Re: [Leica] b&w, color of the soul (was: Old colour film stock and back to pictures.)

[D Khong <dkhong@pacific.net.sg>]

>i agree with 2 objective reasons in favour of b&w: freedom awarded by
>private darkroom management and longevity of prints. For the rest, the
>choice is open and based on subjective preferences. In belgium XP2 and
>400CN are developed and printed by neighbourhood labs at the same price
>as colour. This is one of the signs of the current renewed interest in
>b&w. My argument is that the choice for b&w is often made because of the
>"wrong" reasons: b&w advertisements are everywhere (posters, magazines),
>b&w reappears in motion images (video clips, etc), b&w is used again in
>photojournalism. This is what I call a "gimmick", a trick to attract
>attention from an audience saturated with high quality colour images and
>all too willing to like prefab nostalgia.
>
>Friendly regards
>Alan.
>

I believe advertisers, photojournalists and the mass media (and very
cleverly too) use B&W because monochrome images can grab more attention. 

While a well taken colour picture will record an event adequately, it does
not seem to possess that (I find it difficult to explain) x-factor when one
wishes to portray the soul of the image.  

Dan K.