Although I’m not a big fan of digital manipulation and do almost none to my images, I make an exception when I convert colour images to black and white. To my eye, some scenes just look better in monochrome.
I have always thought of black and white photography as an abstract medium and colour photography as a psychological medium. American photographer Elliott Erwitt said, “With colour you describe; with black and white you interpret.” So, there is more left to the imagination and perhaps more attention paid to graphic details.
When I first heard the version of Kodachrome on Simon and Garfunkel’s The Concert in Central Park, I realized that the lyrics had been changed from the original. According to Songfacts Simon sometimes sings the line “Everything looks worse in black and white” as “Everything looks better in black and white.” He changes it a lot, and claims he can’t remember which way he wrote it.” Neither is better, just a different view of the world.
I used to shoot my digital monochrome images using the b&w mode on my camera until I saw a documentary on Japanese photographer Daido Moriyama. He was going over images on the computer with his assistant and telling him which ones he wanted to be converted to black and white. I started shooting everything in colour and doing the conversions later–it leaves more options. If it’s good enough for Daido Moriyama, it’s good enough for me!
Here are some recent photos that I have converted.
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