Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2005/10/12
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]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.