# If colour photography had been invented first



## Kleles (Jul 21, 2009)

I have often thought that our interest in B&W photography is an historical accident. If photography had been colour from the start, would anyone have "invented" B&W? And, would it be as popular as it is? 

I am a fan of B&W, having had a darkroom and all the equipment for B&W film and print processing. I never took the leap to colour processing.


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## Max (Sep 26, 2002)

Good question. I have to think that B&W as a valid art form would have swiftly followed. Art is all about invention and innovation. Sometimes removing colour amounts to a profound kind of addition. I think of the history of painting and the many different twists and turns that medium has taken over the centuries - surely photography is capable of the same latitude and depth.


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## SoyMac (Apr 16, 2005)

I think colour monochrome and desaturation would have naturally resulted from experimentation, and that the resultant black and white images would have been seen as the purest form of the evolution of colour photography.

Yes, I believe black and white photographs would be as popular as they are, maybe more so.
*OR*
No, I don't think black and white photos would be as popular, since they would be viewed as a novelty subset of tweaking the original colour photos.

But I do think that the tone of the earliest colour (first) photos would be very popular to reproduce.


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## tilt (Mar 3, 2005)

I am not really qualified to have an opinion on this, but I do have an observation to make, leading to a question: 

Before photography, there were painters. How many of them, over the so many decades of painting having existed, painted in B&W? Do B&W paintings even exist?

That being the case, had colour photography been invented first, wouldn't it be logical to assume that B&W photography would have not happened?

Cheers


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## Max (Sep 26, 2002)

Compelling black and white and grey scale paintings do indeed exist. Franz Kline did some masterful paintings that were nothing if not high-contrast, black and white compositions. Look him up; you might not like his work (I do, a great deal, and most recently revisited some examples of his work at an AGO show on Ab-Ex a few weeks ago), but where a Franz Kline exists, there are many others in the woodwork whom we simply don't know about.

Moreover, in many art classes, a fairly common exercise is to paint exclusively in black and white, so as to better understand the contribution of tone and volume.


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## fellfromtree (May 18, 2005)

tilt said:


> Before photography, there were painters. How many of them, over the so many decades of painting having existed, painted in B&W? Do B&W paintings even exist?


Grisaille technique comes from as far back as the illuminated manuscript. It is an underpainting in black and white. Colour glazes are painted on top of the grayscale painting. This technique was adapted and commonly used by Old Masters, Dutch Flemish etc, and gives the typical luminescent qualities of old master paintings.
The photographic equivalent would be hand tinted photos, b&w photos with colour painted over top.

Another underpainting technique is to use sepia tones to rough out the image. I am thinking sepia prints are one of the oldest photo treatments.


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## Lawrence (Mar 11, 2003)

tilt said:


> I am not really qualified to have an opinion on this, but I do have an observation to make, leading to a question:
> 
> Before photography, there were painters. How many of them, over the so many decades of painting having existed, painted in B&W? Do B&W paintings even exist?
> 
> ...


I used to paint in Black and White while in Art College,
It's a nicer looking painting than colour.


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## SoyMac (Apr 16, 2005)

tilt said:


> ...Before photography, there were painters. How many of them, over the so many decades of painting having existed, painted in B&W? Do B&W paintings even exist?...


Don't know about _paint_, but think of white paper, and charcoal, and pencil, and black ink drawings. Even charcoal on cave walls. 
The black and white, or at least monochrome art form, has been with us and our ancestors, for a very long time.


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## Kleles (Jul 21, 2009)

I agree that B&W in art is as old as art itself (although I think that some cave drawings do have colour in them), but this pre-dates photography.

Historically, new technologies have not re-produced old technology, but have gone beyond. There are many examples of this (moveable type _vs_ block print in printing, telephone _vs_ Morse code, cell phone networks _vs_ landline networks, to list just a few).


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## Max (Sep 26, 2002)

Drawing is indeed older than painting - more primal, distilled. But I guess we're getting away from photography here, aren't we.

I just think B&W photography is very, very cool. If it didn't exist, it would have been invented in very short order.


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## Niteshooter (Aug 8, 2008)

I would think it would have been invented as well granted it's kind of a moot point since the technology really only let us go the one way. Er well maybe using a camera obscura and pastels?


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