David
Just as I make a statement about a preference for B&W you post a colour one that I find beautiful. I'm not struck much by the non-colour version though; it seems to lack something that the first shape has.
BB. She may have looked better in colour - the dress was a pink Cardin number, if I remember correctly. But in those days, colour didn't get much room in my life; most of the commercial stuff I got was in mono, including the fashion, and it was into the 70s before I saw much demand for it. Even some of the calendars were b/white... guess that was economics rather than choice, though. Having said that, the series I shot for that Barbour Threads calendar that, perversely, is in The Biscit Tin gallery, wouldn't have had its kick in colour - too pretty instead of gritty. It was shot on HP3 on Nikon and most of it with a 2.8/35mm other than the one that was with my 4/200mm that was posted a day or so ago in connection with selective focus and shallow depth of field effects.
You refer to upbringing as a factor in how we see; I think we owe a hell of a lot to upbringing. It was my mother who took me to all the art galleries she could find, and an aunt who bought Vogue and Harpers Bazaar that lent me a Rollei with which I took my first considered photographs. Women have always had a huge influence on my mind, for better and for worse, I expect. Maybe that's why I love the nice, gentle ones as I do. I have little time for girls who want to be one of the boys; what a waste.
Rob C