Black & White Photography
Shades of Grey
I've had an on/off relationship with black and white for as long as I've been capturing images. What fascinates me the most about photography is, rather than trying to record a faithful representation of what I'm seeing, I want to record an impression of what I'm feeling. Black and white tends to simplify a busy world. As a photographer, it's an entirely different way of seeing.
Not every picture works as a successful monochrome image. What shines, however, are photographs that utilize strong lines, texture, chiaroscuro and uncomplicated compositions. The resulting pictures, in my opinion, can have more emotional and visceral impact than their color counterparts.
B+W Trivia
Black and white was the standard in photography until the 1930s. For decades after its introduction, color photography was regarded as whimsical and not taken seriously by many established photographers.
In some countries, right up to the 1990s, photographs were only printed in black and white because of the high cost of color processing.
