I'm trying to wean myself off it.
It's not that I don't think it has its own special positives (and negatives), or a time and a place, I just personally find myself stopping more for black and white photos more than I do colour photos. Maybe it's because the absence colour removes some of the distraction in the image, allowing us to see what really lies at the essence of the image. By removing something which makes an image realistic, the image is being made more real to us.
Realistic and Real aren't the same thing to me. Something can be very real without being at all realistic. Real is to do with a different sort of truth than the bare facts which comprise Realistic images. Black and White is a prime example; by cutting through the distractions to just the quick of form and structure, we somehow have a distilled version of the image. If done right, this monotone image is anything but monotonous. There is something very final about an image composed of grey values, it seems to have a permanence which Colour images just don't. Colour can be tweaked and altered to a far greater extent than the colour mix in a Black and White image, which just doesn't seem quite a honest to me. Of course, photography shouldn't be about sheer honesty, but rather an interpretation, but there's a point where an interpretation just turns into a lie with little or no basis in the reality. Whilst that also has a time and a place, it reduces the extent to which the audience can truly engage with a work, which is ultimately the majority of the point of all art. (That is if you presume that art should have a point at all of course).
In my opinion colour hides a multitude of sins, and actually can make an image which is hugely flawed seem to be a good image, purely because of the punch and WOW factor of the colours. I can't see those sorts of images lasting nearly as long as the monotone prints which engage on a far deeper level. The level of composition, of form, of carefully observed detail and texture.
Black and White engages you, Colour excites you. Black and White will stand the test of time, but something makes me suspect that colour won't.
Realistic and Real aren't the same thing to me. Something can be very real without being at all realistic. Real is to do with a different sort of truth than the bare facts which comprise Realistic images. Black and White is a prime example; by cutting through the distractions to just the quick of form and structure, we somehow have a distilled version of the image. If done right, this monotone image is anything but monotonous. There is something very final about an image composed of grey values, it seems to have a permanence which Colour images just don't. Colour can be tweaked and altered to a far greater extent than the colour mix in a Black and White image, which just doesn't seem quite a honest to me. Of course, photography shouldn't be about sheer honesty, but rather an interpretation, but there's a point where an interpretation just turns into a lie with little or no basis in the reality. Whilst that also has a time and a place, it reduces the extent to which the audience can truly engage with a work, which is ultimately the majority of the point of all art. (That is if you presume that art should have a point at all of course).
In my opinion colour hides a multitude of sins, and actually can make an image which is hugely flawed seem to be a good image, purely because of the punch and WOW factor of the colours. I can't see those sorts of images lasting nearly as long as the monotone prints which engage on a far deeper level. The level of composition, of form, of carefully observed detail and texture.
Black and White engages you, Colour excites you. Black and White will stand the test of time, but something makes me suspect that colour won't.
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