Hi Cem
I won't repeat what others say, but these are truly good images (an image isn't a pict nor a snap!)…
Though, sorry to be the only one to have a "though" here, I'd like to seem them in colour. Paris is high in colourS (colour being a stone in the American language (they do say color, so poor!;-)
Thanks for sharing!
BTW funny is the comment of Doug, for the women having lunch, my first though was this one is not a Parisienne, she must be American… LoL)
Hi Nicolas,
B&W appreciation is like finding one's palette for great wines. At first, seeing the sommelier going through a routine of pouring sniffing, swirling and tasting appears to be a remnant of some past practice in a Lord's manor, checking a vintage long forgotten, an arrogant vestige of the past. With acquired taste, the palette is trained to sense and enjoy the mysterious orchestration of aromas and flavors and presence from so many other parts of our experience.
Such is the pleasure of observing a great B&W print, where hues of color have been converted to tonalities, bring out the formal beauty of the physicality of the subject matter, devoid of the diversions color might induce. It's just the wine in the mouth with one's eyes closed. The color is no longer important.
Here, Cem's Paris scenes are personal views through the mélange of fast society. He removes the color diversion and stops all the sound. We are left with pure moments that will be seared into our memory. Now we'll return to these pictures again and again and each time they will be complete and still as fresh and alive as they are now.
It may seem counterintuitive to remove the color that creates the attractive patina of things we see. After all, isn't that the truth we are photographing? Well, we could be in a forensic crime scene or a new report. But we are not necessarily after any such truth. We want to get some form of the beauty we see. But we just want to use it for our passion.
However, the rich color, by its nature draws attention to itself or to the parts it covers. That self-importance of color often works against seeing the richness of form and lighting behind the color. We need to get there, where meaning lies. For, as I said elsewhere, it's not what
actually is there that makes for art but rather a mirage. So what is this? It's imagined as a kind of unrestricted, uncensored ghost-like personal space within our minds. This needs to be opened up to allow us to go above, below, through and around the physics of the art. In this imagined space we experience an invigorating tour with our own ideas and lunchbox of reflections and questions. Here not only do we get the obvious sensotic* pleasure of the art, but also the ideas we bring to the work that goes far beyond what might be obviously found there.
To test for the need for the color in a B&W picture, ask if it arouses pleasure and brings you to this private place I refer to. If it does do that well, then ask, “In what way might the color version carry out this differently?” Perhaps the color and B&W derivatives of the image file constitute related but different forms of art, each with a unique strength and propensity for a journey you might be tempted to take with your lunchbox!
Asher
*
Sensotic is a descriptive term for works of art that I have coined and defined to cover all experience of the enveloping sensuality of beauty, horror or eruptive** or socially constructed emotion that draws us into itself to bathe in the feelings so induced. This experience is seductive before and beyond the boundaries of obvious logic and intellectual argument. However, it not necessarily erotic, good, bad or a route to be closer to a God or some kind "cosmic consciousness". The feeling however, might be enjoyed as any of these, depending or the cultural training of the individual. The activity would be expressed as
sensoticism.
**
Eruptive EmotionImmediate animal involuntary reactions to stimuli with an automatic unregulated cascade of chemically mediated signals that give rise to arousal of attention and reactions of the "Big Six" of happiness, sadness, fear, surprise, anger, and disgust and then extended, according to Ekman (1999), to include the emotions of "amusement, contempt, contentment, embarrassment, excitement and guilt, pride in achievement, relief, satisfaction, sensory pleasure, and shame."