We see in color, but who said that B/W pictures can’t be as fascinating and outstanding as the multi-chromatic ones?

The beauty of B/W pictures it’s in the ability to exploit the differences in tones between elements in a scene, either a landscape, a cityscape, an object or a portrait.

The loss of color is compensated by the use of shapes, textures, lines and lighting. When you look at a monochromatic picture the emphasis goes to the character, the expression of the subject, and reveals the “soul” of it.

Some of the images in this post are inspired by Robert Frank and his 1958 photography book, “The Americans”. Reading about his life and his technique, I can recognize myself in many aspects. He didn’t want to create a “picture that really says it all, that is a masterpiece”. Rather, he would try to create images that he would gain feelings and emotions from. To do good work he says, you need a further intelligence. And “you cannot just imitate a 35mm photographer. Cartier-Bresson won’t help, wide-angle lens won’t help either”.

The takeaway point here is that it is important to have role models and get inspired by them ,but you need to draw some inspiration from them and strive toward your own vision.

Again, and to close this introduction, I’d like to quote Frank again. “I want my viewers to feel the way they do when they want to read a line of a poem twice”.