[ Post New Message | Post Reply to this One | Send Private Email to John Kantor | Help ]

Color or B/W?

from John Kantor (jkantor@mindspring.com)
The responses to Struan's shot of the Cathedral brought up the old question of the artistic merit of color versus that of b/w.

I see too many photographers who seem to think that if if a picture is in b/w it is by definition either "art" or, interestingly, the obverse, meaningful social commentary.

Of course, color can "interfere" (if you want to call it that) with the perception of texture, tone, and composition, but you could just as easily look upon b/w as being a simplified - perhaps even a debased - form of art for failing to deal with it.

It seems to me that historical precedent and the influence of the popular media outweigh most meaningfull perceptual differences between the two. The thinking seems to be that since the great photographers of the past shot in b/w there must be something special about it, while color is merely a recent development suitable for advertising and snapshots but not much else. If color photography had been easily available to the great icons of photography, would we still think the same?

(posted 8653 days ago)

[ Previous | Next ]