Digital BW, The Print

There's a much longer history of (artistic) monochrome 
representation of the world around us than the one with multi 
colors. Say  40.000 years against 4000 years. In no technology 
I can recall there has been multi-color first and monochrome 
later. So I think it must be baked in our genes meanwhile 
despite the fact that we see in colors. While it may be more 
abstract it isn't alien to our system, the translation is made 
without that abstraction coming to mind. Could well be that 
the latest generations bombarded with full color see it as 
more abstract than my generation and the ones before do, but 
you don't wash 40000 years from your system that fast.

This doesn't imply that there are no physiological reasons, we 
are much more sensitive to tonal differences and tonal 
contrast than to color differences and contrast.  If that 
hadn't been the case we wouldn't have accepted the primitive 
multi-color representations in early photography and movies at 
all, much of that was a B&W skeleton draped with one, two or 
three colors and they were the rage of their time.  In 
contrast: strip a modern movie of its tonal content and 
there's little left, much more abstract than we can get used 
to. A friend made some paintings like that 35 years ago, 
interesting but not for a wider public. There are other 
examples. Most sharpening techniques in digital color are 
based on tonal contrast only (for more reasons) and it works 
without question. I do not know the development of the visual 
system in species but I would be surprised if it didn't start 
somewhere as a monochrome one,  say 1 bit quality.

I just find it strange that B&W photography isn't set in that 
history of the monochrome representation of the world. It got 
its place there long before we started discussions about color 
control on B&W images.

Come to think of it. If I go to an old B&W movie like 
Polanski's Repulsion, Cul de Sac, Cassevete's Shadows, 
whatever from that period when color was available but not 
affordable for everyone, you don't think about abstraction 
after the first 10 seconds. Deneuve, Pleasence, become as real 
as they were in color movies.

Met vriendelijke groeten,  Ernst


|  Dinkla Grafische Techniek  |
|     www.pigment-print.com    |
|             ( unvollendet )            |