Beautiful Black and White Photography
If you’ve been following Smashing Magazine for a while, you know that almost all posts from the Monday Inspiration series are pretty colorful and eye-catching. This post is an exception. Compared to colorful designs where catchy colors help the design to stand out, in black-and-white designs the ability to stand out depends only on its ability to communicate rather than on its appealing visual presentation.
Indeed, beautiful black and white photography doesn’t attract with its play of colors. Here close attention to composition, lighting, perspective and the context it is shot in are important. Hence, before considering the photos presented below please prepare some patience and time. This post presents some truly excellent examples of beautiful black-and-white photography.
Notice: this post isn’t supposed to showcase the best black-and-white-photos of world’s best photographers; please see it as a modest attempt to inspire designers for experimenting with black and white instead of using a variety of vibrant colors all the time. Hopefully, everybody will find something interesting and unusual for herself or himself.
You may want to take a look at our related posts
- (Really) Stunning Pictures and Photos
- 35 Fantastic HDR Pictures
- (Really) Stunning Desktop Wallpapers
All photos belong to the respective owners.
Beautiful Black-And-White-Photography
Toni Frissell
In her legendary photos Toni Frissell impresses with a strong trend toward surrealism or realism. The photo presented below, although in black and white, is both extremely sharp and clear. To achieve such level of clarity in black and white is extremely hard.
Alin Ciortea
Alin Ciortea presents examples of modern street photography. In black and white, of course.
Birds
Unfortunately, the photographer is unknown. The photo seems to be taken at exact the right moment from exactly the right angle with a perfect lighting. Black and white can be powerful as well.
Sally Mann
This photo, titled Candy Cigarette, not just displays something, it tells a story. It is both emotional and beautiful. This is what the originality of black-and-white-photography is all about.
Larry Towell
This shot was taken in El Salvador. Child with star mask during “Day Of The Dead”. Other child in background rolls tire for repair in garage where he works at an adult’s job. The photo is full of tiredness and stubbornness. Simple motif conveying strong emotions.
Aneta Kowalczyk
Aneta Kowalczyk specializes in portrait photography. Some of her photos are provoking, some are strange and some are extremely beautiful. The example below displays the beautiful side of black and white photography.
Nick Brandt
Nick Brandt is a renown animal photographer which has become famous with his book of photographs, “On This Earth”, which was published in October 2005.
Gary Winogrand
Taking a shot just at the right moment.
Larry Louie
Woman Of Tibet. Realism at its best. Awarded with International Photography Awards in 2007.
Gabriele Caretti
Tour Eiffel: extraordinary contrast and perspective. Strong, clean and very precise shot.
Ghost Town Charm
Excellent lighting.
Ansel Adams
One of the most famous contemporary black and white photographers. Classic!
Maurizio Polese
Polese’s works pay close attention to small, tiny details. The tones are perfects and compositions are beautiful which is why the photos are presented in this post. Notice the sharp contrast and the lighting at the first image below and the sharp pathway leading to the light in the second one.
Top 10 Wired.com Reader Black-and-White Photos
Ten extraordinary black and white photographs sent to the Wired.com editorial by its readers.
Michele Clement
Artistic yet beautiful and extremely powerful shot. Michele Clement is the winner of Black & White Spider Awards 2007 in category “Outstanding Achievement”.
Snyder Alison
This photo has been taken in South Crillon Glacier, Washburn.
Abbas
Iranian film director Abbas Kiarostami on the hills surrounding the captital, where his film “Taste of Cherry”, which was co-awarded the Golden Palm in Cannes 1997, was shot.
Patrick Figaj
Ceremony.
Jack Radcliffe
Alison’s life in black and white photos. The significance of these pictures emerges in retrospect. “When my daughter Alison was born, in the tradition of a new parent, I began to photograph her, initially in a separate and private body of work. However, in the process of documenting Alison’s growth, I developed a passionate interest in human relationships and capturing intimate moments in the lives of family and friends.”
Arndt Laude
Alignment. Sometiems all it takes is to be at the right place in the right moment and take a shot under the right angle. That’s what happened here.
Ralph Gibson
Staircase is an example of Gibson’s high-contrast, minimalist black and white compositions have influenced a generation of photographers. By isolating the essential elements of a scene, his pictures show a style that is unique and immediately recognizable. [via]
Elliott Erwitt
Erwitt, an advertising and journalistic photographer known for his black and white candid shots of ironic and absurd situations within everyday settings — the master of the “indecisive moment”.
Roy Mckeown
Snowy Sheep.
