All above shot with a variety of cameras including - Panasonic GX8, Samsung K zoom smartphone, Pentax 645 film camera, Nikon F4 film camera, Olympus Air.
I've always had an ambivalent arrutude to Black and White photography. Part of me thinks it's an important part of photographic expression, that has historical significance and part of me thinks that it's a waste of time and is a way of trying to give an 'artistic' sheen to pretty banal images. However, with the rise of smartphone camera orientated picture libraries and the re emergence of lots of filtering and the exploration of 'old school' photographic resent action via Instagram and the like, I've found myself converting a lot of images from colour into shades of grey. It does have the advantage of simplifying the editing process and there is no doubt that a high contrast monochrome image with deep rich blacks does have a visual impact and the concentration on form works well for certain images.
Usually the simpler and more graphic the image the better but often removing the colour just makes an image look less focused on the subject matter so it doesn't always produce worthwhile images. But despite all my reservations I'm coming round to the idea that it is something I'd like to do more of in the future. I still prefer to shoot in colour rather than see the world in black and white through my viewfinder or on my screen. Partly because it's what I'm used to and also because i don't want to be in a situation whereby I wish I'd shot an image in colour afterwards.
One of my favourite photographers David Bailey once said that 'Colour is for painters, Black and White is for photographers' and while I don't really agree with that, I can see the graphic power of a well composed monochromatic image and there is a certain magic generated in the starkess and simplicity produced.
