not that this is a terribly profound post, but abby and i were in mumbai this weekend; and while we were visiting the museum formerly known as the prince of wales museum, i was struck by how the old photographs, in black and white, said something completely different than they would have had they been in color. color photos of people working in fields are about the brilliant green of the vegetation, the bright hues of the saris; the same images in black and white focus more on the story of the picture, at least to my mind. as an illustration, here is a color photo of a slum taken from a moving train:
and here is the same thing in black and white:
incidentally, downtown mumbai is much nicer than downtown chennai. it helps to have had lots of local rich people contribute to civic buildings and infrastructure during british rule.
