CSS 4

Why just Black and White?

April 26th, 2005

Why just black and white when color has so much more to offer???

Sure, there are shades of gray, but why not open yourself up to a world of posibilities, instead of restricting the world to just black and white and various shades of gray…

Ya know I have never been able to figure out why the world is so determined to put everything in a neatly defined category.

It applies to so much in life it is sickening.

In my humble opinion the over simplification and minimalistic categorization of life is only contributing to the rising blandness so much of the world seems to safely crave.

I mean, hey, I can understand why some people don’t want to ALWAYS overthink things and would be served well by generalization, instead of presented with explicit descriptive wording that would only confuse them.

Take Popular Music for example. Since the early days of recorded music products there has been a mass drive to drop recording artists into a category. That way when somebody is browsing the shelves of the local records store they go to the category they are interested and shop without being exposed to anything that may fit in a different category. After all, some poor music consumer may be overwhelmed and confused, so as to walk out empty handed, dizzy from all the choices.

I don’t buy it. To me it’s always been an insult to try and pigeonhole an artist into a specific genre or category. Especially in this modern age when so much mutation and deviation has taken over the musical landscape (thank God for that!).

If nothing else, the internet has helped broaden the minds and scope of a great many consumers and has shown many of them that it’s possible to find music to their liking, even if the categorization broke out of their normal scope of discovery. It’ s good to try things that are new.

Uggg… “I don’t like jazz… not a chance” the confused consumer said, but when exposed to the music concluded “that’s jazz??? I like it?”

Jazz… what a terribly BROAD overly GENRALIZED category. How can you put old time horn blowers in the same category as fusion blending musical virtuosos paving new paths with sound??? Doesn’t make sense to me…

Back to my original query… why just black or white?

Me, I’m a photographer and I can’t seem to understand why someobody in this modern technolgy era whould make a conscious decision to shoot “black and white”. Isn’t that constrictive and limiting? I can hear the response “but that’s the point.”

OK, I get it… minimalism can be a good thing, but to me I prefer to have as many possibilities on my palette as possible. I’d much rather start off with 1.7 million colors than 256 to create my art. That doesn’t mean I won’t occasionally flip the switch to a “black and white” setting, or that perhaps in post production I will strip the colors to high or low key and maybe even sepia toned or black and white.

For me life (and photography and music) is all about the many variations and nuances that are present in all of the things that surround us.

I like to revel in all the beauty… the complexity of life… the simplicity of life… everything. Don’t LIMIT MY CHOICES - expand upon them…

And that is a good point… not either complex or simple… everything in between and outside… There is beauty too in simplicity and commonality. Perhaps the unorthodox methods of looking at simple and common things. Changing the angle you are looking at and observing from. Looking at something from a different perspective.

Diversity has it’s place. Let’s stop limiting ourselves. Let’s broaden the spectrum.

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Entry Filed under: Opinionated American