Color or Black and White pictures?

Andy Warhol said "my favorite color is white and my favorite color is black. So use the whites and use the blacks, don't just have 50 shades of gray."

Black and White photography is the form of art for many famous photographers. Sebastião Salgado (buy his book Genesis), Nick Brandt (I highly recommend to look at his work), David Yarrow, Cartier Bresson, Ansel Adams (for me the best landscape photographer ever), Robert Capa, Elliot Erwitt, Peter Lindbergh (he told Linda Evangelista to cut her hair short, which she did. She cried for two hours, but since then her career as a top model was launched), Mathew Brady, Lewis Hine, David Hurd, Dorothea Lange, Richard Avedon (amazing photographer famous for his Marilyn Monroe picture May 6th, 1957 sold at Sotheby's for 457,000 USD, I would loved to made that picture) Yousuf Karsh, Micheal Kenna.

Why black and white today? B&W brings more shape, texture in your photography. When you look at the Liwa (Abu Dhabi) desert picture I shot in February this year, the B&W dessert picture gives more drama and texture. I would print and frame the B&W version because it is aesthetically stronger than the color print. B&W makes sense for me because it simplifies the world.

Color is phenomenal, color is great, but B&W art prints will give the viewer the opportunity to become a much more active participant by filling in the blanks.

We see the world in color which is obvious for us, if it is B&W it abstracts the world and as a viewer we are forced to use more our imagination, to understand what we are experiencing in B&W.

The thing about B&W photography is that it helps us as an artist to focus more on shapes, tones, texture and structure.

When we look at B&W photography, we feel art, working in color doesn't feel like creating art. Color is more about documentary, B&W comes forward with the structure and texture.

Shooting B&W is also easier when using film because digital pictures converting to B&W will give you too many options with all the different grades of shades and grays. It just goes faster for me to use an Ilford B&W film roll, develop the film at home and scan it for printing.

Below the Burj Khalifa shot with a B&W Ilford film and the medium format Mamiya RZ67 camera. Once developed and scanned you can't do a lot anymore with this picture. I do not need to spend too much time with all the digital options I would have with a digital picture.

Alicia Keys, which performance I saw at the Dubai Jazz festival (this festival is not so known, but I can recommend this festival to every Jazz fan), has at here home piano studio a very big B&W art photo of clouds after a storm on the wall.

Let's hope that one day she will buy artwork from me and hang it also at her home, she must have for sure enough space and walls.

In my next blog, I will write about music and photography which are for me very connected. A great picture is like a world hit that is rare and great to look at. When Alicia Keys sang the song "New York" I had to think straight away at the picture "Moonrise" from Ansel Adams. (Moonrise, Hernandez, New Mexico is a black and white photograph taken by Ansel Adams, late in the afternoon on November 1, 1941, from a shoulder of highway US 84 / US 285 in the unincorporated community of Hernandez, New Mexico)

I have the same feeling when discovering the work of Vivian Maier. The Vivian Maier story is so unique, She worked for about 40 years as a nanny, mostly in Chicago's North Shore, while pursuing photography. Such a great and super modest photographer. Vivian Maier didn't have the money to develop here photo rolls till somebody started to develop those after she passed away. Reason why she became famous as a photographer after her dead.

A shot with my preferred Mamiya RZ67 medium film camera from 1993.

"De Gentse Feesten" with the Leica film camera M6 from 1984, this camera doesn't need any batteries. The Leica M6 is great to travel with because I do not have to worry about charging the camera batteries.

Ramadan in Dubai shot with the Leica M6, try to find the word Elegance.

Dubai Creek with the Mamiya RZ67, such an amazing place to discover by walking. This is shot from an empty parking building fourth floor free to access. Below left side are the wooden ships going to Iran and Africa packed with all kinds of electronic household tools like fridges, washing machines, televisions.