Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2004/09/25
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]Fascinating. -----Original Message----- From: lug-bounces+bdcolen=earthlink.net@leica-users.org [mailto:lug-bounces+bdcolen=earthlink.net@leica-users.org] On Behalf Of Tim Atherton Sent: Thursday, May 06, 2004 7:52 PM To: Leica Users Group Subject: RE: [Leica] There is more to light than how bright it is... > Yes, it's true that had color film been invented first, we would > probably not have monochrome film - or if we had it, it would simply > be a novelty. But that's irrelevant, because black and white film was > invented first, and black and white iconic images are what we > ultimately judge all photography against. > > Certainly there are some subjects that are inherently "color" > subjects. But there are many, many that are not. Imagine Salgado's > work in color...Imagine Eugene Smith's... Recently I've been feeling my understanding of b&w and colour in photography to be somewhat unsatisfactory and superficial - based as it was one the clothes/soul analogy. I read a wonderful little book called "Chromophobia" about the fear of colour in the history/practice of art and it certainly got me thinking It has caused me to examine much more about how I work (or can work) in colour. The basic thesis is that in western art there has been a prejudice towards and fear of colour. He follows a historic thread through on this. The Soul/Cloths statement is in a direct line that goes back to Plato's prejudices on this. The primacy of line and form over colour, colour being "merely" cosmetic or surface. The child who is told in Kindergarten they must "colour in between the lines" (interestingly my wife's mother - who was an artist in her own right, banned colour in the lines colouring books from the home when she was growing up...), the hierarchies of colours in art text books and colour theory in art education over the last 150+ years, How the human, earthy colours of Rembrandt are much more acceptable than the gaudy, sensual, tempting colours of the East, Corbusiers "banishment" of colour after an experience at the Parthenon (having been seduced by colour in the Orient) and more - and how in much art (and certainly in photography) there is what amounts to a fear of colour - which is best kept under control of line and form (or better still, black and white) - what the author describes as a fear of corruption or contamination through colour - which lurks within much Western cultural thought and art. This is apparent in the many and varied attempts to purge colour, either by making it the property of some 'foreign body' - the oriental, the feminine, the infantile, the vulgar, or the pathological - or by relegating it to the realm of the superficial, the supplementary, the inessential, or the cosmetic (clothes as opposed to soul)" He then goes on to look at how colour is in fact possibly more substantial, fundamental and essential, indeed elemental - and in some ways much harder to understand and work with. As I say, it's a small book, but certainly set me thinking tim _______________________________________________ Leica Users Group. See http://leica-users.org/mailman/listinfo/lug for more information