Ted: If it were possible for me to agree with you more, I would. Certainly, when I attempt street photograpy or "serious" portraiture, I break out the R8 (I generally leave the Motor Drive on the R9 for color film work, anyway) and immediately go into a sort of Altered State that causes me to examine everything in the frame for relevance to the subject. I shoot more slowly, more deliberately. Truth be told I sometimes realize a bit of sweat on my brow after a sequence, if I really get into it - even in mild weather. Certainly I agonize over each frame and spend much more time considering the crop, enlargement, aspect ratio, contrast and tone - far more than I do with color. Always, I find that color records the moment, but B&W memorializes it. Anyone who is not sure only needs to look at the great portraits by Karsh, Avedon (may we add Grant) and others. Best, Bob (Down in Seattle) >From: Ted Grant <tedgrant@xxxxxxx> >Reply-To: leicareflex@xxxxxxxxxxxxx >To: leicareflex@xxxxxxxxxxxxx >Subject: [LRflex] Power of B&W? >Date: Thu, 13 Jul 2006 08:23:58 -0700 > >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 > > > >------ >Unsubscribe or change to/from Digest Mode at: > http://www3.telus.net/~telyt/lrflex.htm >Archives are at: > //www.freelists.org/archives/leicareflex/ _________________________________________________________________ Don?t just search. Find. Check out the new MSN Search! http://search.msn.click-url.com/go/onm00200636ave/direct/01/ ------ Unsubscribe or change to/from Digest Mode at: http://www3.telus.net/~telyt/lrflex.htm Archives are at: //www.freelists.org/archives/leicareflex/