For two months I have been saturated with history. The first few weeks in Ethiopia, Oman and Turkey and the most recent month in over a dozen countries… everything is saturated with history.
Sometimes, those histories conflict. Both Ethiopia and Yemen claim the Queen of Sheba as their own, for one quick example. For another, the whole holocaust has varying numbers of dead depending on what country you’re in at the time.
But often, I have found, it is not the details at all that are different, only the emphasis put on them by those recording or telling the story.
Similarly to the way this photograph presented two different ways:
…and…
…simply by removing the color, the entire mood of the photograph is changed. The focus, the detail.
The truth of the photograph is the same but the emphasis and the overall message has been changed.
In which photograph can you see that there are actually more than a dozen birds at extremely varied distances between the camera and the arch. But more interestingly in my opinion, which photograph really conveys the “truth” of the photo more accurately. Is it more important that the number of birds are emphasized or the string of bikes? Is it more important that the sky was blue?
The decision to make an image black and white should never be arbitrary.
It can either tell the story more accurately or leave details out completely.
My favorite sorts of images, however, leave you wondering whether there was color to begin with… or even if the color is still there…
.
Too often “Convert to B&W” is a quick way to drama-up a photo that otherwise was just so-so. And saturation just makes that sunset just so much better, right?
Keep in mind your messages. Keep in mind the truth.
Stay tuned. There are only a few days left before my return to the States…
-Noah D.
1 Comment
good job on these last few posts! great photos….great thoughts. thank you for all the work you put into them. they are enjoyed by so many!