The Case for Color

I love B&W images.  They speak to me on a level that color simply cannot and for a long while I wondered why.  A few years ago, after reading Susan Sontag "On Photography" book I began to realize what it was.  Photography for me has nothing to do with reality so the B&W abstract interpretation of our world appeals to me. 

But there are times when a color rendition can be just as abstract. The film has to be right, as does the development and the light has to be just so but it does happen.  And these, abstract representation of the world, draw me in and tap into an emotional memory that can be more powerful than a B&W image.

The picture above, with its obvious location, was shot on Portra 400 film.  This was taken early int he morning and the sun was coming up.  The sky was a blue grey while the sun coming up was bouncing off the stone architecture that was all around me.  I shot this image and the colors are obviously nothing like what I was seeing.  But what I was seeing was not nearly as beautiful as this image.  

As I think back on the day, my memory has slowly changed to match this abstract view of it.  It was a wonderful day, a day I took off from work, took a bunch of film and a couple of cameras and dedicated myself to a photography walk around London.  Most of my favorite images of that wonderful city comes from this walk.  

These colorful shots, processed with slightly expired chemicals, give me the abstract interpretation of the world that I love.  Digital continues to improve and the quality of images, the details that can be captured and the perfection of the cameras themselves continue to surprise me.  But the natural film rendering of a scene, when properly captured transmits more emotion then the perfection of those digital cameras.