the 2 Andys, Warhol and Carnegie - Pittsburgh native sons ~ (embiggenable)
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PLEASE FORGIVE ME IF YOU FEEL I AM YAKKING ON a dead horse, re: color photography. This entry will be my last thoughts on the matter. That is, at least until something on the interweb gets my knickers all in a twist again.
In any event, let’s start with this:
“What reinforces the content of a photograph is the sense of rhythm - the relationship between shapes and values….And this organization, this precision, will always escape you, if you do not appreciate what a picture is, if you do not understand that the composition, the logic, the equilibrium of the surfaces and values are the only ways of giving meaning to all that is continuously appearing and vanishing before our very eyes.” ~ Henri Cartier-Bresson
If you understand what a picture is-that “composition, the logic, the equilibrium of the surfaces and values are the only ways of giving meaning to all that is continuously appearing and vanishing before our very eyes.”-then you will also understand that color/colors in a photograph is but one of many possible visual elements that contribute to an organized whole. It is not, like any other visual element (including the literally depicted referent) in a photograph, the end all and be all of a good photograph. Think of it like a great guitar riff in a song. That’s good stuff but it’s only a part of a good song.
That written, there are picture makers who are very adept, consciously or intuitively, in selecting segments of the real world in which color/colors plays a significant supporting role in the organizational whole. And, iMo, the practitioners at top o’ that heap are those who see color and capture it with a deft touch. They are the direct opposite of what I label as color scream-ists.
In the case of my picture making, I seek to create pictures wherein color/colors are an important visual element but in manner that does not draw undo attention to itself. They are just a part of the whole. And, I want the whole to be what the picture is about.
That written, I do not consciously think about color/colors when I am making a photograph. Rather, I picture what pricks my eye and sensibilities, intuitively trusting that my vision will direct me to getting it right.
Kinda like Chet Atkins sang - hear it here:
I'm confessin' I never took a lesson, all my notes are a matter of guessin'
Hopin' they'll come out in some kinda manner that'll make the yakety sound
So if you're in the mood and your feet start tappin'
And you feel laid back and your hands start clappin'
Then I'll have done what I wanted to from way back
You're diggin' my yakety axe