A couple of days ago I asked the question whether the water lilies would work best in color or B&W, or if I could choose both. Why can’t I make two, or even more versions of the same photo, and present them all.
When I got married, my wife gave me a print from a fairly young artist named Björg Torhallsdottir for morning present. By coincident we also got another of her prints as a wedding gift. The reason I mention this is that I have seen several of her motives printed using different colors and paper. I have even seen the same motive drawn in two different versions. If she can do that, and still make a living of it, and her prints are very popular, why can’t I do it when I just do this for fun.
I have read several places that you can’t be successful at both color and b&w. It is so different in how you see the world, and how you think. They may be right, after all I’m hardly any successful at any of them. I just do this for the fun and joy of it. But I can’t help thinking on the different artists through history that has been very successful in such different areas as painting and sculpturing and architecture. And how many people I know of that is really good at more than one thing. You brain cannot get full of skills and knowledge, it is only restricted to what you allow to get in, and the difference between color and B6W photography are far more subtle than many other skills you mix up in your life, so why not try both. Or why not get really crazy and pick up a pencil or a paintbrush.
I think that the idea of not being able to do both Black & White and the Color photographs is worn out dogma, only maintained by groups who have a personal agenda for one or the other. To me, thats is like saying that I can paint in Color but I can not do a pen & ink or create something monotone in graphite.
So fear not, do both or anything in between!
No doubt I will. The problems with “truths” like this, and many others, is that they creep into your brain without you noticing. You just believe that this is how it should be and never think it through. The only way out is to stir things up a bit from time to time, and really think things through.