I never met an ''artist'' who had to describe his art in terms of what pencil he draws with or the brand of paint or brushes. Photographers on the other hand are "craft" oriented and the detail is in the materials.
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For me, the world of photography is a black and white one.
But I still love color.
I always liked Irving Penn's pix taken of native tribes in Africa. Printed and reproduced everywhere in black and white.
Then I ran across a Vogue magazine, 1970ish, and saw them as they were first published -- in color. And wow, those photos sang in a beautiful new way.
I devote a chapter to the subject of black and white v. color in my book.
Question: How many of you have had someone look at one of your black and white photographs and remarked, "Too bad it's not in color!"
In 1987 or so I photographed a woman named Vicki. I used a Rolleiflex (sorry!) and shot on Tri-X.
A few days later I gave her a contact sheet and said let me know if you want any prints.
She told me she'd talk to her mom, and she'd want the prints to be in color.
I gave her the bad news that there's no way to get color prints from black and white negs.
A few days later Vicki told me, negs 3, 5, 7, (or whatever) and that she wanted them in color.
I said, "Vicki, there's no way to get color prints from black and white negs."
She said, "I KNOW you said that, but my mom said you was wrong."
(Forgive me if I've already told you that story, and for you hand-coloring folks, forgive me for my stance.)
Greg Lockrey: "Art is about inflaming.... Illustration is about recording....
What Brian said...."
Brian Ellis: "Color tells us what things look like. B&W tells us what they felt like (I have no idea if that's true but it sounds good to me)"
Thanks Greg for the reply. From my experience this is a fairly widespread belief. However, I still take some issue with it. No photograph is actually what something 'looks like.' While color may be closer to what we expect from "reality" I believe it is just a better disguised departure from reality. However, I will not argue that B&W is 'more' of a departure from reality than color.
Greg Lockrey: "I never met an ''artist'' who had to describe his art in terms of what pencil he draws with or the brand of paint or brushes. Photographers on the other hand are "craft" oriented and the detail is in the materials."
I totally agree that this is the case, and see it as a problem. When displaying my photographs I have no interest in describing my process, materials, or technique. However, that is what a lot of viewers want to know....especially those with DSLR's around their neck. It should be all about the works subject matter....but in photography there are often other distractions.