Usually, creativity
is a personal pursuit,
creativity can give
someone else happiness.“I used to
hate doing
colour. I hated
transparency
film. The way
I did colour was
by not wanting
to know what
kind of film was
in my camera.”- Helmut Newton
“Dodging and burning
are steps to take care
of mistakes God made
in establishing tonal
relationships.”
–Ansel Adams.“I like making
B&W films in natural
surroundings, but I much
prefer shooting a colour
film inside a studio
where the colours are
easier to control.”
–Claude Chabrol, French
New Wave filmmaker.SHOOTING TECHNIQUEAPRIL 2015 BETTER PHOTOGRA PHY
73in a way, it pleases the eye but it doesn’t
necessarily reach the heart.”
While Robert Frank, the creator of the
seminal photobook, The Americans, believed:
“Black and white are the colours of
photography. To me they symbolise the
alternatives of hope and despair to which
mankind is forever subjected.”O
ver the years, various people
related to the visual arts, be it
filmmakers, actors, painters
and of course, photographers,
have had certain staunch ideas
about the B&W medium. Some consider it
a necessity, some consider it artistic, some
consider it emphatic and powerful, while
others consider it a relic of the past.
So, I set off, trying to understand the
various reactions that the B&W medium
evokes and what we can learn from them.
As Maureen O’Hara, an Irish actress and
singer, and one of the last living actresses
from the Golden Age of Hollywood, said:
“In the beginning, it was all black
and white.”More? Or Less?
Does the medium strip away or does it give
you more information? Kim Hunter, an
American actress who starred in A Streetcar
Named Desire was of the opinion that:
“...emotions come through much stronger
in black and white. Colour is distractingEugène AtgetBetter PhotograPhyRoger Fenton