Exercise

Find a street that particularly interests you – it may be local or further afield. Shoot 30 colour images and 30 black and white images in a street photography style.

In your learning log, comment on the differences between the two formats.

What difference does colour make? Which set do you prefer and why?

For this exercise, I wander around taking shot in central Pattaya with the intention of then converting them to black and white in post-production. I believe that this is the best way to evaluate the difference between black and white and colour.

I think I should first state that I am a black and white fanboy – think it comes from my day at night school in the mid 90’s where 90% of my work was in black & white shot on Ilford fp4 or hp5 and processed myself in the darkroom and that when I was growing it was photojournalism and sport photography that brought me into photography and this was mainly seen in newspapers that were in those days  exclusively black and white.

Colour Set

Colour adds another dimension to a flat image that a photograph is it and bring a scene to life, the colours can add details and the colour palette of an image can age an image.

Black and White Set

Black and White is more about the shape and the form in an image its graphical representation. Colours is no longer important but this is replaced by the tones and shades within the image. Black and white can appear timeless at first appearance.

Which of these sets to I like the most it is hard to pin down, the straight-out-of-camera feel of the colour images is rather flat and uninteresting, even more so that the effect I was looking for as the overall colour palette of some of the images is quite monotonic and even a simple conversion to black and white does not change this flatness.

The night images when in both Colour and Black & White stand out more from their peers as the light envelopes the subject and illuminates and it is at times like this where it would be sad to convert to B&W (unless there was horrendous colour noise you needed to conceal).

THe post production is key to the presentation of images and no more so is that in the choice of B&W or colour – assuming we are shooting digital where the decision can be taken in the post. A photographer has to make the choice why is he presenting his pictures in Black and White, this something that I learnt in Expressing your vision, Black and white has an artic connotation we cannot simply slip in the Camera club mentality of converting a dull photograph to B&W to impress our peer with a gritty image.

Quite simply what I an trying to say is that B&W and Colour need to be considered so that when they are present they are the right tools for the job they are doing Remember this :

A 13mm spanner will tighten a 10mm nut & bolt but not as well as 10mm spanner!

Below is a gallery of 3 of the images that I have taken the time to post-process as black and white and colour.

These illustrate that there are pro & cons to the depiction of the 3 images in the 2 formats. I have indicated my personal preference in the captions.

Maciej Dakowicz is a photojournalist who has reported from all around the world and is now a member of the inPublic street photographers collective but it his study of Cardiff after dark that he is most famous.

After Dark is different to traditional street photography, not relying on the traditional shapes and shadows and surrealism to be more of an extended photo essay on the binge drinking culture of the UK and as said by Sean O’Hagan in the Guardian [you] could even view it as a snapshot of what has gone wrong with Britain since deference and good manners gave way to lack of respect and vulgarity (2012). Especially after the Daily Mail spectacularly miss understood it in an article in 2011, but Dakowicz is not mocking is subjects but inviting the viewer to consider what drives them to this strange compulsion to drink with friends until they can’t remember what they have done (Howarth and McLaren, 2011).

Dakowicz drew on his own experiences for this project as a student in Cardiff over 5 years and this evident in his images – sharing a compassion not just being voyeuristic.

References

O’Hagan, S. (2012). Cardiff After Dark by Maciej Dakowicz. [online] The Guardian. Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2012/sep/30/cardiff-after-dark-maciej-dakowicz [Accessed 27 Jan. 2018].

Hardman, R. (2011). The shaming images that turned Britain into a laughing stock. [online] Mail Online. Available at: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2040260/Maciej-Dakowicz-Cardiff-After-Dark-binge-drinking-images-turned-Britain-laughing-stock.html [Accessed 27 Jan. 2018].

in-public.com. (2016). Maciej Dakowicz. [online] Available at: https://in-public.com/photographers/maciej-dakowicz/ [Accessed 27 Jan. 2018].

Howarth, S. and McLaren, S. (2011). Street photography now. London: Thames & Hudson.

Do some research into contemporary street photography. Helen Levitt, Joel Meyerowitz, Paul Graham, Joel Sternfeld and Martin Parr are some good names to start with, but you may be able to find further examples for yourself.

What difference does colour make to a genre that traditionally was predominantly black and white?

Can you spot the shift away from the influence of surrealism (as in Cartier-Bresson’s work)?

How is irony used to comment on British-ness or American values?

Make notes in your learning log.

Street photography was traditionally in Black and White and with the exception of Joel Meyerowitz, who produced street photographs in colour from the late 1960’s, most street photographers, including  William Klein, Lee Friedlander, Robert Frank and Gary Winogrand did all their work in black and white until the mid/late 1970’s. In fact, in the street photography, world colour at that time was frowned on. Why would the be?

At this time Colour would have been technically more difficult as the best film, Kodachrome, was only available in ISO25 & 64. Obviously, this was way behind black and white, which could be pushed to ISO 1600/3200 which resulted in the signature contrast and grain of the genre.  Those of us who have used colour slide film know it is notoriously unforgiving on exposure and therefore in those days being able to achieve a perfect shot in the frenetic world of the street, as Joel Meyerowitz was doing would have taken great skill and practice.

Until Stephen Shore’s landscapes,  ‘Uncommon Places’ in the 70’s there was little acceptance of colour in the art photography world, colour photography was only for fashion, advertising and travel. Shore wanted to show the reality of the landscape, as opposed to Ansel Adams who wanted to show its beauty.

