For this exercise I’ve transposed street to mean public and therefore carried out my shoot on footpaths on the Malvern Hills close to where I live. My reason for this was to garner a wider range of human activity rather than shoot in my local town of Worcester where I would be likely to just find shoppers passing me at pace, or people staring into their phones.
When viewing the two sets of images the main difference between the two is the amount of information contained within the colour set. The colour images are loaded with content helping draw my eye around the whole of the frame. The colour set is closer to reality as we see it, whereas the black and white set relies mainly on shape and form and is aligned to photographic history. The colour images are more contemporary in feel and play to the rational of human experience.
Looking at the two images above, it is noticeable how much information is lost in the black and white conversion. Instantly my eyes are drawn to the subjects hair and the pink of their tops and finally to the girl in the foregrounds shoes. My eyes flit in a triangular shape between all the points of colour reference – this sharpening of visual interest is lost in the black and white image – which is reduced to form and shades of grey.
I think the main point that I have learnt from this exercise is not necessarily regarding the reality of colour and its ability to draw you around the frame, but moreover, I’ve learnt about the reductive nature of black and white and the information that is lost. In so far as to which set I prefer I am quite torn between the two. I do like the graphic and stark qualities of the black and white set, but if push came to shove I would side with the colour images mainly for their realism and for the way that colour has the power to help lead me around the frame, and, as with the images above colour can add punctum.
I can honestly say that the exercise has truly shifted my thinking as I have always been stalwart in my defence of black and white. This is a lesson well learnt.
Context and Narrative 