From Black and White to Color

I studied photography when I went to college, and got my BFA in 1978 from the School of the Museum of Fine Arts and Tufts University (it was a joint program, art classes at the Museum School, academic classes at Tufts). At the beginning of my school days everyone was working in black and white exclusively, that was considered “art.” But then a bunch of us started experimenting in color. I never looked back, although I remember now that developing and printing color was very hard, you had to be very precise about maintaining the temperature of your chemicals.

But moving from black and white to color. It was like that moment when Dorothy steps out of her tornado-flung farmhouse and into the world over the rainbow. It was so spectacular, and glorious and shimmery and enchanting. Unlike Dorothy, I never wanted to go back home! I thought of that when I ran up to the roof the other night, when we were having that sunset of all sunsets (and I was thinking there was a chemical explosion to explain it).