Black and White V Colour..... what's the craic?

I love a black and white photo, but in 2019 I stopped providing black and white photos for my couples. Why? Because I’d convinced myself that I was turning images into black and white to hide shitty editing or cock ups on my part. The truth is, I wasn't, It was just a trend that had gone. I decided during covid to bring them back. My favourite all time image of my own wedding day is a black and white photo of my dad pissing himself during our vows. It’s incredible and somehow the coloured version doesn’t have the same effect. It’s like the noise from the colour just removed the emotion. So with that new take on mono, I re introduced the black and white image to galleries …. and I hope you can see why. One of my favourite photographers is Peter Linbergh, he shoots mainly in black and white and his work has changed my life.

For me, a black and white image is classic. Editing trends will come and go, dark and moody, bright and airy, but black and white will stay black and white for years to come and never lose their relevance or age. On the odd occasion I make an image black and white if a guest is wearing a fuck ugly outfit that ruins the moment of the photo. You’ve all studied the colour wheel in art at school right? So you get that certain colour combos do not go together and I’ll be dammed if your third cousin twice removed is gonna ruin a really fucking cute photo of a kid patting a dog because she’s wearing a garish flouro yellow crop top. Nah mate, that shit is going black and white. Don’t even think about asking me to re colour it for you.

Anyway, the moral of the story and the point of this blog? I make the decisions on what photos look best in black and white. It isn’t a throw away decision. It is carefully curated as you can see above. A gallery is usually made up of 20% black and white photos and 80% colour.

What do you think? let me know below in the comments.