—John Cage describing the premiere of his silent composition 4'33", quoted in The New Yorker, 10/4/10
Winogrand: I mean, just take a look in this room, ok? Who is wearing anything black? Take a look at somebody who is wearing black. There’s light on it, what color is it, is it black? Or is it grey? Is there a black in nature?
Audience Member: Yeah?
Winogrand: No, sorry. When the lights are out, when there’s no light, it’s black. Take pictures then, be my guest.
—From a 1974 talk at MIT, transcribed on 2point8
2 comments:
"I mean you’ve seen plenty of pictures where there is black, and it works."
~ Garry Winogrand
I'm about to talk about this on a post today. Winogrand was shooting B&W when he said this and he may have a point there. Of course, some people's taste favors high contrast so, like everything else in art, this is subjective.
More importantly, I think this becomes less relevant with color. Personally, I absolutely love pure black mixed with color but then, that's me. Maybe if you could give me a camera with the same dynamic range as my eye, I'd get used to that and start favoring a more "open" print. Maybe.
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