Why nowadays part of photographer still using balck and white photography ? and how it communicate with our society.

-- wang shu yi (siajuyi@hotmail.com), November 06, 1999

Answers

Mr. Wang, your question is sort of like asking why a person would eat pork when beef is available. Some people prefer pork, some people prefer beef, some like both.

It is much the same with color versus Black & White picture taking.

For me, I like the control I have over b&w in my darkroon as well as simply preferring to look at b&w pictures. I have no desire to have a color darkroom. Except for occasional snapshots, I do no color work at all.

I would not do color if price were no object and if a color darkroom were no more complicated than a B&W darkroom.

I simply prefer Black & White. From your question I believe that you prefer color. There is no reason why you should do B & W if it holds no appeal.

In other words, do what you enjoy. That's what I plan to do, as well.

-- Paul Arnold (osprey@bmt.net), November 07, 1999.

Though I do shoot some colour photos I mostly shoot black and white. I find the blackand white more challenging, and more dramatic than colour. The colour in colour photos, often times will carry the photo, where as in black and white, the composition and the "mood" of the photo have to carry it. I also like the fact that I can control every aspect of my photos from exposure to printing, at a reasonable cost.

-- Frank (kellyf@mar.dfo-mpo.gc.ca), November 08, 1999.

Simply a matter of preference. I, personally, think black and white photographs look better hanging on my wall.

-- Joe Cole (jcole@apha.com), November 08, 1999.

I choose to photograph in B&W because: almost everyone else uses color and I think color is boring because we see in color, it is more abstract but defines the subject, I can control the images better and print them the way I want, each photograph is unique because it is DONE BY HAND AND EYE AND NOT WITH A COMPUTER, and my great-great-great grandchildren will be able to see a print that their great-great-great grandpappy printed in his olfashioned darkroom. My two pesos Bob

-- Bob Smith (desertfoto@amigo.net), November 11, 1999.

There is also an abstract quality to black and white...reality is in color, black and white is a step away from reality.

-- Todd Frederick (fredrick@hotcity.com), November 13, 1999.

Tom T. Hall says he's a "Shoe Shinin' Man" and, well I'm a black and white picture takin' man and proud of it, lookin' forward to that next barn or wore out raggedy-ass truck alongside the road, even certain patterns of clouds are made for black and white, colors for snapshots.

-- John L. Blue (bluescreek@hotmail.com), November 14, 1999.

Someone said, "Viewing a color photograph is like watching a movie -- viewing a B&W photograph is like reading the book." Seems like a good description of the difference.

Chris

-- Chris Ellinger (ellinger@umich.edu), November 15, 1999.

I shoot black and white because it speaks to me in a way that color doesn't. I can also express things in black and white that I have no idea how to express in color. Kind of a nebulous answer, but the question is one that invites introspection, not concrete statements.

-- Fritz M. Brown (brownf@idhw.state.id.us), November 16, 1999.

Color photography is good for showing colors. Black and white photography is good for showing soul.

-- Tony Rowlett (rowlett@alaska.net), November 17, 1999.

Real photographers shoot black and white - (just kidding).

-- Art Sands (sands@msn.com), December 03, 1999.

As Louis Armstrong reportedly replied when he was once asked to define jazz: "Man, if you gotta ask, you'll never know!"

-- Michael Goldfarb (mgoldfar@mobius-inc.com), December 06, 1999.

I can take some pretty decent color photos.

I am having trouble making even acceptable B&W photos. Seems self-evident that there's something about B&W that takes more than casual attention to technique.

-- Jeff Polaski (polaski@acm.org), December 09, 1999.