'Racism' of early colour photography explored in art exhibition

[jsrockit]

In America, there was a time (and not that long ago really) when white people dominated everything in media and companies didn't think about other races when marketing. Now a company would be stupid to ignore any race.

As far as this thread is concerned, we all know photographing certain subjects is tricky with film. However, I can't see a company building racism into a chemical process.

 

[Gabriel M.A.]

It is simple. Two morons use expired film to make a point about film that was intended to be shot years ago. Then based on their poor results they draw conclusions which have little to do with the state of film technology back then.

It is a fine example of the "news" industry spewing bovine feces to make a buck. Idiots chasing the almighty dollar (is it pound or euro in case of the guadian? ).

I think you put into words what my first reaction was.

Wait until they report on the shocking sexism of the underwear industry. Not to mention the thinly-veiled pornography on its packaging. 🙄

 

[Gabriel M.A.]

Is this a post-event re-interpretation of the technology limitations of the time or an actual example of institutional racism of its period?

I think their lack of low-light offerings is further evidence of this bias.

Furthermore, daguerreotypes were so expensive in the beginning, it's clearly anti-non-rich folk. And anti-children. It was purposefully a long-exposure technology which wanted nothing to do with those fidgety beings.

 

[Roger Hicks]

I think you put into words what my first reaction was.

Wait until they report on the shocking sexism of the underwear industry. Not to mention the thinly-veiled pornography on its packaging. 🙄

Isn't it supposed to be thinly veiled?

You are not old enough to recall the thick wooly knickers that were part of schoolgirls' uniforms in the 1960s and before. In my day they were called 'passion killers'. My mother reported that in the 1930s they were known as 'harvest festivals' (as in the old Harvest Festival hymn, 'all is safely gathered in').

You need to be more of a schoolgirl fetishist than I am (or ever was) to find those damn' things attractive. Teenage boys could skin their knuckles on 'em; all the schoolgirls I knew in the 1960s wore at least one more pair of knickers (plus tights) underneath. Or maybe that was just 'cos they knew about teenage boys...

Roll on (or better still, roll off) Victoria's Secret.

(Is this any more OT than racism and outdated film? Probably, but it revives happier memories.)

Cheers,

R.

 

[funkpilz]

All of this is just about as racist as marketing extra-strong sunscreen exclusively to white people.

 

[DamenS]

All of this is just about as racist as marketing extra-strong sunscreen exclusively to white people.

Come to think of it - isn't most sunscreen white ?? Pretty racist. :bang:

Personally, I'm still eagerly awaiting the well-researched Guardian "expose" on how neither Leica nor Linhof use parts made in Israel, and their lengthy postulation as to the only reason why this might be the case - it will be 10,000 worthy words, I'm sure ... 🙂

 

[zauhar]

Never mind the number of black faces, racism, or anything else. Consider the simple truth that most Caucasian skin is a light mid-tone (easy to represent given ASA/ISO negative film speed definitions) while many 'black' skins are dark mid-tones (some are darker) and correspondingly require more exposure to bring them somewhere near a mid-tone. As no film speed criterion is based on skin tones, all these allegations sounds a bit contrived to me. In other words, yes, this is a post-event re-interpretation of the technology limitations of the time, the Guradian at its wosrt.

Cheers,

R.

To risk getting involved in this -

I recently took photos with a modern emulsion (obviously) of a stage production my daughter was in. There was a mix of skin tones, from very dark to very pale, all under harsh lights. This is still a challenging problem, no matter what the speed of the film!

Pretty easy to deal with if scanned into photoshop, but I also did prints in the darkroom. The best solution I found was to use the shots where the dark-skinned actors had good tone, and then burn in the pale faces. No great shots from this set, but I did learn something.

Randy