I saw a quote by Ed Eckstein as I was preparing to write last week’s entry. I was going to include it, but on further reflection felt it was so important that it deserved a separate discussion. Talking about his wonderful Doylestown Hospital images he stated “I shot the project entirely in Black and White, which I feel is the true color of photography.” He went on to say “It enables you to see the emotional content of the photograph.”

To me these two sentences are profound and sum up well my own feelings about black and white photography, and black and white film photography in particular. When I make and see a black and white photograph I feel that I have reached into the essence of the thing itself. There is a directness and purity for me that I don’t find with color.  For me, color is for everything else … living my day-to-day life … and color can be quite beautiful, but I feel it can be like watching a series of postcards pass before me vs. viewing a beautifully shot black and white movie such as Woody Allen’s masterpiece Manhattan.

For some reason, when I look at paintings I get the opposite impression. In many ways paintings are about color and the choice of color(s) the artist makes to render a subject.  In the case of modern art, the work is only about the use colors (unless only one color used) their relationship to one and other and to space, and how color is used to somehow get across what the artist wants to say. The colorful world I see in painting … a different art form than photography … makes complete sense.

All right, you might say, what about photorealism paintings. Yes, I appreciate them and they’re in color, but still, they are not the same as photography. Color paintings strike me in a way that is similar to listening to my vinyl LPs played through tube electronics. In comparison, color photographs strike me in a way that is similar to listening to what a CD sounds like played through a solid-state transistor system. Wow, I think I just had an epiphany as I’m writing this!

One of my favorite photography books is the great Morley Baer’s The Wilder Shore. Baer used an Ansco 8X10 view camera for over fifty years to capture California’s farmlands, coastline, forests, deserts and buildings, usually in black and white. I said usually in black and white because in The Wilder Shore Baer displays both black and white and color images of similar subject matter. And while his color work is some of the best I’ve ever seen because of the great lengths he went to in order to make his color perhaps less colorful, when comparing the black and white and color images side by side, I am always drawn to his black and white pictures first. NOTE: I have written a longer piece on this outstanding book, including a description of how he made his color photographs. You can find it On My Bookshelf.  FURTHER NOTE: Do yourself a favor … find this book and buy it!

So I think what Ed said is absolutely spot-on. My own experience of over fifty years proves it to be true to me. Writing and posting here every week for over five years because I have a passion for black and white film photography proves it to me. The work of my Monalog Collective colleagues proves it to me. And Morley Baer’s great book along with the work of all the other photographers I admire proves it to me.

Thanks Ed!

Stay well,

Michael