Storytelling with black and white photography

Black-and-white pictures is a medium of aesthetics. Though coloured shots purpose to improve truth, black-and-white photos are significantly extra delicate. They give you a distinctive standpoint to aim on — slicing out the superfluous distractions and capturing uncooked and vivid emotions an artist needs to share with their audience.  

Utilizing just one of the most essential facets of art — contrast — black-and-white pics present the planet not as it is, but as the artist sees it. If a image is really worth a thousand words and phrases, a black-and-white picture is probably truly worth one particular additional. 

In a environment of shade, storytelling in the black-and-white medium is an aesthetic decision that permits artists, photographers, and filmmakers to participate in with abnormal frames and stark contrasts to develop rigorous ordeals. It allows the viewers sense like they are in a make-consider, dreamlike entire world, significantly absent from the routines of day to day life. 

The classics were being black-and-white. That’s why the storytellers of now turn to this medium when they want to encapsulate the mood of the yesteryears — whether it’s the tension-crammed, disorienting, Hitchcockian model noir movies or enjoyable, nostalgic tales about the very good previous days. Marvel Cinematic Universe show WandaVision did this beautifully — the principal figures slipped into a  black-and-white, sitcom-encouraged faux globe, which at some point gave way to a vibrant and colourful actuality. 

In truth, WandaVision utilized hues to denote the harshness of the real world, in sharp contrast to the image of great domestic bliss its protagonists working experience in the black-and-white make-imagine situation.

The black-and-white medium is also specifically practical for poignant tales, particularly artwork movies filled with heightened thoughts and symbolic messaging. It will allow different characteristics of the issue matter to shine by means of, usually revealing full new worlds that should have to be experienced.  

From Marjane Satrapi’s graphic novel Persepolis to Steven Spielberg’s movie Schindler’s Record, black-and-white storytelling has been utilised across diverse kinds to explore the darkest elements of humanity and create an aura of fear. 

Find out how PixStory photographers use black-and-white photography to share stories and insights into the world as they see it. 

Street portrait shot by Rahul Singi, on PixStory

Intezaar, a notion by Ashwani, source

PixStory photographer Arshad captures streets of Kolkata with its allure

Mornings in Kobla, photograph by Sourin Kastha

Road in Silhouette, captured by Pankaj on PixStory

If you are wanting to explain to psychological, persuasive, and surreal visible tales,  black-and-white could be the way to go. An eye for detail is a will have to as sharp contrasts, appealing frames, and vivid shapes and textures are applied to weave worlds that are invisible in the land of colour.

Edited by Saheli Sen Gupta

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