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America
In Black and White
Duke Caldwell & John T. Collett
Color or Black & White?
The real world is a color world. We are born into a world of color. We live in
color. We see, interpret, and dream in color. Landscape images in b&w are
more fictional than those in color, so the b&w photographer inherits an
enormous degree of latitude in further manipulating reality. Deciding between
color or b&w should stem from an artist’s intention and creative preference.
Seeing the world in black and white as opposed to color is not better or worse.
It is a variation in the same way that prose differs from poetry, or fiction
from non-fiction. Photographers who prefer to represent the landscape in b&w
do so because of artistic intent and preference. Because the removal of color
from a landscape immediately transorms the scene from one of reality to one of
fiction, the b&w photographer can experiment more freely with abstraction
and symbolism.
 Duke Caldwell
“The power of a beautiful radiant print is magical and can elicit deep emotional
response from the viewer. The old saying, A picture is worth a thousand words
is inadequate.
The photographer views a color scene and visualizes the final print in shades
of grey. From deep black to shining silver the photographer stretches or contracts
the light to fit the print visualized in the mind. Only in photography are there
infinite shades of grey between the deep black and the glowing silver light.
To capture light on a sheet of paper in just the way visualized is truly magical.
Art is the only way to preserve some of God’s magnificent creation. Man
is rapidly destroying this world. Photography has helped change many attitudes
toward environmental concerns. I hope these prints can enhance that change.”
The Landscape Image
Nothing seems easier, to a person who has never tried it, than to photograph
the surrounding landscape. The beauty is everywhere. Those bright flowers,
rich green forests, soft clouds floating in the sky, gently rolling hills,
a peaceful flowing stream, or the magnificent heights of a majestic mountain
peak. Surely all one needs to do is point the camera at these beautiful objects
and click
the shutter.
It is not surprising however, to observe from that first exposed roll of film,
numerous over and underexposed images, out of focus objects, sloping horizons,
unidentifiable objects in the scene that weren't supposed to be there, and a
myriad of other non-aesthetic, uninteresting images. What happened to that incredible
panorama of those rolling hills? Where is the beautiful stream flowing calmly
at the base of the mountain range. And how did those obtrusive telephone wires
appear in the picture? What went wrong?
Landscape photography is not a casual matter, but a skill that requires much
time and considerable patience. Ansel Adams, who spent his life creating magnificent
landscape images, once said that landscape photography is “the supreme test
of the photographer, and often the supreme disappointment.”
Landscape photography offers unique challenges, challenges other forms of photography
don’t have.
First, the landscape photographer has little or no direct control over the elements
in the scene. You cannot tilt the mountain range slightly to the left. You cannot
physically darken the clouds or give the stream softer lines. One of the challenges,
then, is to control and even enhance nature’s elements visually.
Second, unlike most other types of photography, nature dictates the lighting,
colors, contrast, and weather. Each of these can change from hour to hour, sometimes
from minute to minute. A landscape photographer has the distinct challenge to
compensate for these unpredictable changes, and even take advantage of them for
a unique, dramatic shot.
Third, a landscape photographer should strive to produce photographs that render
nature as beautifully and technically perfect as possible. The challenge is to
create a final print that has the same huge depth of field, panoramic scope,
incredibly fine detail, wide contrast range, and overall drama as the original
scene.
If one can meet this challenge, then not only has the photographer produced a
work of art, but also, in a sense, preserved nature itself.
Written with his brother David, John’s first book on Black & White Landscape
Photography has recently been published.
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