Black & White vs. Color, a debate that never was
I love this slide because of the timeless quality of the images by Khan. These images feel like they easily could've been made yesterday based on the position and pose of the subjects, the evocative and modern feeling communicated by the entrapment and desolation emitted by the images, and the metaphorical meaning behind the images. Regarding this juxtaposition of the modern verse the past, if these images were made today or even in the light they are viewed today would seem as if they are somewhat staged to speak on behalf of modern issues concerning the lack and misuse of voice and the issues behind the church and state. The ability of Khan to travel the world and archive so much of its uniqueness as an outsider while shoving so much depth and meaning into his works is truly admirable.
Recently, when discussing some of my work after having arrived in Singapore, a lecturer described most of the images I've made as looking like "tourist images". This was a bit hard to swallow and really sent me inward trying to understand the meaning of this criticism and how to take it in a constructive manner. I still haven't discovered how to do so, however, Khan's work makes me optimistic in believing that photographers objectively deemed as tourists can make images that do not appear to be "tourist images". Nothing about Khan's work makes me think "tourist", however, I didn't think my work screamed it until I received this comment. It really makes me question how one can understand a place well enough, or what it means, and how to measure the idea of understanding a place well enough, to objectively portray and capture that landscape and environment in a manner that digs deeper than the surface level as Khan so obviously was able to achieve with Archives of a Planet.
These two images marked a very fun mini-experiment I did a few months ago when first entering the world of color photography. Since beginning my journey into photography in 2021, the majority of my projects and selected works have been in black and white. The biggest reason being it feels a bit easier in that I struggle to focus on the subject matter and make a clear and concise image with the added distraction of color.
These images happened by chance. I had one exposure left of black and white film in my camera before switching to a roll of color film to make another composition of the same subject. The result: two completely different images with only slight changes in composition and drastic differences in mood, emotion, and evocation.
Sure the added lights from the passing cars brighten and add an extra element to the color photograph, but overall the color photo feels lighter, less dramatic, and more friendly whereas the monochromatic photo feels dark and dangerous, the grime on the concrete is far more apparent, and the setting feels apparently different than the color image.
All of this being said, I don’t necessarily feel that one image is more or less artistic than the other based on its colors. There are aspects that change each image, however, I am a firm believer in the idea that a good image is made in the subject, composition, and execution rather than the color of the image.
To Color, or Not to Color?
This is an interesting study between the use of color versus black and white because it brings in the politics (especially in the conservative mindset of the 19th century). When analyzing the use of color in this already-controversial image, the color actually increases the controversial-ness (?) of the image and subject matter. Robert Machado, when discussing the politics of applied color, notes
“[…] the subject in this composition is posed and revealed to convince viewers of her visual appeal[, …] her cheeks might be interpreted as flush with youth and passion (or have they been rouged for us? […] we get to decide). Her hair and pose, […] reflect a formality (stylized for us), and her body is whitened and reddened in an effort to guide attention and reading.
In this stereoscopic image, however, tinting has rendered the subject's skin suggestively "pink" all over. Instead of following selective endowments of red and white pigment, viewers are encouraged to select for themselves how they wish to trace and read and, thus, use this woman's body; the evenness of her "cooked" pink flesh is displayed for consumption. The effects of stereoscopy also work toward this effect. The illusions of the stereoscopic apparatus interact with her playful yet "direct" visual address in the mirror to underscore her permission to enter her room (her "space") and fetishize her body according to our preferences”.
Via the colorizations, along with Machado’s in-depth analysis of both the content and suggestive colorization of the image, this picture becomes highly suggestive, sexualized, and fetishized with the inclusion of color and enters the light of an odalisque.
Stillfried & Andersen
Also known as the Japan Photographic Association, was founded by Baron Raimund von Stillfried and Hermann Andersen in the 1870s and offered color retouching services for photographers nearly from the advent of the photographic medium.
The use of color by companies and people like Stillfried was eventually capitalized by westerners to develop ‘exoticized’ images of the east (specifically japan) marketed and geared towards tourists and travelers. Emiko Jozuka explains
Eager tourists, explained Kuhn, often stopped over at photo studios near their hotels before they had seen anything to make sure they had their customized bundle of made-for-tourist photographs ready before they headed back home.
