Re: [Leica] b&w, color of the soul

["Jeff S" <segawa@netone.com>]

My interest in black and white, and (reluctant) return to darkroom work were
due to the fact that suddenly, the technical bits contained in Ansel Adams's
and Fred Picker's books finally began to make sense, and the notion that
processing technique and manipulation of tonal values through selective use
of filters, could be a crucial part of realizing one's previsualized image,
was fascinating to me. I am stumbling some, but encouraged.

I don't think the color allows this degree of creative freedom without the
manipulation appearing obvious, even contrived.

- -----Original Message-----
From: Alan Ball <AlanBall@csi.com>
>The case for b&w is very interesting. I would like to contradict it a
>little: I find b&w is in danger of becoming a gimmick, a little like the
>overusage of polarizers in outdoor photography in the eighties or of
>soft filters in the seventies. The renewed success of b&w in photography
>(movies, advertisement, photojournalism) could be partly due to the fact
>that we are so oversaturated with super explosive colour images that the
>very absence of colour has become a pure marketing means of attracting
>the viewer's attention. It could also be partly due to the recurent
>effort to cash on prefab nostalgia.
>
[snip]