another silver lens...

Bringing Bauhaus to the table in a discussion about nothing but the COLOR (colour for the Brits) of a lens may be overstretching the concept by a fair margin. If you feel that the black color of the lens makes it any more pleasant to shoot with that lens, then you are either confused or lying to yourself about how you don't care how others perceive you.

A serious street photographer might argue that a black lens is less conspicuous and there I would agree that the color might actually have an effect on how you work and how your work turns out, even if the problem may just be an imagined one, too. People have also argued that the grip material on the silver OM-D is better than on the black one. These are valid points. However, when you're looking down your camera at either the LCD or through the viewfinder, you won't even see the lens or what color it is. Your hand will not be able to tell whether it is a black or a silver model. So the only time that you actually notice you don't like the color is when you're not actually using it but just looking at it yourself.

Now if the silver lens had spikes, a wobbly zoom and was square and the black didn't have any of that, then your Bauhaus argument would be valid. Since this is not the case, I rest my case that people are simply putting way to much emphasis on looks, whether they're artsy fartsy or not doesn't really make a difference in my opinion. Or is there anyone who thinks the big CaNikon DSLRs with their giant white lenses are pretty by any means? Yet most professional photographers still use those.