WHY BLACK & WHITE STILL MATTERS - Black and White Portrait Photography
The first portrait. The accidental moment. And why I still believe in the power of black and white. My first black-and-white portrait wasn’t planned. It wasn’t a concept. It wasn’t even really a portrait session.
It happened in a pause. She wasn’t a professional model at all. She was someone who enjoyed modeling as a hobby, and we were in the middle of a shoot. At some point, she stopped paying attention to me. She was talking to her boyfriend, flirting with him, smoking a cigarette. And I saw it. I picked up the camera. Shot in between. That photograph became my first black-and-white portrait. And looking back, I think it says a lot about why I still photograph in black and white today.
01 – It Was Always There
I actually started photographing in black and white very early in my career. Back then, there was no great philosophy behind it. I was photographing events, and honestly: I simply didn’t really understand colour yet. I didn’t know how colours worked together. I didn’t understand colour grading. I didn’t have the confidence to control colour the way I wanted. So black and white was almost a necessity. And then, years later, I came back to it. Someone once asked me during a mentoring session: “What was already there?”
That question stayed with me. I looked back at my work. And there it was. Black and white had been following me from the beginning. Maybe I hadn’t chosen it. Maybe it had chosen me.
02 – At Some Point, You Have to Choose
There comes a point in photography when you have to ask yourself: „What do I actually want to be known for?“ You can photograph everything. Every style. Every trend. Every colour. Every lighting technique. But eventually, I wanted to become more specific. I wanted to understand what really felt like me. And black and white was already there. It felt natural. It felt honest. It felt like something I didn’t have to force. So I stopped thinking of it as something from my past. I started seeing it as part of my visual language.
03 – Black & White Takes Things Away
Colour gives you information. Black and white takes information away. And I like that. Suddenly, you’re not looking at the colour of someone’s clothes. You’re not distracted by a background colour. You’re not thinking about whether something is fashionable this year. You’re looking at:light, shadow, skin, expression, eyes, shape, personality. Everything becomes a little quieter. And because there is less to look at, you have to look harder.
04 – It Is Beautifully Unforgiving
But black and white isn’t always kind. Actually, it can be brutally honest. Every wrinkle. Every texture. Every line. Every imperfection. It’s all there. You can’t hide behind colour. That means you have to work carefully. You have to understand light. You have to understand the face. You have to know when the light is helping you — and when it is exposing everything you didn’t want to see. But that’s also what I love about it. Black and white doesn’t try to make the person more perfect. It lets the person be there.
05 – The Photograph That Started It Again
That first black-and-white portrait — the girl with the freckles, smoking during a break — wasn’t created because I wanted to make an important photograph. I wasn’t thinking about awards or likes or bookings. I wasn’t thinking about my style. I wasn’t thinking: „This is going to define my career.“ I simply saw a moment. She wasn’t posing for me anymore. She was just being herself. And somehow, that was exactly when the photograph happened. That’s something I’ve learned to trust more and more: The photograph doesn’t always happen when you’re asking for it. Sometimes it happens in between.
06 – Timeless Is More Interesting Than Trendy
One of the reasons I still love black and white is simple: It doesn’t seem to age in the same way. Photography trends change. Colour grading changes. What looks modern today can look dated in a few years. But a strong black-and-white portrait can sit on a wall for ten years and still feel right. Twenty years. Maybe fifty. That’s what I mean when I call it timeless. It’s not trying to belong to a particular moment. It simply exists.
07 – Then Print It
And if you really want to understand the power of black and white, print it. Not on your phone. Not on Instagram. Not as a tiny image on a screen. Print it big. An A0 black-and-white photograph can hit you differently. You suddenly see the texture. The shadows. The face. The details. The silence. And the photograph becomes physical. It doesn’t disappear when you scroll. It stays.
08 – Black & White Goes Under the Skin
Maybe that’s ultimately why I keep coming back to it. Colour can be beautiful. But black and white can feel deeper. It removes some of the noise and leaves you with the things I care about most: the person, the light and the moment. And when those three things work together, I don’t need much else. The photograph doesn’t need to shout. It just needs to stay with you.
09 – Why Black & White Still Matters
I don’t photograph in black and white because it’s old. I don’t photograph in black and white because it’s fashionable. And I definitely don’t photograph in black and white because I can’t photograph colour anymore. I photograph it because, after all these years, I still see something in it. Maybe because it was there from the beginning. Maybe because it taught me to look. Maybe because it forces me to be honest. Or maybe because when I look at a really strong black-and-white portrait, I simply stop. And that’s enough. If a photograph still moves you in ten years, you probably didn’t need the colour in the first place.
10 – SEE. FEEL. REMEMBER.
Black and white isn’t about taking colour away. It’s about deciding what is worth leaving. SEE LIGHT. DIRECT PEOPLE. CREATE. And sometimes, all you need is one person, one moment and the courage to press the shutter when nobody is posing.
