[LRflex] Re: Power of B&W?

  • From: "Robert O. SHAW" <rj5s@xxxxxxx>
  • To: leicareflex@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
  • Date: Thu, 13 Jul 2006 09:12:29 -0700

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
>
>
>
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