Monochrome Photography: Telling A Better Story

There is no better way to tell a story through Monochrome Photography than with a black and white.  When color is absent, and all that is left is black, white and shades of gray, our attention cannot be drawn away from the essence of the photograph.  Color can sometimes be essential, to give a photo life, to impact the viewer’s eye with pleasing pastels that help give shape and depth to objects and structures.

Mood and emotion, brought about by the use of textures, contrasts and tones are uniquely felt with the use of black and white photography.  An otherwise blue sky with billowy clouds becomes an angry, threatening firmament when portrayed in monochrome.  A shirtless man smoking a cigarette on a balcony that might not evoke much interest can suddenly become a most intriguing story of solitude, introspection and perhaps disquietness when presented in a black and white photo.

There is a photo genre called street photography that most often utilizes black and white processing.  Shooting street photos can be a bit daunting but also exhilarating.  Most street shots include people moving about their days in city streets, parks or perhaps a piazza.  It is a challenge to capture interesting movements, expressions, and actions of the people you encounter.  Most are intimidated by strangers taking their pictures.  So it is often desirable to remain unnoticed as much as possible.  But with street you are capturing life as it happens in the moment.  When just the right scene presents itself, it can be rewarding beyond words.

A Monochrome Photography wants to tell a story with his photos.  There is nothing that accomplishes that more readily than with black and white.  Capturing a black and white photo of people in motion or street performers playing music or a group of elderly men relaxing on a street-side bench in the afternoon makes the viewer yearn to know what the people are doing and thinking.  Each person may see something very different in the photo as he contemplates the scene before him.