in color

I was in the middle of an honors dissertation defence today, in my office - an excellent dissertation, by Catherine DePalma, who was writing about the importance of giving a formal analysis of documentary photography (looking especially at Sander, Lange, and Cartier-Bresson), and not just considering the impact and import of the subject matter - and the topic of color in documentary work and street photography came up.   I mentioned a comment made by one of the photographers whose work I saw at the Museum of London street photography exhibition about how difficult it can be to shoot street photography in color, since it's so dependent on the sudden, fortuitous moment, and if the color doesn't work, one doesn't have an image, however strong the composition may be.   I hypothesised, though, that there are some days when one's consciously thinking / looking in color, some in black and white - and at that moment I turned my head, and saw color exemplified: a pink and orange curly bracelet that I bought in some distracted moment at the Zimmerli, and that's hanging from my purple desk lamp.   So I had to hope that the light would still be strong and clear when the session ended ...