The Harville House: A Magnificent Ruin
Built in 1894, the Harville House in Bulloch County, Georgia has been allowed to become a ruin, but its former magnificence is still very evident.
My publisher, W.W. Norton, asked me to create a new, additional chapter for the second edition of Backroads and Byways of Georgia. After putting more time and expense into it than almost any other tour in the book, the chapter was abruptly cancelled. Budget reasons, they said. I was disappointed and angry that all that extra work was not reimbursed. I have my own budget problems, y'know? But I did get some photos that I like, and this shot of the Harville House ruin was one of them.
Did you happen to notice that the photo is in black and white?
Here it is in
color. Which do you prefer? Does the color add anything? Does it take away anything?
For well more than 160 years from its birth, "the colors of photography," as someone said, "were black and white." As color film became widely available in the 1950s and 60s, generations of happy snappers turned out gadzillions of color prints. (I'm convinced my sister kept Kodak in business a year or two longer than they would otherwise have survived.) But "serious" photographers, with a few notable exceptions, continued to work in black and white right up to the onset of the digital revolution, when color began to totally dominate.
You may have noticed that I keep coming back to this issue. I'm a color photographer; have been from the beginning of my career. Yet, black and white intrigues me, always has.
We'll talk more about this next time.
If you like my photographs, you can see more of them in my online gallery at https://davejenkins.pixels.com/ Looking is free, and, who knows? You might find something you want to keep.
The second edition of my book, Backroads and Byways of Georgia will be released in June, 2023.
Photograph and text copyright 2023 David B.Jenkins.
I post Monday, Wednesday, and Friday unless life gets in the way.
Dave looking forward to the next installment. I prefer the black and white version because it makes the photo timeless, except for the Ram truck 😀
ReplyDeleteI grew up in the color era and all family snapshots are that way, but I tend to prefer black and white for the mystery it invokes. Plus I can develop and scan at home.
If I had known the picture would be that good I would have parked somewhere else!
ReplyDeleteThey're both good - just different! The b/w image's contrast creates great texture in the house's walls. The color image makes it feel like I could walk right up on this scene.
ReplyDeleteThis image has to be in black and white. As Greg said, it makes it timeless. A couple of years ago, I did a series of pictures on the destruction of an outmoded business jet at our local airport and converted them to B&W to make them more somber. When I showed them to a retired pilot who'd flown that model for years, he teared up. I'm sure the color versions wouldn't have affected him nearly as much.
ReplyDeletePerceptive comment, Bob.
ReplyDelete