[Leica] Mr. B. D. Colen speaks

[pklein at threshinc.com (Peter Klein)]

I'm reposting this in the new thread in the hopes that B.D. will see it 
and comment. Or anybody else. I'm interested in the "why" of what we 
like.  Welcome back, B.D., hope you stick around!  Tina, see my question 
for you at the end of the post.

(Earlier, I wrote):

To ask whether black and white or color is superior is like asking 
whether a string quartet is "better" than a full orchestra. It's almost 
a meaningless question. You can say what you prefer, you can say that 
this one or that one works better in certain situations.

I shoot both. Digital is great because I don't have to limit myself when 
shooting.  I let the picture tell me whether it wants to be in B&W.

I generally do prefer B&W for people pictures. I think it helps remove 
other distractions and focus attention on the people, as B.D. said.  
There is also something beautiful and special about black and white 
(IMHO).  Perhaps that's because I spent many hours looking at old Life 
Magazines and books of the great photojournalists when I was young.  
I've noticed that many thirty- or fortysomething Americans prefer color, 
but my Russian and Eastern European friends of the same age almost 
always prefer my B&W shots. Maybe we just like the visual language we 
learned as kids, just as most of us prefer the popular music from our 
childhood and teen years.

When you're in places like Tina's Central America or Jayanand's India, 
color is such an overwhelming part of what you see, so it begs to be used.

Still, I have to ask this:  Tina, I'm thinking of your wonderful grainy 
B&W Noctilux shots in Central American huts, often by firelight.  They 
have a specialness in part because they are B&W. Suppose you had an 
M(240) back then, or something else that could take decent photos at ISO 
3200 or 6400.  Would you have used color?

--Peter