Seeing color, seeing photography

If you haven’t seen American Color by Constantine Manos, spend some time with it. I’ve shown it to a lot of people. Not surprisingly, hardcore street photographers always seem to get it. As for everyone else? You never know what you’re going to get.

I’m sure photography like this would die a quick death in the wedding industry. It’s not pretty. It’s not stylish. Lighting is hard. Thoughts are abstract. And it hits all too hard in this age of f/1.2, tilts, and blur. But this is smart photography. Costa is a guy who’s been around the block and knows how to work light and color on the street. In this age of Instagram and Martha Stewart it’s a great reminder that other types of pictures exist.

On the subject of color, I heard an interesting story on Radio Lab I couldn’t resist sharing. Apparently, people haven’t always been able to recognize color. At least not in the way we do. I won’t go into all the details, but the gist is that the ability to effectively identify color comes at a certain point in a civilization’s development.

If you look at early literature from several cultures, it bears out the notion that people couldn’t properly contextualize them. Strange. But is it that surprising? Knowledge transforms our ability to understand. Think about something like food. You can give a newbie to the best sushi, chili, chocolate, or wine, but they won’t really be able to tell the difference. Certainly not in the way a expert would. Is color that different? You decide. You can hear the episode here.

The message here is you can’t take anything for granted. American Color is a known and recognized work, and I’ve seen many a photographer for whom it didn’t register. And, if it’s true about color, then that just seals the deal. There is nothing we can assume people will naturally understand.

When you’re close to a body of work, it’s easy to know too much. You know what it means. You know what it stands for. You get all of the shorthand compressed into it. But most of our clients won’t get the references. Which is not to say that it’s about dumbing down what you do. But, rather, that it’s about lifting them up. It’s not that they won’t believe you when you explain it. But you have to explain it.

All too often, we just dump a bunch of pictures in people’s laps. We talk about weeding people out. And it’s true. You need to find the right audience. But just because someone likes what you do, don’t assume they fully get what you do. As a business owner, it’s not just our job to show things. We need to make people get it. After all, if you took all that time to pack your pictures with all that great meaning and thought, isn’t it worth taking the time to make sure that people are seeing it all?