I think the movies serve as a useful parallel example. Ted Turner was actually ahead of the curve when he colorized those old movies. You can't show a b&w movie on tv except on the specialty stations. New b&w movies come out around 1-2 a year, and they generally are aiming for a historical or nostalgic or somehow backward-looking look. The (few) people I know under 30 can't imagine why anyone would ever watch a b&w movie; what's the point?
The local portrait photographer shows nothing but B&W prints in his store window. They are all very, very, well done.
Fours miles away is a large mall with three department store "studios" and one "glamour" studio.
The local B&W guy rocks. The mall stores suck. The local stays in business by having talent and skill. How much longer he can last with the dumbing down of America is the question. It helps that the area has money. Just a two second look walking by tells you who is the "professional".
The way I see it, B & W is just one of many options out there to be chosen from when producing an image. Historically, B & W was prefferrable for all kinds of applications due to its stability and the relative instability and 'clunkiness' of the colour process.
We live in exciting times now where there are a myriad of choices of media on which to produce images. It all depends on what you are trying to say. People will read those choices and that will provide extra 'meaning' to your images. I thinks its important to decide what is trying to be communicated and to whom you trying to speak, then decide whether to use colour, b & W, inkjet, silver, PP, carbon etc. The various 'camps' tend to be nostalgia based and inflexible (read uncreative) in their thinking. There is only the artists choice!
I just got back from the last day at the Photo New York expo ... it's like AIPAD, but less dominated by blue chip galleries, and it also wecomes a lot of publishers. I saw a full range of work, from vintage black and white, to wannabe vintage black and white, to contemporary looking black and white, to shiney magazine-looking color, to eggleston and stephen shore looking color, to 80s scratch 'n sniff, cut 'n paste postmodernist looking color, to contemporary, big, exploring-my-private-world kinds of color.
I saw silver prints hanging next to platinum prints hanging next to inkjet prints. It all seems to have an audience.
Just keep in mind it's not all the same audience. No matter where your work falls on this huge spectrum, you're going to have to find the people whose tastes it might appeal to.
"Do you have any idea just how stupid, and how culturally, artistically, and creatively empty the general public is?" . . . . . .
"I'm not an elitist snob . . . "
Glad you cleared that up.
"but i have noticed that in contemporary fine art photography b&w is all but dead" If you go to Blindspot's web page and click on back issues you'll see that the first 6 or 7 cover photos are black and white. If you know what it means to get the cover I would hardly consider that "dead".
As I travel the road of life, I am struck by how quickly and how many things change. And no longer a student in a large school nor employee in a large corporation, I have no daily contact with crowds of people to give me advance warning of imminent changes.
So one day, I drive through an unfamiliar part of town and am dumbfounded to observe that my beloved three-story brick highschool is now a field of grass.
Or I drive past my late father’s favorite Plymouth dealership to discover it is now selling Daewoos. What are those, anyway?
I was never allowed in church as a child wearing anything but my special “Sunday-go-to-meeting” navy blue suit, polished wingtips and starched white shirt. The other day, while out for my Sunday morning walk, I passed the local Roman Catholic cathedral to see the congregation leaving Mass. Many were wearing shorts and sweat pants. When did that start?
So many ordinary, standard, unremarkable, every-day common things suddenly become bizarre, unique, eccentric and strange, seemingly overnight.
My wife pointed out a man at the shopping center the other day who, strangely, was wearing a felt hat. I hadn’t noticed him. Men have worn fedoras all my life. Nothing that unusual nor eye-catching to me.
It’s nice to have a reality check now and then to see whether I need to catch up. When children and ordinary people wrinkle their nose at my weird b&w prints, is it them or me?
Very embarrassing to making b&w prints, thinking they are still perfectly “normal” when my neighbors are wondering if I may be a warlock with a darkroom full of magic potions.
Kind of like accidently having your artistic fly open.
Glad to hear that I can continue to work in this medium without feeling like an oddball. At least for a little while longer...
John, the good news is that people will still accept B&W. But if you are using film they wont think of it as photography, because everyone knows you do that with a telephone.
John sir, I shoot color on my 4x5. I shoot BW on my medium format. I like the character of both. However I have noticed recently that many television ads are using black and white. Some are using a combination. Like all things in life they cycle. Go with the flow of both mediums
Regarding headshots--in New York, B&W still says "professional" for the theatre, but the film and TV commercial market has gone more toward color. Maybe theatre itself is a nostagic practice.
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