Van Shnooken Raggen
Two Warehouses.
Rodney Smith
Rodney Smith has his own understanding of professional black-and-white-photography. Unusual, abstract and surrealistic works.
Drole Deciel
Smiley.
Shazeen Samad
Simple yet excellent composition. This photo manages not just to show something, but to capture a moment of life in all its beauty and vividness.
Scott Bush
Berk-plage – France. What a sky! A really strange squadron: octopussy, teddy bear and skates.
Pedro Meyer
Pedro Meyer shows the life of people across the globe. This photo was taken in Rio De Janeiro.
Mitch Dobrowner
Mitch Dobrowner is famous due to his Earth photos.
Robertino Nikolic
lighting plays with geometry. Or geometry plays with lighting? The winner of the Black & White Spider Awards 2007.
Matthias Just
747.
Unknown
Capturing the right moment at the right point of time.
Bert (Quasebart)
Perfect timing, perfect lighting. A dreamy shot.
Hughes Leglise-Bataille
That’s a quite unusual perspective for a photograph.
Santosh Korthiwada
“No peeping please!” Very powerful, emotional and somehow sad photo.
Rui Palha
Rui Palha photographs simple people in simple situations. Result: extraordinary photos of simple things surrounding our life.
Watanabe
Straws.
Lauren
Two Tree Hill. The composition looks very surreal, yet powerful and beautiful.
G. Diaz Deleon
Ventana XIV. Geometric minimalism at its best.
Maurizio Polese
Escape. Unusual angle, unusual perspective.
Jana Stolzer
Nameless.
Vega Omer
Struggling to survive.
Ezra Caldwell
Dog snout. Sometimes the moments from our life are the most valuable moments we should enjoy and keep in mind.
Last Click
Classics in Lego
An illustrative summary of iconic pictures with their pairs of Balakov’s Lego figure pictures which are reconstucting famous moments in the history of mankind.
Mark Daniel Owen
I heart you. Do you see what we see?
Sources and Resources
- Tribute to Masters of Photography
- Black and White Photo Gallery
- 1000 B&W Flickr Pool
- Decisive Moments: Classics in B&W
- The Blanco y Negro – Black and White Flickr Pool
- Noir & Blanc
- Blue and White Excellence Moments
- Netdiver Photography
- The Art of Black and White Photography (Hard Cover)
- Ten Truly Inspiring Photographers
- Key Ingredients to Black and White Photography
- Masters of Photography Flickr
Unplugged
June 9th, 2008 1:47 amAmazing!
Im First ^^
Abdel Faiz
June 9th, 2008 1:57 amsplendid and i’m the second one to comment ^^
Liam
June 9th, 2008 1:58 amSally Mann is my favorite photographer.
I was lucky enough to be able to see some of her prints in person at the Guggenheim, and I can honestly say that was the first time a photograph affected me so much!
SV
June 9th, 2008 2:04 amSimply amazing
imaginepaolo
June 9th, 2008 2:10 amGreat article!
Unplugged
June 9th, 2008 2:11 amAmazing!
V1
June 9th, 2008 2:11 amgood photos, tobad i dont say any from deviantart. They have great bw photo’s aswell
Kasper
June 9th, 2008 2:43 amBeautiful. i saved em all in my inspiration folder! thanks for such a great post Smashingmagazine
Massimo Marolda
June 9th, 2008 2:55 amDo you like also this http://www.ipernity.com/doc/massimomarolda/1633513/in/album/62534 or this http://www.ipernity.com/doc/massimomarolda/1633512?
Thomas Baron
June 9th, 2008 2:57 amBerk-plage, France, is spelled Berck. Great article, nice moment to read it.
Natalia
June 9th, 2008 3:06 amWonderful images.
The ninth photo: the author is Garry Winogrand
Armand
June 9th, 2008 3:10 amThis: http://flickr.com/photos/91489640@N00/2079060198/in/set-72157603350551499/ unknown picture is taken by Garry Winogrand
Andy
June 9th, 2008 3:19 amAWESOME. But the word is LIGHTING not LIGHTNING!!!
Niobe
June 9th, 2008 3:29 amIn black and white, I always loved the work of David Doubilet.
Gallery/a>
Thibaut Allender
June 9th, 2008 4:00 amNice examples.
The second photo really makes me think about one of my series. More there if you like them ;-)
id.JackBook.Com
June 9th, 2008 4:05 amWOW!!!! THAT FIRST PHOTO, THE LADY IN THE WATER!!
WOWWW!!!!!
