It’s All Black And White

The first cameras were invented in the 1820’s but before this the only way to capture the world around you was to draw, sketch or paint. Joseph Nicephore Niepce a French developer was the first person to successfully take a photo, and what did he choose as his subject, a window. A simple window with light coming through it was the first photo ever taken isn’t that kind of crazy. Josephs invention was later improved by others and in the year 1891, Lipmann Gabriel developed a process of making naturally coloured photographs. This subsequently won him a Nobel prize in physics in the year 1908.

Black and white photography however continued to dominate the world as it was cheap and had a classic look that people loved and it is this classic look which makes Black and white photography one of the cornerstones of every photographers portfolio.

For myself black and white photography is one of my absolute favourite styles and one I often use to shoot in or one I choose to edit my photos to later. I think it is because once you remove colour from a subject or a scene it leaves the raw feelings and emotions behind the picture. It can draw attention to the photo in a way that I feel sometimes coloured photos can’t.

One thing I have learnt though is that black and white does not work for every situation and sometimes it makes no sense to convert to or shoot in black and white. Overall though the power and depth of black and white photography is a style that I will always love using and hopefully you can see why!

Sophielyse

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