GMAT Essays (AWA)

The following appeared as part of an article in a photography magazine:

"when choosing whether to work in color or in black an white , the photographer , who wishes to be successful should keep in mind that because color photorgraphs are more true to life, magazines use more color photographs than black and white ones, and many newspapers are also starting to use color photographs. the realism of color also accounsts for the fact that most portrait studios use more color film than black and white film. furthermore, there are more types of color film than black and white film available today. clearly photographers who work in color have an advantage over thos who work in black and white"

The author's argument that photographers who work in color have an advantage over those who work in black and white is not entirely logically convincing, since the author ignores certain critical assumptions and bases its conclusion on certain assumptions that are partly or completely flawed in one or several aspects.

The main flaw in the author's argument is that the author assumes that the aesthatic feature of a photograph is the one and most important feature of a photograph. The author's statment is weak since he ignores various usages of photograph. Eventhough it could be true that color photographs are perhapas the most popular in gerneral public magazines such as fashion and life style magazines and daily newspapers, there are many other industries which benefit from this technology and which perefe black and white photographs over colored and which view the information that a photograph provides and not its aesthetic as its major value . In many industries, such as civil , mining and etc, a black and white photograph is as valued as a colored photograph , since the specific reader (viewer) is concerned with the informative characteristic of the picture which is equally represented in a black and white photo as is in a colored photo.

The argument would be more sound and persuasive if the author did not limit its study on the use of photographs in the magazines and major newspapers. In this age, which Information and communication technologies have gone throught majore developments and improvements, many of the magazines and newspaper organizaitons are shifting their business models , promoting online version of newspapers and magazines and eventually eliminating the paper magazines. Eventually , the print industry will go through major changes which could have serious equall affect on both photographers who work whith black and white and those who work with color. On the other hand , other industries which extensively use black and white or non color photographs have remained unchanged and still use black and white photos extensively.

Overall, the author fails in persuading that photographers who work in color have more advantage than ones who work in black and white. The argument could have been strengthened by lookig at the overall picture and overall usage of the photos and not only their usage in daily newspapers and life style magazines.