Viewpoint - David Healey

Colour or black & white? How do we choose which is the best medium to use? David Healey offers some thoughts

Ian Beesley, the renowned Saddleworth-based artist, photographer and academic tells the story of photographing drift miners deep underground. He started the project using DSLRs, shooting colour, but switched to black & white film for two reasons. First, the DSLRs fell foul of the conditions – dust and moisture. A mechanical film camera fared better. Secondly, the miners wanted ‘proper’ photography – black & white prints. After all, their world was black coal dust, the utter darkness contrasting with the white powder scattered liberally to reduce the risk of explosion. Their world was monochrome, and that’s how they wanted it told to others.