Black and white photography plays a major role in the history of photography in general.
The history of photography is very complex and it is quite difficult to determine THE moment when photography has been discovered, because it has been a long process with different stages, but in general we can record that the oldest surviving permanent photograph of the image formed in a camera was created in the 19th century, in black and white and since then photography and film used to be completely in black and white until the 20th century with the development of colour photography. And although there used to be a period when people were more critical towards black and white photography and would rather prefer photographs in colour, monochrome photography has had kind of a renaissance in the past decades. One of the reasons for that could be, that black and white photography is basically the true foundation of photography, because it's all about light and shadows. Moreover, pictures in black and white convey a different message, because there are no colours that could distract the viewer and thus he immediately gets thrown into the deeper meaning of the picture instead of just looking at the colours and the surface of the image.
I think that the fact, that there is absolutely no distraction in black and white photography makes it especially interesting for my project, because I don't just want to convey a message, but I also want to make people aware of the dangers and the alienation and social isolation often related to hyper-connectivity. And as this is more of as serious topic, I think that black and white photography could help me to create a rather serious atmosphere that makes people think and reflect on what they've just seen.
Before deciding whether I should use normal pictures in colour or rather work with black and white photography, I analysed my two main inspirations again, Pickersgill's project REMOVED and Geiger's project SUR-FAKE, and I realized that Pickersgill's pictures in black and white just helped to convey a serious and alarming message that could maybe even shock people, whereas Geiger's photographs had a completely different atmosphere due to the strong use of colours.
Finally, I just did a lot of additionally research in different books and articles about black and white photography to make sure that I really understand what it means and two quotes particularly got my attention because I think that they perfectly sum up what makes this kind of photography so interesting for me:
'One of black-and-white photography's great joys and strengths is, that it offers a different world from the one we experience, with less going on in it and therefore more to explore in the image qualities that it does offer.' (Freeman, 2013)
'What the devotees of monochrome are discovering is that by reducing the image to just its tonal values, one is able to unearth a mystique that is missing when presenting the image in full colour. ' (Gallagher)
Reading:
Donald Kahn - Photography: A Concise History
Michael Freeman - Black & White Photography Field Guide: The Essential Guide to the Art of Creating Black & White mages
Paul Gallagher - Exploring Black and White Photography: A Masterclass
Joy McKenzie - Exploring Basic Black and White Photography
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