#photophography

[nomanfly]

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[diane-jones-blog]

Adventures in Art

[bhabanism]

The curious case of colour

Lot of us are under the impression that black and white photos are somehow superior to colour, may be this notion has come from looking at bnw photos of the masters, the magnum photographers, the classics. I would not be writing this blog if most of us were making an informed artisitic choice between bnw or colour, few are but most are not. Either most are converting failed photos to bnw to somehow make it work or are somehow convinced that bnw is art and colour is not. I will be laughed at if I propose bnw is better than colour in any other visual arts, may be Van Gogh will chop my ear.

As we are street photographers, let’s hear what Bresson says on why he used bnw and not colour -

“Color photophography brings with it a number of problems that are hard to resolve today, and some of which are difficult even to foresee, owning to its complexity and its relative immaturity. At present [1952], color film emulsions are still very slow. Consequently, photographers using color have a tendency to confine themselves to static subjects; or else to use ferociously strong artificial lights.” - Henri Cartier Bresson.

So basically, street photography was just impossible to do with colour film at Bresson’s time. But later on, when it was possible, almost all Magnum photographers moved to colour.

And we also have probably India’s all time best photographer, Raghubir Singh making books after books in colour film (he used fill flash too outdoors), here’s what he says -

“Colour has never been an unknown force in India. It is the fountain not of new styles and ideas but of the continium of life itself. In India, no one uses the commonplace and self-conscious western term colourist - the word does not even exist in our artistic vocabulary. Indians know colour through intuition, while the west tries to know it through the mind. Indeed, India is a river of colour.” - Raghubir Singh

If you are shooting India and you have the mindset that colour is vulgar, you will never be able to capture the essence of this ancient civilization. Colours are the symbols of this land and its people, its very signature of continuity.

Here’s more in defense of colour from a great photography teacher -

“Keep in mind that color is inherently closer to reality than black-and-white. Unless you’re totally color blind—and very few people are totally color blind—you see the everyday world in color. So you’re somewhat constrained in pushing color balance or saturation . . . unless your imagery goes into the abstract realm. It’s hard to push colors of recognizable and realistic scenes very far from “realism” before they simply appear to be wrong, yet photographers forget this repeatedly. My recommendation is to try to remember the original scene, which will prove to give you a better basis of how far you can alter, saturate, or desaturate those colors to keep them compatible with the mood you wish to convey.” - Bruce Barnbaum

“I have long felt that it may be easier to make an acceptable color photograph than a black-and-white photograph, but it may be even more difficult to make an outstanding one. Because color is instantly recognizable and is therefore more accessible to the average person, it’s easy to make pleasant images. But because color is so accessible, it’s hard to break away from a documentary image to one that is personally expressive: too often the scene dominates over the mood, the feeling, or the interpretation. Creating an image in color that is truly expressive—one that breaks away from the scene—requires a great deal of thought and dedication, as well as rapport with and deep understanding of the subject. None of this comes easily, but when it is achieved, the results can be breathtaking.“ - Bruce Barnbaum

Footnote: The image used in this post is Playing 'Punishment', a Marble Game, Bombay, Maharashtra, 1991 by Raghubir Singh

You can reach me at https://www.instagram.com/bhabani.photos/

[nomanfly]

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[nomanfly]

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