[Leica] Black and White (longwinded)

[henningw at archiphoto.com (Henning Wulff)]

At 1:06 PM -0400 10/12/05, Tina Manley wrote:
>At 12:22 PM 10/12/2005, you wrote:
>>Black and white says "documentary," "reality" - even though b&w is not real
>>;-). Color, in this context, says 'tourist.'
>
>So far, the vote is 14 for B&W, 7 for color, 4 for Sepia, and 4 
>undecided (including me).
>
>Tina
>
>Tina Manley, ASMP
>http://www.tinamanley.com

The responses re: colour vs. B&W are influenced by a lot of factors; 
probably more and at deeper levels than we are aware of in viewing 
any particular set of photos.

In my personal history, this decision has often been made by 
circumstances that have nothing to do with intent.

In the 1950's, I shot roll film, and my film budget was limited. 
Colour prints were lousy and expensive. B&W was a lot cheaper, and I 
had access to a darkroom and knew (slightly) what to do in it.

In the 60's I shot mostly 35mm, had a slide projector and sometimes 
had a bit more money. I shot mostly B&W, but also Kodachrome. Any 
photography I did for money was B&W.

In the 70's I got serious about making money with photography, and 
generally shot colour as that was what the clients wanted in all 
formats up to 8x10; mostly transparencies as the quality was better 
than negatives. For myself, I still shot a lot of B&W; partly because 
it was comfortable and I knew what I was doing, partly because I read 
a lot about the history of photography and saw what had been done and 
was influenced by that. On travels I mostly shot transparencies in 
35mm, but sometimes wished I had shot some in B&W. On some trips I 
did shoot B&W, but mixing the two was never satisfactory. This was 
definitely tourist stuff, but the denigratory sentiments we (superior 
photographers :-() often express towards tourists, or family 
snapshooters should be tempered by the realization that we are all 
tourists and family members at times. My young family caused me to 
fall into those categories, and I went into them with eyes open and 
never regretted it. I tried to take the best photos I could under the 
circustances, but sometimes the condition of being a tourist or 
family recorder takes its rightful precedence over being a 
photographer. That was, and often still is, my position :-).

In the 80's colour negative material got better and more versatile 
and I shot less B&W because a lot of my time was taken up with my 
photo business, and my client's wishes came first. In this decade I 
didn't use my Leicas much.

In the 90's I did less photography assignments (my architecture 
business did better!) and I shot less colour negative and more B&W 
with the Leicas. I began to realize that B&W suited the Leicas and 
the way I shot with them, and colour suited the SLR's, MF and other 
stuff somewhat better, as far as I was able to make use of the tools. 
I still generally feel that way.

When I take pictures, I either take B&W pictures or colour pictures, 
and that is independent of the material I have in the camera. I find 
it extremely hard to take decent colour pictures and B&W on the same 
outing. 35mm, MF and LF on the same outing: yes, as long as they are 
all either colour or B&W.

Due to the general history of photography and my personal history, 
B&W has a strong position and evokes a lot of that history and its 
connotations. If photography in general and I in particular had 
started out with today's digital cameras, I'm sure our emotional 
responses would have been quite different and the aesthetic that has 
developed around B&W would not exist.

As for your pictures, Tina, to me they look like they were taken in 
colour, and that remains their metier. While I like many of them as 
B&W, that comes more from my history and associations with 
documentary photography than the photos themselves. The circumstances 
of their lifestyles vis a vis ours, and their particular tragic 
relevance influences this as well.

The main thing is still that these are very touching, evidently 
heartfelt moments recorded wonderfully by you. Thank you very much 
for showing them to us.

-- 
    *            Henning J. Wulff
   /|\      Wulff Photography & Design
  /###\   mailto:henningw@archiphoto.com
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