Black and White vs colour Photography

Visualizing 

Monochrome - when your thinking back to the age of black and white photography, it gives a sense of time gone by. But it wasn't actually that long ago. Before this digital age photographs were always monochrome. Nowadays with the digital world we have smart phones, technology and cameras capable of capturing colour with great accuracy.  I can recalled taking a photo or snap with my phone of a snail, what I didn't bank on was the colour and detail of the tiny stones beside the image. Detail I was unable to see with my eye alone.

I feel that like in life, many things are overlooked or ignored in our modern day quick pace. We don't need to understand how or why things work. We just click away and capture the image without thinking. Many not even considering composition, light, distance, depth, symmetry, exposure time. Like in life, were all on auto. Think of the details we miss. As usual my over-thinking begins to play a part into just how fast paced life is.

For me, I think of black and white photography as a time gone by, a memory and gate way to the past.

If asked now to go out and take a monochrome image of a landscape I bet half, if not more wouldn't know or could consider how colour would translate into a black and white image. Colours like red and green together! these are said to be similar when converted to mono. The shape or form of things can be enhanced and the blocks of light and dark can seem exaggerated. Foreground and background can easily merge together. what does make a good image? I will try this out. 

This women below I found in my nanna's box of photographs. I thought it funny how the embroidered top she wears is in fashion. I wondered at the image of how she would have looked today. The colour of her lipstick and her eyes, the detail of her top. If translated into colour could the image be modern. Would this become an image of a girl taken on this very day.  Real and less of a time or memory. Will we lose our sense of time because of this colour technology? Does it matter? 

Please see link below.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4156812/Brazilian-artists-adds-colour-historic-photographs.html

The Brazilian artist Marina Amaral has used Photoshop to add a new dimension to black-and-white photographs

Fascinating really and while I personally prefer some of the original images, colour does give a sense of real life. It makes the figures real and gives us a different sense of time. Thinking of the images of war, would the photographs of the men that died, give us a greater sense of loss? I believe it would and for that reality alone I think we should consider the importance of photography.

 So with all these images the question I ask is what power has photography got?

For me, a creative person, I think that this area has many things such as :

• communication 
• expression
• educational
• enjoyment
• experimentation
• inner drive
• inspiration
• emotion

Also see edward weston post.










Sources

https://pulptastic.com/black-white-color-40-photos-will-change-feel-past/

www.google/images.com

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4156812/Brazilian-artists-adds-colour-historic-photographs.html