A young child sells floral offerings outside of a Vientiane temple. (This image also appears in color in my travel article on my Laos trip at: http://www.worldisround.com/articles/139137/photo60.html , so you can directly compare it to this black and white image.)

Both versions of this image are essentially portraits. Both have the same neutral background, the whitewashed wall of the temple. The color portrait is more real. The black and white abstraction is less real but it takes you more deeply into the subject. The color version buffers her plight with the warmth of her complexion, and the multi colored dried plants she is holding. The abstracted black and white version, on the other hand, makes a more direct impact on our imagination. She seems more vulnerable once her color “cover” has been removed. By removing the symbolic warmth of the color in the flowers, they become essentially dead sticks in black and white. By removing the reality of the child’s skin and clothing colors, and presenting my viewer with a monochromatic image, I’ve once again raised questions involving a social issue – child labor – rather than just making an attractive portrait of a young child holding an attractive floral offering.

Both images function effectively. It comes down to a choice based on the purpose of the picture. Travel photo or documentary image? Take your choice.