Back in the mid-seventies there actually were a few photographers (most of whose names I'm ashamed to admit I can't recall at the moment) who were striving to break the "B&W formula." Unfortunately, their efforts were pretty much blown out the water by the explosion of color unto the scene in '76.Ralph Gibson abandoned his B&W wide angle ways and proceeded to make some uniquely "fragmented" images with his 50mm. John Gossage continues to define his own original B&W language and territory to this day, at times it's almost as if he's managed to incorporate the "new" color sensitivity- without the color. Look at the photo above, it's like many other color photographs one would see today in art galleries or contemporary photo books- except somebody clicked the desaturate button!
3 comments:
Do you think it's an American thing Black & White out of favor as far as galleries are concerned?
Japan seems to have less of an issue, the likes of Diado Moriyama, Scandanavia giving us Petersen. Ok they are established artists but there are a younger crop coming through using mono, not to mention Jacob Sobol.
Well, I'm no longer privy to the NY art scene, but if there was a renewed interest, I'm sure you'd see the trail here on the internets. Remember the so called Black & White Revival proclaimed on Charlotte Cotton's Tip of the Tongue round about two years ago? Well, it's gonna take more than mere proclamation from on high (shouldn't she be held accountable?), but it is just a question of time- although how big, and by who or how many and for how long and by what final driving impetus is anybody's guess...
Perhaps we will start to discover some of the answers to these questions in the new year with "Expiration Notice"!
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