*stunned*
LuLu
June 9th, 2008 4:06 amMagnifique :-)
Mirthe
June 9th, 2008 4:09 amI love the ‘Crossing Line’ picture!
eod
June 9th, 2008 4:20 amCandy Cigarette, beautiful shot. It is a boy disguised in girl?
Erik Teichmann
June 9th, 2008 4:22 amSome of my favorite black and white photos are from English Russia. My particular favorite on this page is this one of a man and his accordion.
speedcu
June 9th, 2008 4:32 amgreat shots!! I love “Birds” and the pictures of Jack Radcliffe most.
beautiful. To me it seems that most of the pictures have a sad, melancholic touch. I like this, however :)
Jonatan
June 9th, 2008 4:51 amAmazing… see my pictures: [link]http://www.clipcroma.com[/link]
Stewart
June 9th, 2008 4:56 amYou swine!. I’ve been quite happy with my photography of late and now I’m depressed
Anthem Creative
June 9th, 2008 5:00 amExcellent post and stunning photography. I must say though, the most compelling element of black and white photography, in addition to the reasons listed, is the capturing and displaying of the brutally honest emotional value in its subjects. B&W photography can inspire laughter, tears, or any variety of emotional response in a way that no other medium seems to be able to accomplish.
Diego Valobra
June 9th, 2008 5:02 amReally beautiful,
Diego
mayur
June 9th, 2008 5:07 amsimply amazing ……
tired of seeing graphical pic’s nowdayz
gr8 collection :D
FavBrowser
June 9th, 2008 5:23 amI’d prefer colored version, some amazing shots there.
Veronica
June 9th, 2008 5:39 amAbsolutely amazing shots. The photographers ought to be proud of themselves.
theemptywhiteroom
June 9th, 2008 5:45 amthe piece entitled “birds” is a photomanipulation submitted on deviantart.com approximately 1 year ago. It is not an original photo.
Andris
June 9th, 2008 6:19 amI love black and white photographs much more than the colored ones.
They always transport the feelings much purer than with colors.
Great selection by the way.
bobby n.
June 9th, 2008 6:33 amthe image titled “Good Winter” seems stolen from fastboy’s flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/fastboy, and not given appropriate credit.
Zaphod Beeblebrox
June 9th, 2008 6:46 amLovely collection, but please credit ever photo carefully. The photo titled “Good Winter” was taken by Ezra Caldwell:
http://www.flickr.com/people/fastboy/
and the story that goes with it is completely bogus. Please correct this asap.
Christian
June 9th, 2008 7:16 amYou should check out Nuri Bilge Ceylan’s photos. An award winner, awesome director.
Alin Ciortea
June 9th, 2008 7:18 amIt’s an honor to be featured here, next to Elliott Erwitt, one of my all-time favorites!
Pelardo
June 9th, 2008 7:23 amDamn this would be a great exposition allright!
nice work !!!
Mona
June 9th, 2008 7:25 amVery inspiring! Thank you!
I noticed that two amazing photographers didn’t make it into the post and thought I would send out links to their work for those who enjoyed this… these two photographers are magical!
Robert ParkeHarrison http://www.geh.org/parkeharrison/
ENJOY!
Osvaldo Osorio
June 9th, 2008 7:34 amLa sexta foto que publicaron me impactó tanto. Soy de El Salvador, y me impresionó mucho como se capturó esta realidad de mi país.
MytyMyky
June 9th, 2008 8:24 amNice article. The 9th image (marked as unkown) is by Gary Winogrand. Intersting that I had seen that pic on the web just a couple of days ago.hehe.
Aaron
June 9th, 2008 8:34 amAmazing photos. I’ve seen a few of them before but never assembled into one collection it was great.
Mike
June 9th, 2008 10:15 amVERY nice collection of photographs. I will be sharing this one…
I invite anyone interested in black and white photography to check out my father’s work here:
http://www.ducktrapphoto.com
He takes some pretty stunning black and white photos.
Aakash Goel
June 9th, 2008 10:37 amTruly Amazing!!! Keep it up!
Mehran
June 9th, 2008 10:44 amWOW!
Andreas
June 9th, 2008 10:58 amGreat work but i think you forgot Alex Majoli of Magnum Photos and James Nachtwey of VII.
Pedro Assumpção
June 9th, 2008 11:09 amVery good collection. But in Black & White Cariter-Bresson was the best for me.
You should put some Bresson pics in this post.
