I’m a black and white photographer
Firstly, I should say that I actually shoot everything in colour because clients often prefer images in colour and I have no problem with that whatsoever. However, personally, I prefer to convert the same images to black and white and there are three main reasons for this:
# 1 – Tonal Depth and Richness
Firstly, that I think that there is a depth and a richness to black and white photographs that draw you in and make you want to look in a way that you don’t always get with colour photography. Black and white photographs convey emotion, mood and appear timeless – even when they were shot 60 years ago. There’s a freshness to black and white photography that makes them feel cleaner, uncluttered, less busy and more appealing.
# 2 – I’m inspired by black and white photographers
Secondly, the photographs that are attracted me into photography in the first place were black and white, and still are. I was inspired by photographers like Henri Cartier-Bresson, Eugene W. Smith, Don McCullin, and today, photographers such as Alexey Titarenko, Sebastiao Salgado and Matt Black they all created images that were primarily black and white, even when colour was available to them. It is these images that adorn the walls of my office and come to my mind when I think about who and what inspired me to be a photographer.
# 3 – Different perspective
The third reason is about showing the world through a different perspective. The majority of us are lucky enough to be able to see the world in colour but it’s often the role of a photographer, particularly a documentary photographer, to help people to see the world differently, so what better way than show it to them in black and white? Seeing something that appears familiar but is presented in black and white arouses curiosity and engagement, which is exactly what most clients want.
So those are the three main reasons that I prefer black and white photography and choose to convert my images from colour to black and white when I share them.
Helps the audience to focus
I also believe there are some very practical considerations that mean black and white is my preferred medium. I’ve heard this said by a number of photographers that are shooting black and white who also talk about colour getting in the way of what you’re trying to focus on.
This is particularly true in documentary photography. Remember, this isn’t photography that’s done in the studio. It’s not stage managed in the same way that portraits might be or product shots might be. Documentary photography means capturing moments as they happen, in real time, using available light and waiting for the right moment.
Often the focus will be on people or the tasks they are doing. You look and wait to get the shot that has people do exactly what you want in the light that you want but when you review it realise there’s a very distracting colour block in the background somewhere and there’s absolutely nothing you can do about it because your photographing in a real location and the images need to be authentic.
That blast of colour detracts from what it is that you want the audience and the viewer to actually focus on, which means for that reason, a very practical reason, by converting images to black and white, you ensure that the audience is focussed on what you want them to see, not what is distracting them because it happens to be in the frame somewhere.
There’s a black and white photographer called Greg Williams, who’s famous for taking candid shots of celebrities and he converts all of his images, which are shot in colour, to black and white for publication and he does that for the same practical reasons. He once said, there’s nothing more annoying than taking a great shot of a celebrity only to realise that there was a guy in a yellow puffer jacket in the background that detracts the eye from the celebrity.
Williams gets around that by converting all of his images to black and white, where he knows the focus will be on the celebrity not on the person in the yellow puffer jacket, which is now a pale grey.
Black and White Photography has an Enduring Quality
Colour photography has been around and commercially available since the 1930s with the advent of Kodachrome film. Colour became very popular during the 1950s and 1960s so it’s been with us for a long time and yet black and white photography is still endures.
We know this because we can look at galleries around the world and see that the photography exhibitions that they’ve put on are largely for black and white photographers.
In 2024/25 the Tate in the UK has two major photography exhibitions where the majority of photos are black and white. In 2025 Sony awarded black and white photographer, Susan Meiselas with an award for Outstanding Contribution to photography. A quick search on the 10 most iconic or famous photos of all time and most lists will comprise 7-8 black and white photographs usually from a time when colour was available.
So black and white photographs seem to endure over time in a way that perhaps colour photography doesn’t.
Andrew Cameron a Black and White Photographer
I am a documentary photographer, I shoot everything in colour but I personally prefer black and white and so do some of my clients.
I work with retailers, the construction sector, manufacturing, and agriculture sectors to engage audiences about sustainability, ways of working, technical skills, and project progression.
I work with my clients to create compelling visual stories that support employee communication, investor relations and external stakeholder engagement.
You can find out more about the services I offer here.
If you’re interested in talking about a photography project (in colour or black and white) then please get in touch here.
