“The camera is much more than a recording apparatus, it is a medium via which messages reach us from another world”
Orson Welles
new topographic #2
As artistic expression photography has always had to gain acceptance. Of all the possible mediums of creativity available, only photography has had to win approval in both black/white and color. As soon as color film made its appearance on the world stage the same debates came up once again.
- Camera images had more in common with fabrics produced by machinery in a mill than with handmade work created by inspiration.
- As a medium, it should be useful to other art disciplines but not as an art form in itself, since it couldn’t be considered equal in creativeness to drawing or painting.
- Was photography document or art?
Even after color photography won the stamp of approval ala color photography is fine art also not just black / white, many people still felt black/white was the only way photography should be viewed as fine art. This continuing bias exists even in art classes today. In a classroom discussion on the difference between black/white vs color photography “it’s more real” popped up.
You see in color how can black/white be more real?
What black/white actually does is make you focus on the image without being distracted by color, or have color effect how an image makes you feel. When coupled with noir lighting B/W in film making can heighten feelings or appearances such as you find in Stanley Kubrick’s film Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb.