An Explosion of Color

One very impor­tant dif­fer­ence between color and mono­chro­matic pho­tog­ra­phy is this: in black and white you sug­gest; in color you state. Much can be implied by sug­ges­tion, but state­ment demands cer­tainty… absolute cer­tainty. — Paul Outerbridge

Yes, I am per­fectly capa­ble of read­ing a cal­en­dar. I see that it is still June. But my self-imposed month of black and white only is over. These cars, these beau­ti­ful old machines, demand color. They are bold, and make a statement.

I love black and white. I do. And all its shades and vari­ants. Duo­tone, split tones. I love using mono­chrome to play up drama, or to sug­gest more in a photo. I read a quote that a good color photo is a good black and white photo. I don’t believe that to be nec­es­sar­ily true. There are times that I believe the splen­dor of color that we see in the world is required to make a pho­to­graph work. Or if not required, than at least cen­tral to ele­ments that make a par­tic­u­lar pho­to­graph work or not.

I have spent a lot of time think­ing about dig­i­tal pho­tog­ra­phy, and color pho­tog­ra­phy, and how they have changed the game. I have thought about all the old mas­ters who had no choice but to shoot in black and white–I have won­dered if they ever had those moments, with a scene unfold­ing before them, where they cursed the lack of color pig­ment in their films. I won­der about pho­tos that might never have seen the light of day because they just didn’t work in black and white. It is not a ques­tion of right or wrong, just about vision and selection.

Ulti­mately, it’s not a debate about which is bet­ter, which more impact­ful, which more appro­pri­ate. The chal­lenge of shoot­ing black and white only reaf­firms my belief that there are horses for courses, that there are dif­fer­ent tools for dif­fer­ent jobs. Just as a sin­gle focal length forces you to select images based on what works with that lens, so black and white and color pho­tog­ra­phy force you to become more selec­tive. To some, that can be restric­tive. To oth­ers, it can be free­ing. For­tu­nately, with dig­i­tal pho­tog­ra­phy, we have that choice, being able to shoot in color and then make those choices later, at will.

Does that make dig­i­tal pho­tog­ra­phers lesser pho­tog­ra­phers? Or just dif­fer­ent? You be the judge, I’d love to hear your answers.

If you are inter­ested in see­ing some awe­some hot rods, rat rods, and other clas­sic cars, be sure to check out the Bull City Street Rod Asso­ci­a­tion and make it out to one of their Fourth Fri­day Cruise-ins.