Thursday, October 7, 2010

Empty Thoughts

"There's no such thing as silence. You could hear the wind stirring outside during the first movement. During the second, raindrops began pattering the roof, and during the third people themselves made all kinds of interesting sounds as they talked or walked out."

—John Cage describing the premiere of his silent composition 4'33", quoted in The New Yorker, 10/4/10

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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
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2 comments:

  1. Ghost of Garry WinograndOctober 7, 2010 at 12:45 PM

    "I mean you’ve seen plenty of pictures where there is black, and it works."

    ~ Garry Winogrand

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  2. J. Wesley BrownOctober 27, 2010 at 11:21 AM

    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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