How does colour affect the emotion portrayed in a photo?
Photography has been a way of capturing moments since the first photo was taken in 1826 by Joseph Niépce, 60 years later in 1890, the first colour photo was taken by James Maxwell who created colour photography through an experiment to prove that all colours can be made by an appropriate mixture of red, green and blue light. This essay will look at how colour in an image can affect the overall mood of a photo.
Richard Mosse is an Irish photographer. Mosse is well known for his Infra series, where he uses Kodak Aerochrome, a discontinued reconnaissance infrared film. The film registers chlorophyll in live vegetation leaving the Congolese rainforest in a surreal pink and red landscape. The Infra series was used to capture the war between rebel factions and the Congolese national army in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Mosse uses infrared on film to change the colour in a photograph; this drastic change of colour creates a sense of otherworldliness. Mosse states his intentions for the infra series in an interview with The British Journal of Photography, Mosse says that “I wanted to confront this military reconnaissance technology, to use it reflexively in order to question the ways in which war photography is constructed.” Mosse uses his Infra series to try and change the way in which war photography is created and viewed.
Laurence Philomene is an award-winning Canadian photographer, who creates colourful photography that tells the stories of queer and trans experiences. Philomene’s work reflects their own story as they grew up as Non-binary transgender artist in a cis, straight community in Montreal. Their work shows exciting, candid and playful representations of gender non-conformity, through their consistent and extravagant use of colour. Their work portrays cheerful emotions through the bright colours, which integrates well into the overall theme of this essay. Their intention is to “humanize identities that have been historically marginalized, and act as a love letter to my community.” Their photos help to tell the stories of trans people without the glamourised lens to make it palatable to cis people.
To conclude, colour in photography helps to spread the message and intentions of the photographer by enhancing the emotions portrayed in a photograph. Throughout this essay, colour has been used in many different techniques such as infrared photography and colour matching which the photographers have utilised to create and portray emotions shown in an image. This is predominantly seen throughout the work of Philomene as the intentions of their photos are clearly shown through the emotions created and enhanced by the bright collection of colours in their photos. Each of the artists studied has used colour in different ways from using colour to tell stories in a joyous manner to creating images fit for science fiction. Through the exploration of these artists, it’s clear that colour in photography enhances the emotions in a photograph, the range of techniques and styles all rely heavily on colours to convey their message and vision for the photo.