What Are Black and White Photographs?

Black and white photographs are images recorded, or later converted, without color, so the picture is built entirely from tones ranging between black and white. Photographers choose the form when light, shape, texture, and moment matter more than color, and viewers read it by paying attention to tonal range and contrast rather than hue. You can see the approach applied to 1930s photojournalism, New York City street and night life, and the 1939 New York World's Fair in the archive at howardfrank.com.

How black and white images are made

There are two broad routes, and they produce different working habits.

Film and darkroom

• Exposure: light passes through the lens and exposes film. Black and white film records brightness, not color.
• Development: the exposed film is developed into a negative, where tones are reversed.
• Printing: light is projected through the negative onto light-sensitive paper, which is then developed. The printer controls contrast and brightness by choosing paper grade, exposure time, and dodging or burning specific areas.
• Result: a final print whose look depends as much on darkroom decisions as on the original scene.

Digital capture and conversion

• Capture: a digital camera records color data even if you intend a monochrome result.
• Conversion: software converts that color data to grayscale. How each color maps to a gray tone is a choice, not a fixed rule, so two conversions of the same file can look very different.
• Editing: contrast, curves, and local adjustments shape the tonal range afterward.
• Result: a file or print that can be tuned precisely, but that also requires deciding what each color should become in gray.

Why photographers choose black and white

• Contrast and structure: without color competing for attention, lines, shapes, and framing become the main subject.
• Tone and texture: surfaces such as stone, fabric, skin, and pavement read through how they reflect light.
• Mood: a limited tonal palette tends to feel more austere, documentary, or timeless.
• Consistency: a body of work shot in black and white holds together visually even when locations and subjects change.

How to read a black and white photograph

When you look at a monochrome image, these are the things worth checking:

A useful habit is to ask what the photographer gained by removing color. If the answer is stronger shape, clearer light, or a more unified mood, the choice is doing work.

Historical examples: 1930s photojournalism

The archive at howardfrank.com presents photographs by Howard W. Frank, with a stated focus on photojournalism from the 1930s. Its subject areas include:

• 1939 New York World's Fair — a large public event documented in the period's documentary style.
• New York City street and night life — urban scenes where artificial light and shadow shape the image.
• Central Park, Meadow Brook, and polo — outdoor subjects where light and movement are central.
• NYC life and sports — everyday and athletic moments recorded without color.

These categories are useful because they show the range of what black and white photojournalism covered: staged public spectacle, candid street scenes, and sport. The archive is maintained by the Estate of Howard W. Frank, and the site lists a contact address, [email protected], for inquiries.

Practical starting points

• If you want to make black and white images: decide early whether you are shooting film or converting digital files, because the two demand different decisions.
• If you want to study the form: look at documentary and photojournalistic work first, since it shows the style used under real conditions rather than in a studio.
• If you want to see period examples: browse the World's Fair, street and night life, and sports sections of howardfrank.com to compare how the same monochrome approach handles very different subjects.