Black and White Travel Photography

Since in-class work has lately been focused on travel photography, I thought that an article I came across this week about black and white travel photography would be an appropriate topic to blog about.  As may be evidenced by some of my previous blog posts, I am particularly drawn to the more traditional, even old-fashioned, ways of doing photography while still recognizing the great advantages that modern digital photography can and is bringing to this art form.  Black and white photography is just one aspect of this. 

In her article "Traveling the World in B&W" on Outdoor Photographer's website, Ibarionex Perello discusses how she chose to shoot all of her photographs in black and white during one of her recent travels.  As she explains, shooting in black and white can often be so much more powerful and evocative than color images.  Black and white images have a way of making a scene, a photograph so much more personal whether the scene be the interesting architecture, people, or landscapes that one encounters as one travels the world.

Though I am just beginning my photography experience and lack considerable knowledge of the art, I cannot help but agree with Perello concerning the challenge of black and white photography.  With color photography, so often the colors of the scene are what draw viewers' attention and give the image its value.  I think that sometimes great colors act as a cop out for making a great shot, making what would otherwise be a pretty ordinary or even less than ordinary photo a photo that people want to look at.  Black and white photography does not have this luxury and must rely on such things as shadows, highlights, and strong lines, shapes, and patterns.  Additionally, as Perello points out, one has to be particularly conscious of what to keep in or exclude from the scene to draw attention to the scene and captivate the audience.  A photographer of black and white cannot rely on the reds and yellows of a scene to draw viewers in like a color photographer can.  The black and white photographer must rely so much more on the lighting conditions of early morning and later evening to capture a good image as the flat, even light of any other time of day produces relatively dull black and white images.

Both these challenges associated with making a great black and white photograph and the personal, timeless, classic nature of black and white photography are what I think draw me to this particular realm of photography.  With digital software tools such as Lightroom, turning color images to black and white is not too difficult to do.  However, as Perello seems to suggest, this does not mean that every good color photograph can make a good black and white shot.  Being able to think about a scene not as one sees it with their eyes but as it could look in black and white I think is much more of a challenge.  It is a challenge that I would be interested in pursuing if ever given the opportunity to travel the world and capture my own images for myself.

Link to Ibarionex Perello's article: https://www.outdoorphotographer.com/tips-techniques/travel-photography/traveling-the-world-in-b-and-w/