“In black-and-white the photographer has to translate in his mind’s eye the colours of his subject into a range of tones before he presses the trigger, and that effort alone makes black-and-white in a way more creative than colour. It paraphrases and formalizes more. Structure, texture, and rich tonal quality are all weakened by colour, for colour tends to distract the eye from strong forms and their pure architecture. A decorative prettiness may be gained by colour, and sometimes emotional force too, but drama is often lost, not least the drama of a significant instant of action which will never recur. Light in its various moods has deep emotional meanings for everyone, and black-and-white can often convey those meanings more powerfully than colour.”
Eric de Maré, Color Photography (1973)
Eric de Maré
Eric de Maré on seeing
“What is reality? The very act of seeing is to a large degree creative, for we never perceive reality as such, nor can we ever do so. Seeing is the result of training from birth and of the effects of the cultural inheritance of that training. The mind created images from the rough, raw material of the light waves picked up by the optic nerves and transmitted upside-down to the brain, where it is transmuted, the right way up, into significant forms which help us to survive.
Eric de Maré, Colour Photography
From the very limitations of all our senses we are able to create a human world from the chaos of that so-called reality which we do not, and may never be able, fully to comprehend. Seeing is too often taken for granted, but it is by no means the simple, obvious activity it is generally taken to be. It is, indeed, the most extraordinary and inexplicable mystery.”
Crafting Pixels 