind the class was to understand social media as a tool for spreading information and how to effectively use it. The class would cover two of my requirements for graduation, and it sounded interesting. A lot of my classmates from the media arts department were enrolled in it as well. I honestly thought it would be a fun class and an easy A. It wasn’t that the class sounded easy, but I was interested in the subject, and I felt that I might learn a useful skill or two. I was very wrong. This class happened during the very beginning of COVID. We had to do half of it online. This made every class that semester hard, but this class in particular was the worst because of our professor. I have since blocked her name from my memory, but I will never forget how unprofessional she was. She was mainly a writer and taught the class from that perspective. The problem was that she had an odd dislike for art, and photography specifically. I did not figure this out until it was too late. Otherwise, I would have dropped the class. She would often say that the most important part of our posts online was the captions and not the images that went along with them. One thing she said that always makes me laugh a bit is, “Yeah, they say that a photo can say a thousand words, but words say words and are much more important”. I told my photography professor at the time what she said, and the look of disgust on his face was priceless. I can only imagine that her emphasis on the class's writing skills was so that she would have an easier time grading us. She probably wanted to discourage people from lazily posting photos with overly simple captions. I could understand that. However, at that point, I had decided I wanted to pursue photography seriously. She did not like my work. I’m not going to guess why. I just felt that it did not make sense, considering I expressed to her what I wanted to do with social media. It wasn’t like she was training us to use social media in a certain way. The idea was to use the platforms effectively. I say all this to say, the class was hard. The silver lining to the whole experience is the creation of my Instagram.

One of the main assignments was to share two platforms you used regularly with the class. We were required to share our posts each week, and everyone would critique them. You could use any platform. I chose Twitter and Instagram since they were the only two platforms I used consistently. I wasn't active on Twitter, so it seemed easy to work with for class. My Instagram was different. My original Instagram account was photography-focused and open to the public, but it still felt private. I didn't trust the professor enough to share it and have her analyze my previous work. She also favored students with high followings, so I felt like my account would put me at a disadvantage. Later, this proved to be the right choice, as I learned more about her dislike of photography. At that point, I was experimenting more with black and white photography. I had just gotten my Fujifilm X-T3, and I was quickly falling in love with the Acros film simulation. I planned to make a separate account for my black and white work, and I figured this assignment might be a good opportunity to do so. If her class lessons worked, then I could potentially see rapid growth in this new account. Her lessons did not work. Partly because the algorithm changed so often, it was difficult to keep up with. The pandemic brought along TikTok, and Instagram became boring for a short time. I have to admit, after everything, I can't complain too much. I loved starting a fresh account and making black and white images. I remember coming up with the name Nocolor. At first, I considered using the name I use in video games, but I wanted something more unique. Nocolor is very literal, but I loved to ring to it. I enjoyed setting up the grid of my feed. I created a brand for myself, and I've put a lot of work into it. I gained so much confidence in my art from it, and the growth over time was crazy.

I am often asked the question, “Why do you only shoot black and white?”. The truth is, I don’t. Sure, the majority of my work is black and white. I only share black and white images on my Instagram. If asked about my palette, I am confident that it is shades of black, grey, and white. Black and white photos are obviously my favorite. However, I love photography and making images in general. Sometimes, black and white is not how I want the image to be viewed. I think it is important to be able to create using as many techniques as I can. Currently, on my Instagram, the only color images that I will share are prints that I made using inkjet layering. I make a lot of images, and I have been thinking of ways to get more of my work out to the world. The goal for creating a blog is to have a place to not only share my opinions on all things photography, but also share my color images. I hope that everyone reading will enjoy my work and continue to follow my journey.

All the images shared in this post are from 2020, just before the pandemic hit New York. I was practicing street photography and getting the hang of making images closer to my subjects. This is also the time I began to leave my camera exclusively in the Acros simulation and learning to “see” in black and white. I could not have imagined that 5 years later, I would be where I am in my photography journey now.

Story of Nocolor