Color may be more realistic, but photography isn’t really about recreating the real world; it’s about creating your own version of the world. Black and white is already unreal to begin with, which makes it a good place to begin envisioning an alternate view of the world inside the photographer’s mind.

Monochrome images remove a key part of the information the eye is trained to see, forcing the viewer to concentrate on shades of light and dark, shapes and forms.

Sure, color can be used to interpret reality as well, but it adds complexity to what might be an already busy image. Black and white is also easier to work with in the dark room. Which leads, of course, to questions about why I use film…