Back to Basics

Today I’ve been thinking about the circle photography had made through the years. From the early 1800s when monochrome was the only option and the fist photographs to be considered art were all black and white, to the 1860’s when color photography was a new breakthrough. Though colors may be both advanced and brilliant, today a large number of photographers, including myself, are moving back to black and white.

What is it about the monotone that is so powerful? Patrick Simons says ‘ For reason's I cannot explain, some things simply look better in black and white’ while Robert Duncan explains ‘Because black and white has an inherent dignity… Black and White is both the simplest, and the most sophisticated of photographic disciplines”

I believe colors can be distracting and moving the eye away from the focus. In most things less can be more and in photography this is very often the case.