WHAT DIFFERENCE DOES COLOUR MAKE?

Robert Frank said ‘Black and white are the colours of photography’.  However, this view changed as the use of colour film grew – the public liked the reality that colour brought, Black and White seemed dated to them, most film and TV by the 60’s was in colour, especially in the USA. Only Joel Meyerowitz was leading the colour revolution, shooting the New York streets in colour since 1962

Colour introduces complexity, by adding different colours, shades, and hues (which can make or break your photo) (Kim, n.d.).

The main difference I see between Black and White and colour is that colour introduces reality and transform the banal into art. Whereas Black and White is all about the shapes and the form with the frame. As Eric Kin says Colour introduces a complexity to street photography due to how it can dominate a scene – it is much hard to nail a colour street photograph than Black & White.

CAN YOU SPOT THE SHIFT AWAY FROM THE INFLUENCE OF SURREALISM (AS IN CARTIER-BRESSON’S WORK)?

In Photography: A Critical Introduction Liz Well says that while Surrealism is the attempt to replicate the world of dreams this an oversimplification of real intent and was also a challenge to the existing art establishment. (2015)

Cartier-Bresson was a contemporary of many surrealist and much of his work stands out as having surrealist overtones. As can be said of many of the traditional black and white street photographers with their use of juxtaposition, overlapping, floating bodies etc (Kim n.d.). And while as a movement surrealism in art said to be from 1924 – 1966 you can see within Cartier-Bresson’s work moved away from it from World War 2 onwards and also it less prevalent with the introduction of colour by Joel Meyerowitz in the 1960’s.

However, it has never completely gone away while there is banality and reality in modern Street photography there is still reliance of juxtaposition many other traits of surrealism.

HOW IS IRONY USED TO COMMENT ON BRITISH-NESS OR AMERICAN VALUES?

Dr Biljana Scott in ‘Picturing Irony: the subversive power of photography’ states that there is two kinds of irony that can be encountered in photography: Word-Based and more subtle Echoic Mention.

Word-based is fairly obvious it involves the juxtaposing or a billboard or some other form of text with the other elements of the photograph. As in this image below by Dorethea Lange:

© Dorothea Lange

These men clearly are unable to afford the train they are perhaps unsuccessful hitchhikers and the billboard seemly sarcastic in its statement.

Echoic Mention is much more subtle and involves the ‘mention’ rather than the outright ‘use’. She uses the below image by Robert Doisneau to illustrate:

© Robert Doisneau

And describes is thus:

[…] an arrogant looking man in hat, tie and pinstripe suit, cigarette in mouth, dog at his heals, stands in front of a shop. Judging from the awning, the shop is called ‘Merode’, but because the man’s head obscures the letter ‘O’ from the name on the shop front, the remaining letters spell out ‘merde’ (‘shit’ in French). Doisneau uses this coincidence in order to pass an ironical judgment on the man: he may think he’s hot, but we see him in another light, and unbeknown to him, he has been labelled as such. In the terms of echoic mention theory, the man’s body language is a genuine statement about himself (use). This same body language is signalled as a pose (mention) by the photographer, whose critical (echoic) attitude is reflected in the text of the shop name. (Scott n.d)

This type of irony is seen in the work of Martin Parr in how he captures English is not necessarily juxtaposed again something physical, but against their normal British reserve – for example his “last resort” series.

© Martin Parr

Bibliography

Scott, B. (n.d.). PICTURING IRONY: the subversive power of photography. [online] Diplomacy.biscott.co.uk. Available at: http://diplomacy.biscott.co.uk/publications/PICTURING IRONY.pdf [Accessed 25 Jan. 2018].

Gruyaert, H. (2015). Banality Can Be Beautiful – Photographs by Harry Gruyaert | LensCulture. [online] LensCulture. Available at: https://www.lensculture.com/articles/harry-gruyaert-banality-can-be-beautiful [Accessed 25 Jan. 2018].

Kim, E. (n.d.). How to Shoot Color Street Photography. [online] ERIC KIM. Available at: http://erickimphotography.com/blog/color-street-photography/ [Accessed 25 Jan. 2018].

Open Walls (2016). STREET PHOTOGRAPHY ∙ FROM EARLY MODERNITY TO STREET ART. [online] Open Walls Gallery. Available at: https://openwallsgallery.com/street-art-photography/ [Accessed 25 Jan. 2018].

Kim, E. (n.d.). Surrealism in Street Photography. [online] ERIC KIM. Available at: http://erickimphotography.com/blog/2017/12/24/surrealism-in-street-photography/ [Accessed 25 Jan. 2018].

The Art Story. (n.d.). Surrealism Movement, Artists and Major Works. [online] Available at: http://www.theartstory.org/movement-surrealism.htm [Accessed 25 Jan. 2018].

Cartier-Bresson, H. (n.d.). Magnum Photos Photographer Portfolio. [online] Magnum Photos. Available at: https://pro.magnumphotos.com/C.aspx?VP3=CMS3&VF=MAGO31_10_VForm&ERID=24KL53ZMYN [Accessed 25 Jan. 2018].

Gross, T. (2018). Todd Gross. [online] in-public.com. Available at: https://in-public.com/photographers/todd-gross/ [Accessed 25 Jan. 2018].

Parr, M. (n.d.). Martin Parr. [online] Martinparr.com. Available at: https://www.martinparr.com/ [Accessed 25 Jan. 2018].