[Leica] Black and White

[bdcolen at comcast.net (B. D. Colen)]

I think you're absolutely correct, Peter, in suggesting that black and white
doesn't mean the same thing, and hold the same power for a 25-year-old as it
does to and for those of us well into the second half of our lives.

And as horrifying as the results are, Ted Turner was simply making a smart
business decision, knowing that most young people equate black and white
movies with old, bad, dull. As an antidote - anyone seen "On The Beach"
lately? Wow.


On 10/12/05 4:41 PM, "Peter Klein" <pklein@2alpha.net> wrote:

> Very good points, Clayton.
> 
> Food for thought.  Does B&W speak to us "traditionalists" in ways that it
> simply doesn't to younger people without a background in taking or viewing
> B&W?  Is there something universal about B&W that can be learned quickly by
> an uninitiated viewer?  Or does one have to have some background or
> training in it before one truly gets it?
> 
> Case in point.  When Ted Turner "colorized" all those classic B&W movies
> for rebroadcast, I don't think he did it just to stick it to the
> traditionalists.  I suspect he made a business decision, based on either a
> hunch or some data.  He bet that colorizing the films would bring him more
> viewers than it lost him, especially in that sacred teenage/young adult
> demographic.  I suspect most people here would consider "The Maltese
> Falcon" in color sacreligious.  But maybe Mr. Turner had a point.  (I'm not
> talking about the *quality* of the colorization, only the perceived need to
> do it at all).
> 
> I'm 51 (for another month anyway!!).  When I was a little kid, B&W pictures
> were the norm.  Color was special.  This gradually changed, but the old
> aesthetic held, particularly in arty circles.  Someone thirtyish or younger
> would have grown up with a very different photographic grounding, unless
> they were specifically interested in the medium, or hung out it arty
> circles.  :-)
> 
> --Peter
> 
> At 11:01 AM 10/12/2005 -0700, Clayton wrote:
>> I think perhaps BD came close, that B&W is Documentary, but I'd think
>> that in this case the degree of intimacy and comfort in the photos
>> suggests that the color set is more akin to perhaps Karen's idea of
>> photoethnography than to it is to tourism.  The color sense in the
>> pictures isn't secondary, it's an intrinsic part of the indigenous
>> culture and mindspace.
>> 
>> It's not surprising that of the LUG would go for B&W, though; with
>> the possible exception of Kyle we're all to one degree or another
>> traditionalists and this is a classic execution of traditional B&W
>> subject matter.
> 
> 
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