A Good Quote about B&W

[julianphotoart]

A nice quote seen in this month's Popular Photographer:

"Black and white are the colours of photography. To me they symbolize the alternatives of hope and despair to which mankind is forever subjected"---Robert Frank

 

[fishtek]

My favorite is a paraphrase of Kennedy's statement about power. "Color corrupts and absolute color corrupts absolutely." Eddie Adams? Of course, nobody HAS to agree... I happily shoot color, too.

Regards!
Don

 

[amateriat]

"Color distracts, black-and-white distills." That one's mine. Of course, to quote Traffic, there are always exceptions.


- Barrett

 

[Bryce]

Somebody famous (maybe Weston?), circa the late 1960's-
"Color photography is vulgar."

 

[Limpovitj]

Somebody famous (maybe Weston?), circa the late 1960's-
"Color photography is vulgar."

It was Walker Evans.

 

[FrankS]

Colour seems to force one to look at the surface of subjects. The abstraction of B+W creates the illusion of being able to see deeper. FS

 

[Ducky]

When you take a photo in color you get pretty pictures of there clothes. If you take images in B&W you get little glimpses into there souls.

I took a 3/4 profile of my granddaughter in color. Sweet, passive, slight smile. Very nice. When converted to BW she look sad and I dumped it. I hope the above is not always true.
Sorry, no example, it's in my archives someplace.

 

[Bryce]

Limpovitj-
Thanks... I couldn't think who said that to save my life, only when it was said and that it tickles me.

 

[350D_user]

"Great photography is about the visual effect upon the viewer, not sharpness"
www.cameraquest.com

 

[Carzee]

Black n white vs colour? Faster PP -less complex white balance and profiling issues!

 

[shadowfox]

I took a 3/4 profile of my granddaughter in color. Sweet, passive, slight smile. Very nice. When converted to BW she look sad and I dumped it. I hope the above is not always true.
Sorry, no example, it's in my archives someplace.

Take heart, I took an noisy (iso 1600) digital picture of my daughter with her milk bottle, turn it into b/w and immediately the lack of color made her eyes draw mine in and wow!

That picture becomes one of my favorite. 😀

 

[DannL]

The Black and White photograph has a timeless quality, not found in a Color photograph.

 

[kmack]

This quote has been floating around RFF for a while.

"When I want to show you something, I use color. When I want to tell you something, I use black and white."

I still have not seen it put any better than that.

 

[edodo]

we dream in B&W

 

[lament]

I don't, and I doubt anyone does.