Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2012/01/19
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]Well you can make that +2... they are wrong and prove me right once again.. So here I go:-) >>>"When you photograph people in colour; you photograph their clothes. But when you photograph people in B&W you photograph their souls'!"<<<< In the picture of the Monk in flames in Saigon in B&W you see him in a stronger fashion than in colour. In colour your eyes go right to the flames and the bright blue car in bkgrd! Then you start looking for or what maybe the human engulfed in flames. It's the content that matters because it's a human being first and everything else is after the fact. Colour no matter how extremely well done, eliminates the impact of the scene photo after photo! Certainly in varying degrees. Or it takes your eyes away from the main body of the photo. The famous photo by Eddie Adams of the VC being shot through the head! Same thing.... the power is in the B&W! Why? Because we as humans have been watching colour TV, films, magazines and newspapers for so many years right there in our family or living rooms. Have or are slowly becoming to some degree immune to violent scenes in colour! It seems to have a "Hollywood fix" to it and it isn't real. Look at any of these original photos in B&W, there is a greater intensity about the original photo without the colour which "softens the effect" of whatever is going on! It's the colours throwing off our reading the content. The WW2 KISS photo by Alfred Eisenstaedt. In colour it just looks like a Hollywood scene or some kind of newspaper set-up. The colour eliminates the historical aspects of the time. For me it takes away the reality of the moment. "WORLD'S HIGHEST STANDARD OF LIVING" In B&W it holds the visual effect right there in your face of these unfortunate people so strongly, it's a photo you feel the tragic scene and situation without question! It feels real looking! "COLOUR?" It completely destroys the downtrodden feeling, the people don't look like they are a starving group of folks endangered due to the economic situation of those times. Once again colour takes away a feeling of the historical effects. Anyway I bet more of the older crew members who grew up with the incredible B&W photography of LIFE, LOOK, DER STERN, PARIS MATCH and others, will have a greater feeling for what I'm saying. I have absolutely no fault with the incredible talent illustrated by this artist. But it just doesn't do one whit of a thing for any of the photos in a reality sense, my 2 cents! But for sure, this would be one incredible topic for a group discussion seated at a round table a beer in hand.:-) Oh yeah and a plate of munchies! :-) cheers, Dr. ted ----- Original Message ----- From: "Nathan Wajsman" <photo at frozenlight.eu> To: "Leica Users Group" <lug at leica-users.org> Sent: Thursday, January 19, 2012 2:28 PM Subject: Re: [Leica] Expertly done colored version of the famous B&S photos > +1 > > On 19 Jan, 2012, at 21:08 , Tina Manley wrote: > >> I totally disagree with the blog. The colorized photos look like >> snapshots. The B&W look like history. Maybe because I'm an OLD person. >> >> Tina >> >> On Thu, Jan 19, 2012 at 2:53 PM, Richard Man >> <richard at richardmanphoto.com>wrote: >> >>> For the record, I am "Tri-X all the way," but this is interesting: >>> >>> http://gizmodo.com/color/ >>> >>> There is another series where the human figures were removed from the >>> iconic photos. >>> -- >>> // richard <http://www.richardmanphoto.com> >>> >>> _______________________________________________ >>> Leica Users Group. >>> See http://leica-users.org/mailman/listinfo/lug for more information >>> >>> >> >> >> -- >> Tina Manley, ASMP