TIME's Past in the Present: Nostalgia and the Black and White Image

Abstract

In 1995, the Hubble Space Telescope sent back to astronomers at the University of Arizona a series of vivid colour images of the Eagle Nebula, a dense formation of interstellar gas and dust the likes of which cradle newborn stars. As evidence that our perceptual universe, in every sense of the word, is defined by the representational powers of colour technology, the Hubble's “cosmic close-ups” are a clear case in point. Colour has become a standard representational form and hence the visual form. If so, what can be said of the recent popularity and proliferation of the black-and-white image?No self-respecting café-bar or discriminating home, it seems, can now do without a black and white print on the wall. Commercial photography and certain forms of advertising have found a new niche in black and white, and even sepia is staging a come-back. The popularity of the black-and-white image cannot be divorced from the commercial culture in which it circulates; it is a “look” and a marker of taste. Monochrome is a stylistic trend but a revealing one, especially if one considers the growing preoccupation in America with heritage and memory. Both Susan Sontag and Roland Barthes give black and white a status of authenticity judged in relation to past time “properly” captured. For Sontag, monochrome gives an image a sense of age, historical distance, and aura. She writes, “the cold intimacy of color seems to seal off the photograph from patina.” Likewise, Barthes comments on the artifice of colour, how it is a “coating applied later on to the original truth of black and white.” For both critics, monochrome is an aesthetic of the authentic figured around a basic quality of pastness.

Nostalgia for America's past can buffer collective guilt

“…Longing for past society is a recurrent theme in American culture. Magazines strategically utilize the black and white image to induce nostalgia (e.g., Time Magazine ; Grainge, , ); the television series Mad Men capitalized on the nostalgia for the style of 1960s America (Tudor, ); and the pseudo‐vintage radio show A Prairie Home Companion generated a longing for America's mythical good old days by depicting life in Lake Woebegone, a small (fictional) town referred to as “the one time forgot and the decades cannot improve” (Larson & Oravec, ; Wilbers, ). Similar sentiments appear in business and politics: Athletic clubs market their team's past (Petchesky, ), companies leverage nostalgia to sell products (Belk, ), and politicians run platforms focused on ‘restoring’ America to its former glory (Beinart, ).…”

Painting Chinese mythology: Varying touches on the magazine covers of Time, The Economist, Der Spiegel, and China Today

“…In 2015, the circulation of Time magazine reached 3.06 million (Alliance for Audited Media, 2015). Though its visual representations have been studied in prior research (Grainge, 1999; Paragas, 2004), limited research has focused on the image of China on the Time magazine covers.…”

Call me loyal: Globalization, corporate nationalism and the America’s Cup

“…Many scholars have linked the use of black and white to history, authenticity and realism (Barthes, 1993;Goldman and Papson, 1996;Grainge, 1999). Grainge (1999) notes that the use of these colours gives issues and events the authority of time.…”

“…The tactical use of black and white cinematography reinforces the process of corporate nationalism in several ways not the least of which is the fact that all New Zealand national teams, including the All Blacks, wear black and white. Many scholars have linked the use of black and white to history, authenticity and realism (Barthes, 1993; Goldman and Papson, 1996; Grainge, 1999). Grainge (1999) notes that the use of these colours gives issues and events the authority of time.…”

“…Many scholars have linked the use of black and white to history, authenticity and realism (Barthes, 1993; Goldman and Papson, 1996; Grainge, 1999). Grainge (1999) notes that the use of these colours gives issues and events the authority of time. This nostalgic aspect gives an archival aura to people – often those in politics, cultures and corporations (Grainge, 1999).…”