I
love black and white photography. If it wasn’t for
the demands of my clients I’d only work in mono-
chrome and publish all my books filled with B+W
images. Take a look at Sebastião Salgado’s Genesis
book and luxuriate in over 500 pages of gorgeous black
and white imagery of the highest calibre – inspirational
to say the least!
But why? What is it about monochrome imagery
that appeals so strongly in a time of amazingly rich and
technically perfect colour photography? Prints have
never been so vibrant, and even TVs can now show co-
lours that even exceed what the eye can see.
As I see it, there are three principal factors at play here.
Firstly, there’s nostalgia for times past. Black and
White was the only game in town for much of photog-
raphy’s early history. Colour photography only became
mainstream in the 1930s with Kodak’s “You take the
photo, we do the rest” slogan but colour photography
had been possible since the late 19th century. In the
beginning, colour photography was really tricky and
so the vast majority of photography from the 1870s on-
wards was based on a monochrome emulsion with film
plates being developed by hand and then printed, by
hand too, in darkrooms.Black and white photography
has a style and aesthetic all
of its own. In this article, we
share some of the key elements to
consider when shooting and editing
in this most striking of styles.
BY NICK RAINSPHOTO TIPS: BLACK AND WHITE CONVERSIONS
BLACK & WHITE
THE BEAUTY OF