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Why black and white?

© Wendy Folse

Why not? It is crisp and clean with its patterns, shapes and lines to intrique our minds. Black and white photography is honest. No flashy punched up colors to get in the way. It's art, plain and simple. From the deep dark richest blacks to the crisp clean clear whites, it tells a story. With its gentle gradations of gray, it holds our attention and makes us want to see beyond the surface.

This is the way photography was meant to be before color took over and clouded our vision of what a great print should look like. Now we often look at a photo as an exact rendition of a scene and that is all. "Oh look, my couch is green, what a lovely shade of green." Black and white photography is different. It is about textures and emotions, light and the absence of light.

Lately there has been a resurrgence of interest in black and white photography. So much so that the major film manufactuers are now marketing newer black and white films designed for the consumer market. The new chromogenic films or C41 films can be developed by minilabs in the regular color processing. This allows consumers who do not have their own labs to shoot black and white film and have it developed at the local one-hour photo store.

It's been said that there is something sexy about black and white photography that you just can't get from color. I think it's true. Once you remove the color, it is like stripping a scene down to the bare bones removing the layers and leaving the form. You do not have to be an expert photographer to try black and white photography, after all, it was black and white film that not so many years ago captured the memories of many generations.

Why not give it a try. Research some of the different types of black and white film on the market today. One of my favorites is Kodak's Technical Pan film. It is very contrasty, but it makes fabulous enlargements and if developed in C41 developer(yes that is a color developer) it turns out gorgeous. Experiment with it. Black and white films are exciting because you can literally process your own film in a bathroom sink.

For those who like to drop off their film at the local one-hour photo place, try the new chromogenic films that can be processed in C41 along with the color negative films.

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