The Power of Black & White

Color images are a part of daily life. Filtered photos on social media flood our screen daily. We see exactly what the creator wants us to see, often missing the story for the over-filtered image. Something has changed with time: filter styles and their popularity. To me, there is nothing like the power of a B&W image. B&W completely strips the experience from distractions and provides the viewer a way to encounter the moment using their mind as a creative measure. Often times, you cannot tell the difference from a monochromatic photo taken in 1957, from one taken in 2020. Again, unless there are items in the image to help paint the story’s date, it leaves a portion of creativity up to the viewer.

Anders Petersen said it well: “In black and white there are more colors than color photography, because you are not blocked by any colors so you can use your experiences, your knowledge, and your fantasy, to put colors into black and white.”

This image is an example of this. I love the emotion captured in this image. There is no color distraction. Only the emotion and your mind to help paint the picture. B&W is something that I loved in high school but I never really appreciated it until I started recognizing its power and slowing down to take time getting lost in the photo itself.