Pedro
Tom Mayers
June 9th, 2008 2:39 pmI’m not sure who you’re impressing with these? Is this a photoblog now? Whist an improvement on the woeful recent HDR post, your forays into photography are lacklustre and derivative. You less than insightful commentary (“Taking a shot just at the right moment”) adds very little. you are great at tech and coding posts, why don’t you just stick to them?
JuiceMag
June 9th, 2008 6:28 pmWell i’m not an expert but in my opinion, a black-and-white picture looks gorgeous with the contrast of black and white and also the way the pic silently tells its meaning :D
sudham
June 9th, 2008 7:29 pmBlack and white photos has its own beauty and are gorgious
Angelina
June 9th, 2008 9:36 pmThese look fantastic.
Cody Redmon
June 9th, 2008 9:53 pmfantastic look at the field, but as ‘theemptywhiteroom’ commented, the “Birds” entry is without question a work of photoshop. it took less than ten seconds for me to recognize three ‘bird’ shapes that are scaled and repeated at different angles. the shot is just too perfect, i’m surprised you guys didn’t figure that out on your own…
here’s my photo “submission”…
Roger
June 9th, 2008 10:11 pmNeed some Lee Friedlander in here. Glad to see Winogrand made it.
Chromogenic
June 9th, 2008 10:43 pmWow, incredible selection! Having Ansel Adams there just made my day.
My own black and white gallery: http://www.apochromat.net
Kalo
June 9th, 2008 10:45 pmAmazing photos. Also check
purelook.com
sandie sørensen
June 9th, 2008 11:09 pmFunny.
I recognized the Photo that Sally Mann made on smashings frontpage at once!
Because here where I work, we have her exhibition right now!
So If you love her photos, go to Royal Library of Denmark!
Thanks for inspiration, Smashing. Once again.
Haris
June 10th, 2008 12:11 amAbsolutely amazing collection!
You may also check impressive photo gallery of life and death in Sarajevo ’92. – ’96.
sa92
Various photographers telling the same (sad) story.
Sagar
June 10th, 2008 12:19 amgreat ,now i think i should try out something like this
Hughes Léglise-Bataille
June 10th, 2008 1:23 amI’m somehow glad yet puzzled to have one of my photos included in this selection, which I must say is quite a mixed bag that unfortunately, falls very very short of presenting a top quality selection. Famous photographers mixed with completely unknown amateurs, great shots mixed with very poor ones, and all this missing a massive number of fantastic works by world renowned photographers (in no particular order, where are Nachtwey, HCB, Pellegrin, Doisneau, Koudelka, Kertesz, Capa, Trent Parke, etc, etc.).
By the way, the author of “Straws” is Japanese photographer Hiroshi Watanabe.
unknow
June 10th, 2008 2:38 amwow! These photos are insane
Io, burattino
June 10th, 2008 2:55 amSono foto assolutamente magnifiche!
m64
June 10th, 2008 3:18 amnice photo collection. Great.
liam
June 10th, 2008 3:23 amAmazing.
misu
June 10th, 2008 3:37 amThe author of the 4th phoro – “Birds” is Madsky
The name of the photo “The End”
milo
June 10th, 2008 3:40 amYou should definitely add tony duran: tonyduran[dot]net to your list, amazing photography.
Barend
June 10th, 2008 4:21 amfantastic selection!
krekc
June 10th, 2008 6:09 amPhenomenal set of pictures. Excellent work!
Rex
June 10th, 2008 9:08 amThey’re all great and beautiful in their own way, but that Toni Frissell photo and who she is as a photographer and her body of work is the best one here… oh yeah, that guy Ansel Adams is pretty good too. I’m new to all of this and just recently discovered this website. What a great place to be in. So much to do. So much to see. So much to learn. I love it here. It has now become my default home page, sorry Google and Yahoo!
Jessica Griffin
June 10th, 2008 9:13 amAwesome images!
reta
June 10th, 2008 8:58 pmCool photography
Subra
June 11th, 2008 2:01 amWhat a contrast! Really inspiring.
bisbis
June 11th, 2008 2:14 amGreat compilation!
Check my black and white works
med
June 11th, 2008 4:58 amAmazing collection
Louis Klibansky
June 11th, 2008 5:47 amAbsolutely beautiful! Great selection; work that conveys a message. I especially love Candy Cigarette and Jack Radcliffe.
Roptor
June 11th, 2008 6:27 amnice .. I Love Black and White photo … i dont like color….see my gallry in
mobile.photomillenium.com/Gallery/Photos.aspx?ID=2435
thanks
AndrewE
June 11th, 2008 8:54 amMost of these are ‘pretty’ but stimulate little other than aesthetic pleasure. This is a pleasingly safe list. Hardly surprising when your audience consists of mostly tech geeks who think culture was something that MTV invented. Stick to producing sugar-coated geekery. Leave art alone.
diverse
June 11th, 2008 11:09 amThe last one, is in colour too for sure.
