Black & White, Color or 3D? A study of lines

This morning I was looking at some old pictures from Bologna. These were studies in vertical, horizontal and diagonal lines. These are part of a long series of street photography I did some >10 years ago while roaming the streets of Bologna with my wife and dog. Back then it was all about learning about lines, compositions and perspectives.

Bologna is an old Italian city with impressive old architectures and open beautiful spaces. It seems to be a very livable city and citizens passing through. You can have a very enjoyable coffee in Bologna.

Less is imore

I have been looking at these old images and I can only say that my appreciation for black and white has grown over time. Black and white enhances composition and structure and it makes it easier to understand images. When I look at the pictures from Bologna I do not miss color at all but it does look very retro in black and white; but Black and white is timeless? Colors are much more a fashion and today colors are more processed than ever.

Color

Color makes it much harder to understand a picture and appreciate lines because color adds complexity. Color is harder for the senses and brain although our visual system evolved to color. Colors can bring beauty and symmetry on another level and we are very sensitive to colors but colors can be tiring.

Color is used very activly in marketing e.g. food. When did we see food in black and white? Today colors are overblown, saturated and overrated.

The third dimension in media

I never tried the new Apple Visionpro but whenever I put one of these on it was always to some extent an unpleasant experience and I always feel uncomfortable when taking off the glasses, dizzy. I remember watching Avatar a long time ago and it was an exhausting experience, another movie where technology took over art. The best 3D content I have watched was an underwater documentary.

It is an issue for the new 3D media that is driven by technology developers instead of those understanding visual arts who could make this fly. Until real artists, with a sense for the third dimension, start to engage with 3D media it has no future. In the mean time I am happy to build tools for it.

Cellphones and the unstated goal of 1:1

Today, if you read a review of camera gear, it is all about depicting everything 1:1, as close as possible. Reviewers measure sharpness, contrasts and e.g. vignetting. This is all fine and accurate photography is important in photojournalism, souvenirs and science, just to mention a few. It is harder to find reviews made by content creators doing fine visual arts.

The cellphonemakers has come up with the DXO score to measure the quality of the camera and this is many times published together with adds. I do not think this is needed and the consumers will ultimately pick out what is quality, because it works. The best optical system is not necessarily the one depicting 1:1 but this is too hard to sell and so we are overloaded with images filling clouds.

Ultimately we take pictures because they are meaningfull.

Camera and lenses

The camera was a Canon 6D mark I full frame body and lens was probably EF-50mm f/1.2l and EF 24-105mm f/4l. The 24-105 mm tends to be my goto lens and mostly shoot around 35mm or wider.