11th assignment of the Streettogs Academy! We are nearing our 12th assignment that might be just in times for the anniversary as well. Congratulations to Monika Jaskowska Bablok for getting the editor’s choice for the previous assignment! Let’s keep cracking on the next one. This one is going to be a bit of a challenge but should be a great change of pace especially for those shooting in black and white.

Honestly, I was surprised with Monika’s choice as I know she is very proficient with black and white but one of the aims of the group and the assignments is for it to be a place to experiment and improve your style and method of shooting.

Regarding this theme, one of the photographic quotes that make me cringe every time I hear it is this one by Ted Grant:

When you photograph people in color, you photograph their clothes. But when you photograph people in black and white, you photograph their souls.

I always believed that you should never be dismissive of a technique, method, or any other way of working. Each of those will contribute to the story you want to make. It shouldn’t be the case of black and white vs. color but what would be best in telling the story. The thing is, color when executed properly can be soulful as well. I’ve harped his work in the past but Nguan is my favorite example of that as of late. It can even be intense if you look at how Amy Lombard and Thomas Prior executes theirs. Of course there are the usual suspects of course, such as your Eggleston, Parr, Goldin, and etc.

So how can you effectively pull this off? Eric has already written about spotting and making use of complementary colors here. If you don’t have time to read that, a simple solution is to combine warm tones together and cool tones together. Don’t just shoot the brightest eye catching colorful thing you see, try to make the scene yours and put in other elements.

Here are the mechanics: