This strong connection with photography’s heritage
resonates with some photographers - some old tech-
niques like tintypes and hand-coated glass plates are
being revived, not only as a means of distinguishing
one’s work from everyone else’s, but also for those who
enjoy the process as much as the end result.
Secondly, there’s the ‘artisan’ angle. On some level,
black and white photography is associated with ‘hand-
made’. Or to reverse this viewpoint, colour photogra-
phy has always been a much more mechanised process;
back in the 1960s for example the image making pro-
cess was reduced to quite literally the pressing of the
shutter button. The prints were subsequently made by
machine with automatic adjustments for colour and
exposure. This is certainly convenient, but lacks any
further creative input from the creator of the photo.
Traditional B+W on the other hand has almost always
been a totally manual process and here’s the key point;
each print was thus effectively unique. Look at Ansel Ad-
ams’s work - his processing techniques were hugely tech-
nical and the darkroom work he did on his prints was
complex and almost impossible to reproduce. Hence
each print could be considered an one-off original and
all the more desirable for it. Contrast that with mecha-
nised colour photography, and especially modern digital
photography, and it’s easy to see why even a tenuous con-
nection with hand-made craftsmanship is highly valued.The third aspect of B+W that I think makes it so ap-
pealing is that it’s essentially an abstract view of the
world whilst colour photography strives to be an at-
tempt at an accurate representation of the world. Once
you head away from accuracy (whatever than even
means) into the realms of abstraction, there are so
many creative options open to you.
Black and white is not intrinsically ‘realistic’ so it sits
nearer to other forms of art, like painting or sculpture,
which have no need to even try to be accurate depic-
tions of the world we see. Thus I would argue that a
good B+W image is potentially more creative than a
colour image because you cannot rely on the colours of
the subject to carry the image, instead you need to be
super-aware of tone and form, something that does not
come naturally to most people.OPPOSITE: Seim Reap, Cambodia. Shot on the Leica 50mm
Noctilux for minimal depth of field to make the smoke stand out
more. Clarity added (as usual) and Blacks reduced to emphasise
the rim light. Leica SL (Typ 601), Leica Noctilux-M 50mm f/0.95
ASPH lens. 1/500s @ f0.95, ISO 400, -0.4EV.ABOVE: Cigar maker in Old Havana, Cuba. Windowlight in a very
dark room. I have reduced the Highlights to keep the brighter skin
textures at the same time as lifting the shadows a little bit. The
B&W conversion is relatively neutral but with reduced Yellows and
Greens to diminish the background. Leica SL (Typ 601), VARIO-
ELMARIT-SL 24-90mm ASPH lens. 1/90s @ f3.9, ISO 800. -1.5EV.“B&W IS NOT INTRINSICALLY ‘REALISTIC’ SO IT SITS NEARER
TO OTHER FORMS OF ART LIKE PAINTING OR SCULPTURE.”
PHOTO TIPS: BLACK AND WHITE CONVERSIONS