Is b&w still acceptable by the general public?

[paulr]

There's no general public, there's no one culture, and among smaller groups of people, things like black and white go in and out of style but rarely die.

The people that I show work to (largely dealers and institutions in the new york area) look at black and white work but at the moment see it as kind of retro. Most of the big statements being made in photo in the high art world are in color, so black and white images are less likely to be seen as about Right Now. but this is only a generalization.

I know of at least a couple of major collectors who won't touch color. It's not their esthetic.

The commercial worlds are even more driven by fads than the art worlds. If something's dead at the moment, just wait around a little while. It will be back. My sense is in the commercial world, black and white is still popular as a particular "look," especially when people want a sense of nostalgia. It's annoying that a great medium gets pigeon-holed like this, but commercial art has never been about depth, so it's understandable.

Just don't expect work that looks like early 20th Century black and white formal modernism to ever look fresh again. It won't. The world is used to it. If elements of it come back into fashion, they will do so with a nostalgic, retro vibe. You can never get back the sense of revolution and upheaval that the work carried when it was new.

[John Kasaian]

My observations go along with the others here.

Is it nostalgia? Is it the subtle nuance of light and shadow or the gritty texture of grain in smaller formats? Do people appreciate the longevity of a properly done silver halide photograph of a family member? Is there a appreciation for B&W that offers more to the imagination and less visual noise than color---sort of like a preference for a classic novel compared to a technicolor movie?

I have no idea.

[Bruce Watson]

I understand that you are retired and just doing photography for the love of it. If that's true, then you should use the medium you find best supports your vision. What the general public likes shouldn't really be a consideration.

If on the other hand you are trying to sell photography, then you have a choice to make. You can be true to your artistic self and use the medium that best supports your vision and see if the public will buy into it. Or, you can find out what the public likes and try to appease them, regardless of what this does to your artistic statement.

Personally, in my little backwater market, I'm finding that B&W is a hard sell. But then, art in general is a hard sell here. It takes some level of market sophistication for the market to accept photographic art, and the more abstract the art (B&W being more of an abstraction than color), the more sophistication required of the buyer I think. Clearly, YMMV because the markets change semingly unpredictably.

[paulr]

"I'm finding that B&W is a hard sell. But then, art in general is a hard sell here."

It's a hard sell anywhere! None of it's easy, which is all the more reason to do what you love and worry about where the market is later. Somewhere out there is someone who likes looking at things the way you do.

[John_4185]

Why care? Or is it a Marketing 101 trick question?

Look at all the Elvis on Velvet that sells. If you want to make the market, all you have to do is reduce your integrity to the middle denominator.

[RJ Hicks]

Around where I live, if you take a portrait of a kid and digitally clone some NASCAR driver sitting next to him the stuff sells like umbrellas in a rainstorm. I don't like nascar, and I think those shots are horrible so I guess I'm not marketable and culturaly dead. Oh well.

[Jeffrey Sipress]

Do you have any idea just how stupid, and how culturally, artistically, and creatively empty the general public is? Color or B&W? Huh? Well, color's purtier, ain't it? That b&w stuff looks like that trunk o' crap that grandma left me. For a peek into the stereotype, just turn on the television or note voting trends. On the plus side, they'll listen and believe anything you tell them if you make it sound like the daily news. No, I'm not an elitist snob and these are not my opinions. Just observations from having been around long enough.

[J. P. Mose]

Everyone I know prefers B&W except for one bimbo who has a lot of money but no taste!

[MIke Sherck]

I don't know about any kind of generalized "public" but I do know the reactions of the people I meet. I carry a small book of my photographs around with me when I shoot: I have found it useful to be able to show examples of what I'm doing when people ask. In almost every case, the second question I hear is, "do they still make black and white film?" (The first question is often the one most photographers using a view camera in public hear!) People seem delighted to see the prints and know that they are still being made. No one ever lingers over the few color prints (maybe I'm a lousy color photographer, I don't know,) but they do spend a few moments looking at the B&W. They're usually smiling when they do so, so I believe that it is a pleasant experience for them.

I don't have a clue about collectors or galleries: they aren't the people I deal with. A few years ago when I did a few weddings, I sold more B&W prints than color, and at a premium price. Similarly, when I photograph friends and family members they are (at least, they seem to be,) eager to get prints and happy to have them. And it's not like a century ago, when having any photograph of a family member was a special treat: anyone and everyone can have as many inexpensive color photographs of friends, family, pets, etc. as they desire for practically no expense these days. So many people have cameras built into their cell phones that a photograph has become a ubiquitous object (at least, in mid-western US, where I live.)

So if forced to answer the question I would have to say that it is my opinion that B&W photographs are generally more accepted, possibly because they are rather unusual today. Color snapshots are so common that in large part they have become part of the unquestioned background of our society. B&W isn't so common, so it stands out, and what is considered unusual gets more attention than what is thought common.

[Steven Barall]

Dear John,
You have to get out more. Black and white photography is no more old fashioned than oil painting is. Virtually every artistic meduim that has been in use ever is still in use today. I know some people who make a living creating frescoes and others, Daguerreotypes, and even others who make a living as gilders. Even cave painting is alive and well in one sense on the outside walls of buildings all over the country. People still read Dickens and watch and enjoy silent movies and learn to play and sing music written several hundred years ago. Black and white photography isn't going away anytime soon.

It is true that people's tastes change but what goes around comes around and artists will drive the marketplace in the long run.