Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2011/04/17

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Subject: [Leica] Barcelona in color
From: jayanand at gmail.com (Jayanand Govindaraj)
Date: Sun, 17 Apr 2011 12:48:35 +0530
References: <BANLkTimw-ABFB5jc=_VAa2FJMt8Y7SHCVw@mail.gmail.com> <2459FC5B-8477-4383-B4BC-F5438055DC77@gmail.com> <CABDEB99C29C4AC199EFEF09B637AA00@billHP> <7D70F1D8-F948-405A-A855-806652B82808@embarqmail.com> <BANLkTikM+u2SaiDXiN5VLAEBB4OiBr5JZw@mail.gmail.com> <5613FE77-8234-4497-AEC7-D68C03C74271@gmail.com>

Luis,
Those were masters of the B&W era, they had to, by and large, make do
without colour film. If you have not seen modern Indian masters, let me
showcase a couple of homegrown products, both of whom I think can hold their
own anywhere. Firstly Raghu Rai, the most famous of the Indian photographers
- his best known photographs are of the Bhopal Gas Tragedy, Mother Teresa
and Calcutta. Though he does take a lot of colour, it is these subjects that
stick in the mind, and all three, because of the horror, simplicity and
grime respectively, suit B&W very well. Here are his Magnum portfolios:

Bhopal Gas Tragedy:
http://www.magnumphotos.com/c.aspx?VP=XSpecific_MAG.StoryDetail_VPage&pid=2TYRYDDG70XJ

Mother Teresa:
http://www.magnumphotos.com/c.aspx?VP=XSpecific_MAG.BookDetail_VPage&pid=2K7O3R1H3PDJ

Calcutta (or Kolkata as it is now):
http://www.magnumphotos.com/c.aspx?VP=XSpecific_MAG.BookDetail_VPage&pid=2K7O3R152K1Q

One of the single most horrifying photographs I have ever seen, it sends
goose pimples up my skin even today, I would guess mainly because I grew up
in Bhopal in the 1960s and early 1970s:
http://hotparade.tumblr.com/post/3521577334/raghu-rai-burial-of-an-unknown-child-the

The other photographer is the late Raghubir Singh, who is a maestro of
colour, and fittingly enough, his best book is called "River of Colour",
which shows India in all its diversity, and is a natural for the colour
medium:

http://www.raghubirsingh.com/home_en.php

Cheers
Jayanand



On Sun, Apr 17, 2011 at 12:15 AM, Lluis Ripoll
<lluisripollquerol at gmail.com>wrote:

> Jayanand,
>
> Right!, your country is powerful in color and this is a logical temptation,
> but I remember many great pictures of India from great masters as HCB,
> Sabine Weiss, Bischoff, Marc Riboud that B&W give a special light and
> atmosphere, except Bischoff's famous portarit of a poor woman the other
> mentionned was not particularly shooting poverty, IMO there is an abuse of
> these kind of shots. I think that when I go to India I'll prefer shot manly
> in B&W
>
> cheers
> Lluis
>
>


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