JSHAW
June 11th, 2008 11:51 amTHIS IS JUST LOVELY!
Bendik Teigene
June 11th, 2008 2:32 pmCandy cigarettes is truly the most beautifull picture I have ever seen
Liam
June 11th, 2008 8:23 pmHey AndrewE,
Maybe since you’re so enlightened and educated in regards to truly “cultural” art, you could provide us with some examples, instead of insulting the entire readership of this website.
Show us all of your conversation-stimulating and deeply conceptual, culturally relevant artwork, because you must be quite the artist if you feel like you can come here and take a jab at all of the above photographers.
This website is not an art website, it is a resource for general inspiration. Nowhere in the post did they mention that they were trying to bring together a definitive collection of art photography, they were merely displaying a few pieces to stimulate the creativity of their community.
You believe they should leave art alone, and I believe you should leave this website alone.
Thanks.
Sowmya
June 12th, 2008 9:44 amAwesome pics.. loved all of them
Oliver Ruehl
June 12th, 2008 11:56 amHi guys,
your website is a true inspiration.
Thank you for the constant flow of amazing material.
I really appreciate the photography topics to find images that create a spark in my creative mind.
All these photos made me grab my camera, leave the room and become better at photography :)
I follow each single post on this site and it has become of my main sources for inspiration.
My colleagues at work love it too and always thank me that I forwarded them the link to smashingmagazine.
Keep up the smashingly good work! ;)
Oliver Ruehl
andy h
June 12th, 2008 1:19 pmthis one is missing in the list: shorpy.com
Kane
June 13th, 2008 12:09 amI have been following this website for a few months now, and in my opinion this is the best article yet. Most inspirational also (made me want to just go out and take photos)
Superb.
rc dmn
June 13th, 2008 6:21 amif us see all in black and white, would be the world different ?
Bluedreams
June 13th, 2008 10:41 amcool work =)
Some of them are simply amazing !!!
Phil Jones CEO SWPP & BPPA
June 14th, 2008 7:02 amNice selection of images
Fred
June 14th, 2008 10:38 amThe picture’s photographer about kites in Berk-plage is not “Scott Bush” but me.
miqsh
June 14th, 2008 1:26 pmso beautiful!! everything is so different from the other…love this!
billie
June 15th, 2008 5:56 pmthe candy cigarette photo is beautiful. i hope that when i am older and taking photos a hope that i could take one as beutiful as that. the rest are amazing!!
marie ancolie
June 16th, 2008 10:57 amThe photo “birds” is an exceptional one.
As is the photo from michele Clement.
Wonderful to discover you magazine today…….
saber yousefi
June 16th, 2008 2:42 pmwow! very nice! I saw them all pixel by pixel,continue plz…
ananda rizki ramdani
June 16th, 2008 11:12 pmamazing inpiration, i love ‘bird’ one
John Brown
June 17th, 2008 2:33 pmAwesome images!
Rajesh
June 18th, 2008 9:35 amphenomenal
Mohammad360
June 19th, 2008 1:21 amvery very nice. So nice!
Amin
June 19th, 2008 11:46 pmwell i know the one ” Unknown
Capturing the right moment at the right point of time.”
photographer.
and the one is jumping off is my cousin arash.
the photo is in north of iran “khane Darya”.
if you want more detail send me an email .
medea
June 20th, 2008 10:13 pmthe ghost town charm is realy beaytiful!love them all.
Falkor
June 25th, 2008 3:28 amGreat collection!
Snail pic is cute! :-*
Xcalyver
June 27th, 2008 7:18 amYou guys think these photos are silver gelatin or digital??
santhu
June 29th, 2008 8:58 pmwow!!!!!!!!!
jamie
July 1st, 2008 12:37 amGreat collections and you guys rock, I would prefer the upside down guy by Shazeen Samad and the first one by Toni Frissell… Oh my goodness.. these pictures are worth millions…
A.Alaalas
July 1st, 2008 3:25 pmCiortea’s photo suggests the lad will break his neck on that back dive; not what I would call an emotive scene. Also, in El Salvador the culture does not distinguish “adult jobs” — it tends to focus on survival. And, no, that is not the “real meaning” of the photo, it is just the opposite, a crass disrespect of reality and a leap into the fantastic, a far step from photo-realistic art interpretation.