Anyone who is familiar with our work knows that we love color. Our work is full of it. And yet, we are always drawn to black and white. We come back to it again and again, like we are coming home. Black and white is an old friend, nostalgia. In fact, much of the work hung in our own homes is void of color, leaving us with monochromatic memories papered to our walls. There is something raw, candid, soulful, powerful about black and white imagery that we just can’t escape.
In the last ten years of our lives as photographers we have completely changed how we approach color and will continue to do so. Color is a living and breathing person, she changes, she grows in and out of style. She is vivacious and trendy with the times. She is spontaneous, fickle. But black and white is constant. Black and white is color stripped away, layer by layer, until only the guts of a picture is left. Black and white is the soul.
When we edit, the first thing we look for is what distracts from the story that we are telling. Distractions have to be removed. They cannot live in good work. Black and white photography takes that to another level, removes any distraction of color and allows us to see the fundamentals of our work: the shapes and patterns, the composition, the contrast, texture, and most of all – our subject, in it’s purest form.
Black and white photography is so relevant to our modern lives, and especially to the creative life, it’s even necessary. It allows us to rest. To be honest. To stand firmly on a foundation that is sure and faithful and trustworthy. It is coming home.
