Youth wants to know! Does anything in this woebegotten world we inhabit even come close to expressing the preternatural joy to be experienced at the sight of black-and-white photography? If so, please advise, ‘cause I wanna check that shit out.
Meantime, assuming we’ve all reached our weekly quota of same over at shorpy.com, here is some fun good evidence, from the streets of Penang, illustrating the verity of the point in contention.
For what it’s worth, all the images are done “in-camera” – i.e., the effects are realised via various camera settings, and monitored beforehand. Despite having been read the riot act on several occasions by fellow-travelers insisting that post-processing is the more superior means by which to achieve photographic effects, it’s been my steadfast contention that I’m far too lazy to be spending time fucking around with any kind of software-based image-processing shenanigans (save, of course, for zapping corporate logos).
But having recently witnessed, here in George Town, a rather shockingly impressive exhibition — featuring one photographer whose wonderful and striking photos were all captured via smartphone, with effects administered after-the-fact — I may just have to break down and consider whistling a different tune. We shall see.
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Happy shuttering – in whichever colours you choose to employ, and by whatever means you choose to alter your images. May you enjoy as beguiling a subject matter as Penang, Malaysia!