[Leica] Power of B&W?

[chs2018 at med.cornell.edu (Chris Saganich)]

Ted,
You have articulated my feelings well.  So well in fact that I may have to 
quote you.  Black and white is like the subtext to a conversation.  Once 
known it changes everything.  I'm always amazed that a viewer can becomes 
the interlocutor to the image, and the conversation is always unique.  Like 
each person is sharing a secret with the image.  I don't sense that as 
being apparent with color images, it's more like a passing conversation 
about the weather.

Chris S.



At 11:20 AM 7/13/2006, you wrote:
>Power of the B&W Image?
>
>I have always believed in the power of black and white photography even
>when it wasn't in vogue for a couple of decades.
>
>Recently while watching a TV program produced from B&W stills of President
>John F. Kennedy it merely strengthened my resolve, that there isn't
>anything more powerful than black and white photography, whether in print
>or TV!
>
>The message from this program was the immense power of B&W imagery.  There 
>isn't any argument whatsoever of the intellectual intensity in the Black
>&White photograph.  Simply because, it's all "content"!
>
>What you see is what you get!
>
>There are no frivolous colors to distract; the content is the motivation of
>each picture. I have no problem with colour, the point is, B&W creates 
>more decisive images than colour.
>
>Colour is sensual.  Black and white is intellectual!
>Think of it in this manner:  When you photograph people in colour; you
>photograph their clothes.  But when you photograph people in black and
>white; You photograph their souls!
>
>Colour TV has contributed to people becoming immune to violence, as the
>6 o'clock "news reality" and the TV "shoot 'em up sitcom" look the same!
>Because of colour TV and printed pages of the past 25 years, a generation
>of viewers have become basically immune to the "content impact" of the
>black and white look of life in relation to human beings.
>
>The impact of the B&W photograph will always be here, simply because of
>what it does;  touch our mental emotions. If that were not the case, then 
>many
>manufacturers, Calvin Kline, Mercedes and IBM to name a few, wouldn't be 
>using Black and White imagery to promote their products!
>
>Black and white is intellectual. It makes us think!
>What think you folks?
>
>ted
>tedgrantphoto.com
>
>
>
>
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Chris Saganich, Sr. Physicist
Weill Medical College of Cornell University
New York Presbyterian Hospital
chs2018@med.cornell.edu
Ph. 212.746.6964
Fax. 212.746.4800
Office A-0049