The uncanny lure of Black and White

Colour is a language of its own. In theory we could produce photographs that were virtually formless and textureless and still have an interesting image. We all have an emotional response to colour, whether we like it or not, so we will always have an emotional response to a greater or lesser degree to any colour picture ( don't believe me? Look at the "Luscher colour test" This is a test where Dr Max Luscher demonstrated that the order of preference that you choose given colours in categorically illustrates your current emotional and psychological profile). This isn't to say that we don't have an emotional response to black and white, but that the colour in a picture can be emotionally distracting, lowering the quality and effect that the composition and tone have on you, thus depleting the appreciation of those elements. Of course colour can be used deliberately in those ways: some of the greatest colour shooters do that either intentionally or intuitively.

However black and white is a language if its own too. When you see in black and white, you are less concerned with the weighting of the colour and more with the balance of the whole picture. Therefore you automatically concentrate more on composition. The easiest way to illustrate this is to compose an image first, and then choose a small aperture e.g.f11, 16 or 22 and stop down*. NOW look at at the composition - we will usually want to reframe; why? Because the colour is mostly stripped from the scene and we are unencumbered with an excess of information, the meaning and intellectual content is removed, we see through to what is behind the composition, more aware now of the shadows and highlights, the tonal weighting of the scene as a whole, and the basic building blocks of the shot.

The analogy that springs to mind is the Tarot cards (basic medieval version). They all have colour and are imbued with meaning. Yet if you strip them down to their individual geometry, so they are purely a square below a triangle, or a sphere above a square etc. the shapes alone contain significance and influence, and they become more interesting for reasons of what is behind the design, not less interesting. How often do we appreciate this with colour images ( beyond the rule of thirds)? yet it is intrinsic to black and white composition.

I think the psychological counterpart of this is that we, as human beings, have the potential to appreciate our world with a wide range of senses, yet much of the time we are caught up in the process of intellectual signification or superficial and fleeting emotions. Black and white photography invites us to become less civilised, more intuitive, giving us the opportunity to respond with our instincts, to contemplate and perfect the tone and texture, light and shadow; the basic echoes of our psyche.

This is why we feel an automatic affiliation with black and white imagery; it speaks to us on a more primitive level and therefore a more common language.

Even though black and white shots may contain meaning in the context of society, culture or emotion, in addition they are more likely to have a depth that captures us in fascination; that resonates at a level we may not at first consciously understand because of its subconscious symbolism. This medium encourages us to communicate FROM that deeper primitive part of us because we intuitively feel it talks TO us in that language.

For this reason, black and white imagery tends to be more satisfying than colour. It reaches into us at a level where satisfaction is very fundamental and essential. Therefore, our motive behind taking black and white is not always conscious, but it explains the uncanny lure it holds over us