Even now in the 21st century amongst all of the technological advances that have been applied to cameras, televisions, and computer monitors, a simple black and white photograph taken decades ago can stop you in your tracks. What is it about black and white photographs that they can mesmerize us so easily? Why is it that a picture of the Snake River by Ansel Adams will always seem better than someone else’s black and white photo of the same river taken near the same time of day and within the same vicinity from where Adams snapped his picture(s)?
I am sure that the short answer to both of these questions for most of us involves the contrast of light and dark as well as timing. Black and white photos remove a lot of needless elements and the way that they provide a natural compositional focus can be breath-taking. As far as timing goes, that is what really separates the masters from the wannabes.
Unlike painting or drawing or sculpting which—more than anything else—requires patience, an ability to turn flaws into seamless elements, and time, photography requires a lot of timing especially when it comes to black and white photography. Too much light, not enough light, missed that facial expression by a second, the angle is off by a few degrees: all of these and more are things that can conspire against the development of a great photograph.
There is a veritable treasure trove of great black and white photographs I could have chosen as the first one to write about but ever since I was a kid I was always mesmerized by Milton Greene’s photo of Marlene Dietrich for Life magazine in 1952 (a photo that I have always just nicknamed “the legs photo.”) My grandparents used to have Life photo compilation books on the coffee table in their second home in Michigan and when I was like 9 or 10 I would plumb through them on days when the weather was uncooperative and that is when I was first introduced to this photo.
When we think of beautiful female celebrities we usually picture them with sultry smirks, come hither eyes, or heartbreaker smiles. We do not typically imagine them without any facial features at all, if for no other reason than it usually hinges on objectification to do so.
But what Greene does here with this picture is more or less redefine how to view the female body. By bringing the focus to Dietrich’s blonde hair and slender legs he produced a photograph that is alluring precisely because it is not outwardly sexual.
My favorite aspect of this picture when I was a kid was that it stuck out against all of the other pictures in those compilation books: every other picture had a timeless quality because facial expressions play such a huge part of them. I still like this photo of Dietrich because of that reason. But as I grew older I also began to appreciate the notion of “less is more” when it comes to trying to capture beauty. And a picture of a woman exposing only her legs and short wavy hair is analogous to this concept.
by Milton H. Greene
Black and white photograph
1952