34 Comments
Aug 28Liked by Dina Litovsky

A press-photographer friend of mine once told me there was an old adage - 'If the light's shite, go black and white' His tongue was firmly in his cheek, and was a brilliant photographer regardless of the medium or camera, but I think there are rather too many people that stick to that idea religiously with varying levels of success!

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Love that

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Very interesting, but 'dem is fighting words'.... ;0) As a black and white film photographer, it seems to me that perhaps the push of a button to post haste turn a lovely color file to black-and-white in the digital realm is perhaps efficient, but hardly ideal. Anecdotally, I am reminded of how new applicants to the Magnum Agency were asked by Cartier-Bresson to bring only contact sheets, which he proceeded to look at upside down. He was not interested in subject, but in composition, tone, shadows and the graphic language of the image. Perhaps this quote, from a Canadian 'Master', the recently passed news photographer, and one of the first to shoot 35mm, Ted Grant: “When you photograph people in color, you photograph their clothes. But when you photograph people in Black and white, you photograph their souls!”

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Black and white does often go hand in hand with the romance of capturing a "soul" Maybe that's why cynics (like me) tend to shoot color :)

Love the Bresson anecdote.

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Aug 28·edited Aug 28Liked by Dina Litovsky

'It accomplishes its goal of transforming a mediocre photograph into an aspirational one, winking in the direction of “art.”'

Nail on the head.

Personally, I feel color is just soo hard (in street). Any little patch of wrong color can make a decent photo a fail. I also love how bw removes another layer of experienced reality. Take away the sound, take away the color and meditate on what remains. But yes, it might have the opposit effect of adding a choir singing "this is so profound" with strong reverb to every mediocre snapshot.

I love Matt Black, Chien-Chi Chang and, thank god a woman, Robin De Puy.

Oh and that first photo of Whittaker is awesome!

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author

Love Matt Black! Will check out the rest, thank you!

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https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/21675035/

When you mentioned that coming up with your fav BnW photographers resulted in more men than women in your list, it made me think of something I’d read: that women tend to visualize hues more strongly (?) than men. I wonder if that could play a role in shifting the motivation of shooting (or editing) in BnW more towards males… I’m curious what you think about this bit of physiology trivia.

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Didn't know that!

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Martine Franck, Sabine Weiss, Ellen Lewitt, Susan Meiselas, etc...

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Aug 28Liked by Dina Litovsky

I don’t shoot in black and white but lately I’ve been thinking I should. I agree wholeheartedly with the idea of “if you can’t make it good, make it b/w.” But I also think there’s something refreshing about stripping an image to essentials of light and shadow. A different way of thinking, it seems to me. Your examples are exceptional.

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Funny; my fellow B&W photographers who shoot film, they always say: If you can't make it good, make it color saturated and print it huge! To each their own.

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Print it huge is def up there in art sauce dept :)

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Yes, I was sorta paraphrasing the sentiment. The phrase I was originally taught was, "If you can't make it good, make it big."

Then they added, "And if you can't make it big, make it red."

I think somebody once had an addition to that, too, but it escapes me.

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Aug 28Liked by Dina Litovsky

Awesome. Thank you, Dina!

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I'm somewhat in love with Ash Gilbertson's work for NYT.

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Aug 28Liked by Dina Litovsky

Andre D. Wagner, for sure.

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What about Andrea Modica? If gigantic 8x10 platinum palladium b/w is your thing...and she's a girl.

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Beautiful work. Reminds me of Sally Mann, who is one of my favorites. Thank you!

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You're very welcome. Did a class with her once, she's like a Jedi - nothing gets into the frame without it being carefully considered. The whole tilt and the shift and the swing and the pitch and the yaw and the image is upside down thing is probably not for me, though..!

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I would turn your assertion about black and white photography on its head and argue the same about color when done by those seek nostalgia as a cliché.

I argue that, when done well, black-and-white strips away artifice, whereas color can just as easily go into that cliche territory. Consider the romantic notions of bygone days when photography geeks argued about Ektachrome vs Kodachrome. I think about color done poorly, but in such a ubiquitous way on Instagram nowadays. It’s usually by influencers circling the globe for the next waterfall, Scottish field or Icelandic volcano, landscape or quaint town. One can use color as “art sauce” as well as I often see it applied like an overly salted VSCO dish.

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My go to for the art of B&W is Irvine Penn. His brilliant work from cigarette butts, to Woody Alan as Charlie Chaplin, to Aboriginal mud tribes, to Marlene Dietrich , and so on…he is the master of the Art of B&W

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Kristine Potter. Dru Donovan. Katherine Turczan.

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All exceptional photos!

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ALAN SCHALLER

Heavy contrast is stunning!

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I find that long time Contact Press Image photographer Yunghi Kim to be an excellent b/w photographer. Her current work in b/w is some of her best ever. She is also the founder of Trailblazers of Light, dedicated to the trailblazing women of contemporary photography, and she has an annual grant for new and established photogs. Please see her work here https://www.instagram.com/yunghi.kim?igsh=dm1sbXkzcWlhbzRk, enjoy the ride!

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I shoot b/w and colour....at the end of the day the work stands or falls^^

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