Harry Eyres’ column in the Weekend FT this weekend was about colour vs black and white photography. He was making the point that he had always preferred to work with black and white, but when he printed some old colour slides of his father’s he found the colour made the photographs much more emotional. This is an interesting observation and I think it happened for him because the slides were about family, specifically about his last holiday with his grandfather. Our visual memories always seem to be in colour, don’t they? So colour photos, personal colour photos, can much more powerfully reconnect us to strong, emotional memories.
I think colour memories also begin to produce largely subconscious general responses to particular colours. I read this article while waiting for a connecting flight to Edinburgh in Charles de Gaulle airport this morning. The amazing thing for me is that the particular colour photos Harry Eyres was writing about were taken around Tain and Dornoch, exactly where I spent a few days with friends at the end of the previous week. My friends are South African and commented on how the colours of the north of Scotland were so reminiscent of the colours of Africa for them – until we came across the gorse in bloom. That incredible yellow is utterly Scotland for me, especially next to blues and browns. Later in the year when the heather comes into bloom it’ll be the shades of purple which will do exactly the same for me.
So that got me thinking (surprised?)……
- If memories are usually in colour, why do many people say they don’t usually dream in colour? (I always dream in colour!)
- Which colours create which emotions for you? (I know that psychologists have ascertained common colour influences but what about your personal responses?)
- Yet again, I am struck by synchronicity. What are the chances that first of all, Harry Eyres would have been to that particular part of Scotland and the photos from that very holiday were the ones which stimulated him to write this particular piece? And secondly, what are the chances I would read it? (I don’t buy the FT, just happened to be one in the airport lounge). And, thirdly, what are the chances that I would have just taken photos in that very same part of the world mentioned in the article?
Heroes Not Zombies 
synchronicity is so much fun! Like a game for adults 😉
I don’t know that I could answer what each color feels like to me, but recently a friend of mine created a piece of art with the most vibrant, deep red, and called it “soothing red”. I found it interesting that he thought this kind of saturated, blood-like color was soothing to him, and it made me wonder about how many times I think of a particular color as belonging to a category of feeling, only because it’s been taught to me to think a certain way.
Oh that’s nice Ester! Synchronicity – a game for adults! I like that! You’re so right about the sort of social conditioning element of our experience. It’s really hard to break out of those “taught” ways and find our individual responses instead, isn’t it?