Paint it Black (and White)
September 08, 2004
Black and white photos are starting to fascinate me, mainly because I don’t quite understand them. I don’t know how they work; I’m baffled that the reduction of a world saturated with colours to a single dimension can be so pretentiously satisfying.
The removal of colours seems to simplify pictures, to expose the skeleton that gives them meaning. Contrasts become more ravishing and lights more intense. And suddenly I have an urge to experiment with the medium. Does anyone have any hints (like where to begin)?
Posted by Tudor at 11:59 PM in Ideas & Images | TrackBackThe photography of either chroma-contrasted or chroma-homogenous subjects tends to make the B&W photography process a more interesting one, at least from o’er here…
Posted by: Trevor on September 09, 2004 at 01:29 PMHmm. Chroma-contrasted? Are you saying that a subject with contrasted saturations creates a more vivid B&W photo? I’ll have to try that, though I’m not sure how colour saturation translates into gray tone …
But yes, let me play with contrasts and shadows for a while, before I tackle your croma-homogenous subjects.
Posted by: Tudor on September 09, 2004 at 03:37 PMwhat colour is there in the monastery,
but the skeletal spirit of divine glory,
robed, monks and nuns are reduced to flesh
take colour away and
we feel that all there is and all there was
is black and white, flesh and scaffold
but the wondrous pretentious awe of the black and white photo
is not the sudden revelation of form,
but the controlled witholding of magic
Wow … “controlled witholding of magic”
Your lines are mindblowing my poetic friend! They’re also wonderous, pretentious, awing.
Thank you for explaining colour and magic.
Posted by: Tudor on September 09, 2004 at 08:43 PMGo thru the Channel Mixer to get the most interesting [and unexpected] results…
Posted by: Trevor on September 09, 2004 at 09:15 PMIs the channel mixer analogous to using colour filters in film photography? It does seem to work in marvelous ways.
Posted by: Tudor on September 09, 2004 at 09:29 PMshape vs. colour yo. You are stripped of one, explore the other.
Posted by: sra on September 09, 2004 at 10:02 PMStripped — I like how you put that. Yes, there will be stripping and exploration (in black and white).
Posted by: Tudor on September 10, 2004 at 12:26 PMYes, in many ways the use of colourfilters on black and white film is essentially the same as the Channel Mixer in Monochromode.
Posted by: Trevor on September 10, 2004 at 11:49 PM