Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 1999/02/15
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]I once went to a lecture by David Moore, who is one of Australia's best photographers. His primary medium is black and white. One of the audience (presumably one who didn't know anything about David Moore's work) asked which he preferred - colour or black and white. He replied (I'm probably misquoting him a bit here), how many great colour photographs can you think of? Now, how many black and white? That's what I keep returning to. There is something about the simple, graphic quality of black and white photographs which etch themselves in your memory. They have an impact, which I don't believe colour images have. Incidentally, I'd regard myself as a relatively young photographer (31) who has just started using an M6 - together with Tri-X developed in HC110 - in place of a Nikon SLR. Wouldn't look back Regards Gareth Jolly >>> Ted Grant <tedgrant@islandnet.com> 16/February/1999 09:26am >>> Andre Jean Quintal wrote : > but I grind my teeth when I read of conservative Leica owners holding on >to black and white when such beautiful photos can be had with available >light color prints, done by a well chosen lab, especially with Leica >optics. Non-photo trip people always seem sorry their faces are black and white...in such context. The only way I'd use B&W would be in newsprint advertising, as a digital "reduction">>>>>>> Hi Andre, I'm a great believer in B&W photography, always have been, always will be. Certainly when it comes to photographing people doing things. Obviously where the subjects are models wearing clothes for sale and the "colour of the clothes" is the reason for the pictures.. Then one would use colour. But what I continually hear from pros, amateurs and most important, the people who pay the bills, B&W always looks so special! Even every day folks who have no idea how to work a camera will say, "Gee B&W pictures sure have some power to them!" The late Harry Reasoner of TV: "There isn't anything like a great big black and white photograph that colour TV can ever match for beauty!" An example. A wedding photographer friend, very expensive to hire this guy, minimum fee: $3000.00. Has started using one of his staff photographers to shoot all b&W at the same wedding he is doing in colour. The reason? He makes a fortune in selling the B&W pictures as a special look at the beautiful day and the brides are going crazy over them. It's all candid available light shooting and some brides order several albums to give to friends. So what am I reading in this one? "Real Photographers Shoot B&W! Eat Sushi and drink Scotch!" :) Not necessarily in that order. :) B&W isn't just for newspapers. Unfortunately, too many newspapers run colour just for the sake of colour and not the value of "B&W visual impact". Sure holiday scenics and the "here we are standing in the ocean" kinda images are great in colour, but if you're shooting something about people involved in doing things, intense or otherwise, you can't beat B&W. Let me add that there are situations where the colour of the event makes for using colour available light Leica images, but it's because of the colour in the event and not the immediacy of the event. Even war and the downtrodden of the world have much greater impact in B&W, simply because the reality of colour takes away the visual impact due to the clothes and just colour itself. Even blood has greater impact in B&W than in colour. The publisher of my book on the medical profession was concerned, "make sure you don't show too much blood. It looks ghastly in B&W!" If you have any doubt about the power in black & white photography and why some of us hang onto it so dearly, you should have a look at my Leica created book, "This is Our Work. The Legacy of Sir William Osler." In colour it would have been a complete failure! In B&W it moves people with it's "feeling." There isn't any colour getting in the way of the content and being a distraction. Keep this in mind the next time you consider shooting or not in colour. "When you photograph people in colour, you photograph their clothes! But when you photograph people in black and white; You photograph their souls!" ted Ted Grant This is Our Work. The Legacy of Sir William Osler. http://www.islandnet.com/~tedgrant