Interesting thoughts there Vikram about moving away from 'mainstream' . Over the years the definition of what is 'mainstream' might change.
I decided to post this not for the 'seeing' aspect of the image - actually there is none here. However, there is some amount of *creativity* in handling different tonal ranges in B&W images - the way we carefully handle dark/mid/high tones to enhance the feel of the image. If we look at
Ansel Adam's images I think they are work of art not for the compositions or 'seeing' reasons but they are work of art for the reasons of finesse of his prints, how he meticulously managed different tonal ranges in his prints. There is lots of creativity in such process. I made some such attempts in treating light in this image. I am sure Raj (who was making his own B&W prints) could relate to what I am saying here..