Old Lad

I have a friend who is of the belief that the UK was on a downward slide since we switched from black and white television to colour television. As evidence for this he points to the fact that when we were in black and white, we won World War Two, The Football World Cup and the Eurovision Song Contest. Proof indeed!

Recently I had a short trip to Edinburgh – one of my favourite cities – and went to see an exhibition in the Kings Gallery at Holyrood Palace. It was an exhibition of royal photography from the time of Queen Victoria onwards and featured the work of famous photographers such as Cecil Beaton, Lord Snowdon and Lord Litchfield among others. What struck me was how much more striking were the black and white portraits than the later coloured ones. They seemed to bring out the character of the subject in a far more striking way. It was particularly noticeable in comparing the coronation photos of the late Queen and King Charles. It is the same when I look through the wedding album recording our marriage – black and white just seems the right medium for formal photographs. It is a bit the same with films. Would Brief Encounter be such an emotional film if it had been shot in colour I wonder.

Growing up in the 1950s there was not a lot of colour about. Browns and Greys typified day to day clothing and colour only appeared when you went on holiday. Colour exploded in our lives in the 1960s and what an explosion it was. Colour TV appeared, we all bought flowery shirts and ties and bathrooms changed from black and white to bright yellows, turquoise and shades of green. Lighting became much stronger and shopping became an almost psychedelic experience in boutiques and department stores. I remember my mother choosing a wallpaper for our house that had huge bright yellow sunflowers on it, which she regarded as the height of fashion. Looking at photographs of it now would probably induce a migraine! Maybe its the power of the retrospectoscope but life seems to have carried on at a much more frenetic pace since then. In black and white days we communicated by letter or occasionally by telephone from the local call box (Who remembers Button A and Button B!). Now of course communication by E Mail, Text and WhatsApp seems more pressured and we have fallen into the trap of needing to provide an instant reply to any communication. Is that better or worse for our mental well being?

I am not a dinosaur and am as good a “Silver Surfer” as the next person, and I don’t regret the passing of the drab Fifties. I’ve recently bought a flowery shirt as well but still wrestle with the dilemma of should it be worn outside the trousers or tucked in! But when it comes to photographs I still yearn for the black and white era. Perhaps because it seems to offer a calmness in this turbulent age that we live in.