Title • the history of chalk

I had hoped that this week’s Photo Friday theme would be something I could use this image for, but the theme is Clean so I don’t think this one is overly suitable. That said I do know what I want to use for this theme, I just haven’t managed to take a version of it yet that I’m happy with.

As for this shot: the initial inspiration for this shot was a photograph of an inverted white-board at chromogenic.net – an interesting study in colour and detail. That shot got me thinking about the various ways in which written text is used for display purposes, and it struck me that a blackboard was a potentially interesting topic.

All my attempts at a straight shot though really didn’t manage to convey what I think is most interesting about this subject; i.e. it’s tendency to record some sort of history of the way in which it’s used – the hint of previous text, and the gentle swirls of partially erased chalk. So, this shot was the net result, a change of (colour) balance to highlight this aspect of the subject.

And if anyone’s interested; the calculation on the board (and I did have to ask about this) is part of a calculation of an inverse sine where the answer is a complex number, i.e. it’s an example of complex analysis.