According to Odo, there was a correlation between the increasing number of Westerners visiting Japan's port cities, and the demand for photography.
"A dual market developed as the Japanese elite wanted their own photography connected to ideas of modernization, and the tourist production geared their imagery towards foreigners," said Odo.
Additionally, Danny Lewis provides further insight into this issue when discussing the addition of color into images by artists like Felice Beato and Adolfo Farsai (credited on images above)
Photographs from 19th-century Japan portray an "exoticised" version of the country […] filled with geisha, samurai and cherry blossoms. The reality of the era was very different: these photos were staged, then sold as souvenirs for European tourists.
Ansel Adams’ Tango with Color
This a very tricky work to date, and very controversial- an idea that I’m not sure I am on board with. Buzing is a software developer who utilized a neural network to colorize monochromatic images. While I do love the world of artificial intelligence, I think this idea, with Adams’ philosophy and touchy relationship with color photography, crosses the line and enters the world of parody. Buzing took works from Adams’ National Parks project and inputted them into this network to produce a colorized image.
According to Richard Woodward of Smithsonian Magazine
“[Adams] once likened working in color to playing an out-of-tune piano. America's regnant Western landscape photographer tried to control every step of picture-making, but for much of his lifetime too many stages of the color process were out of his hands. Kodachrome—the first mass-market color film, introduced in 1935—was so complicated that even Adams, a darkroom wizard, had to rely on labs to develop it. Color printing was a crapshoot in the 1940s and '50s. Reproductions in magazines and books could be garish or out of register. Before the 1960s, black-and-white film often actually yielded subtler, less exaggerated pictures of reality”.
Elliot Erwitt
Rome Italy, Elliot Erwitt, 1940s
Elliot Erwitt began to allow color to seep into his practice in a very interesting manner. He began to explore the streets with two cameras around his neck- one holding black and white film while the other held color. These images are incredibly powerful not only because they show the same scene depicted in both manners, but because they show the progression of a moment in a manner that a single image can’t possibly match. Although that is completely unrelated to the topic I find it incredibly interesting.
Province Italy, Elliot Erwitt, 1955
Erwitt, when discussing his process of photography, says
Unless I am taking pictures for my own pleasure, wether I shoot black and white or color is often detrmined by the assignment. normally i prefer sooting in black and white for my personal pictures, but now, having extensivly examined my past color pictures, I am less dogmatic. In the end, it is only the quality of the picture that counts.
Wedding, Siberia, Elliot Erwitt, 1967
Saul Leiter
Saul Leiter is one of my all time favorite street-photographers because of the incredibly painterly quality of his work. Everything he produces has such a soft, composed, and intentional quality. Although he is most well know for his color work, all of his images, as Erwitt would applaud, achieved such a similar effect.
William Eggleston
Eggleston, often considered the “Godfather of color photography” still walked the line between the difference in medium and made incredible images with both tonalities.
William King is a commercial photographer known for his retouching and hand-painted color on top of his black and white photography. Very beautiful work that pushed the lines between photography and painting.
Jem Cresswell
To conclude, I want to leave you with the work of a very inspiring contemporary photography, Jem Cresswell, who inspires the idea that black and white photography is, in fact, not dead.
It’s a bit hard to believe that black and white photography still exists. For the most part, photographers all have moved into the mainstream of color, so, to find the photography of contemporary artists like Creswell, who exclusively shoot in greyscale is incredibly refreshing.
sources:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iohNZZtNtYo
https://towardsdatascience.com/what-do-ansel-adams-iconic-images-look-like-in-full-color-b70914ec6faf
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/ansel-adams-in-color-145315674/
https://www.newyorker.com/culture/photo-booth/saul-leiter-in-black-and-white
https://www.sleek-mag.com/article/william-eggleston/
https://www.artsy.net/article/artsy-editorial-artist-dreamy-colorful-street-photography-secret-decades
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stillfried_%26_Andersen
https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2016/jan/15/made-in-manhattan-how-saul-leiter-found-beauty-in-gothams-glass-and-grime
https://www.vice.com/en/article/4xagxg/how-feudal-japan-got-into-photography
https://www.jemcresswellart.com/oou6z6cor8a35ix11hffsmcu72ivyd
