“Color tends to corrupt photography and absolute color corrupts it absolutely. Consider the way color film usually renders blue sky, green foliage, lipstick red, and the kiddies’ playsuit. These are four simple words which must be whispered: color photography is vulgar.” – Walker Evans

Another round of the "Black and White Challenge" seems to be making it's way around social media. Have you seen this? Participants are suppose to upload a black and white image every day without people and without explanation. One a day for seven days and then pass the baton on to the next person - hence the challenge - I challenge you, and then throw down the gauntlet I suppose.

As a professional fine art photographer, the problem I see with Black and White Challenge posts is how people approach black and white photography. It seems that often people are simply taking a color photograph and making it a black and white. Not much thought about the appropriateness of the image to be monochromatic or even if a black and white treatment is appropriate for the image.

Black and white photography is a celebration of light. It stripes the photograph down to the essential elements of light and darks, highlights and shadows and focuses the attention on the subject. Lighting is a key factor in creating a successful image photographic image. Lighting determines not only brightness and darkness, but also tone, mood and the atmosphere. Black and white photography focuses attention on texture, dynamic range and luminosity of your subjects.

Black and white is an attitude, a different way of looking at things. There is an indescribable magic in black and white that is impossible to explain, it is the shadows and the highlights, in the details and in the mystique. Black and white treads that fine line between reality and fantasy.

“One very important difference between color and monochromatic photography is this: in black and white you suggest; in color you state. Much can be implied by suggestion, but statement demands certainty… absolute certainty.” – Paul Outerbridge

“I think it’s because it was an emotional story, and emotions come through much stronger in black and white. Color is distracting in a way, it pleases the eye but it doesn’t necessarily reach the heart.” – Kim Hunter

So the real challenge behind the Black and White Challenge is not to change the mode from color to monochromatic, but to think in a different language of light, a smaller range of tones from white to black and everything in between, to create drama, to create mystery, to create intrigue and to create stunning, compelling images that in which nothing is missing when the color is striped away. Nothing is missing because when the color is removed, more is revealed.

- Edward M. Fielding