"The Shortest Reading Ever"

“When you photograph people in color, you are photographing their clothes. When you photograph them in black and white, you photograph their souls.” – Ted Grant

I was quite hesitant coming into this class, as it is my first digital photography class and the first that isn’t strictly black and white. Color photography immediately presented itself as challenging to me because in black and white, I had often relied on the highly contrasting tones and the ability to capture interesting textures. My first experiences with color photography are well summarized by the above Ted Grant quote. I did feel like the focus of the photograph was in the intensity of the colors rather than perhaps the subject. It then became obvious to me that if the color was detracting from the subject of the image, it was also definitely affecting the way that viewers interpret the emotion conveyed in the photograph.

After working with color for a few weeks now, I am gaining an understanding of how to use the color to compliment the subject matter and highlight the message that I might be trying to send. In my opinion, there is still a certain charm about black and white photographs that can evoke a deeper sense of understanding of the image, but if used correctly, I am learning that color can play more of a role than just distracting the viewer and giving an obvious graphic description of what someone or something looks like.