Prague photo galleries are full of black and white photos of architecture, bridges, sign posts and people from the 1950s through '89. Every image I have of the country in my mind, pre-revolution, is in black and white. As if all the color were seeped out of the landscape by the politics of Communism.
But of course Prague wasn't black and white before 1989. The city had values and variations then too. Today I decided to play with what an old photo might look like, in four color. Here are two photos I took of a resolutely Prague view - one in black and white and one, for contrast, in technicolor. Which do you like better?
Tricky, I know!
7 comments:
I like the color one - seems you can just see more of the details (such as the light and shadow on the ceiling). But I really like vintage B/W portrait photography...
Like Lynn I prefer the colour one (and I adore black and white photography).
When buildings are made of warm coloured stone and the light is just right then a colour photo is just so evocative..
I also like how the color of the red on the sign post pops out, so I probably have to go with the color too. Though I do love the lapping pools of light in the black and white.
In effect they are two totally different locations. Just round the corner on the first one and we're on the set of Nosferatu. The lower one has been - and possibly still is - inhabited by humans. Seems as if the stone resembles that that crops up in the Cotswolds - the colour of sponge cake or, more specifically, a form of bread made from something other than conventional flour. Can't remember the cereal but it has a granular feel on the tongue.
I tend to gravitate to browns and yellows. When it involves shots in a city, the B&W touches the eye with a sense of history (wonder how folks will feel about this 200 years from now?), but the technicolor makes me feel that people live there and that I would like to visit in my lifetime.
BB - They do seem like two places! Both pictures are inhabited though - it is slightly easier to see the person in the color picture but she is there in both. If I had been faster by a second, my shots would have caught her swishing her skirts down the colonnade. Here she is just leaning forward, looking melancholy but probably just trying to find her keys.
R - That yellow is the color of Prague, so if you like it you really must come and visit.
What a tough call-I like them both, but the minimalist color makes me actually prefer the color one in this shot.
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