Sir, – I support Diarmaid Ferriter for his considered criticism of the colourisation of black and white photographs and film footage (Opinion, October 29th). Rather than bringing images "to life" it distorts the relationship a modern viewer has with former black and white subjects. It is patronising to the original subjects and the occasions and places in which they were photographed.
The new process ignores the quality and connection of black and white photography and is an insult to the compositions of often great photographers.
I had the honour to take photographs on the Wood Quay excavations, which I directed for the National Museum. I photographed everything in colour and the details of timber, wattle and ships’ planks in black and white; the black and whites constitute more than 60 per cent of an archive of about 19,000 photographs.
Black and white and colour each have their advantages. To colourise black and white is to dilute and distort and reduce the artistic heights it can attain. That is before raising any moral objection to the alteration of archival images and the truth that they embody.
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Think of the sincerity of Gregory Peck’s role in To Kill a Mocking Bird, or the compelling argument of Spencer Tracy in Inherit the Wind. These great works were deliberately conveyed in black and white. To colourise them would be an obstacle to the immediacy of their immortal connection to generations.
At the very least the original versions should be shown beside any colourised version.
– Is mise,
PAT WALLACE,
Ballsbridge, Dublin 4.