[Leica] Mr. B. D. Colen speaks

[images at comporium.net (Tina Manley)]

Hi, Peter -

I missed your first post because we have been out working in the garden in
the few hours it hasn't rained here lately!

Yes, I would have made the photos in B&W even if I had color available.  In
fact, I always carried two cameras, one with color and one with B&W film.
 I used B&W normally for people and for when I needed high speed - most of
the time inside dark adobe houses!  I think I would still use B&W even with
the high ISO digital available today.  That's why I've got the MM camera
now.  I just love B&W for people.  The Guatemalan people use color as part
of their identity and it seems a shame to remove that so most of my
Guatemalan people are in color.  I do have some of the women working in
their houses in B&W, though.

Ted is right about clothes and souls!

Tina


On Tue, Jul 9, 2013 at 1:45 AM, Peter Klein <pklein at threshinc.com> wrote:

> 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
>
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-- 
Tina Manley
http://tina-manley.artistwebsites.com