Just my view ………………
What makes a photographer want to take Black & White photographs when the world is in colour?
It’s a good question and one I haven’t really considered before. I think it’s just my own personal preference. My early influences were the Fine Art Black & White Photographs by the American West Coast Photographers – Ansel Adams, Edward Weston and Paul Strand along with the abstract work of Bill Brandt.
I don’t see images in black & white but have learnt what the final image might look like without colour. In a world saturated with colour images to make photographs which emphasise shape, form and texture without the distraction of colour has always appealed to me.
The work on my website represents images which I have made over the last 40 years both in analogue and digital.
I still shoot in film but more recently have produced a greater quantity of work in a digital format converting the final image to a Black & White photograph.
I have always believed that a good image stands out whatever the method used to produce it. That’s not to say I don’t believe some of the craft has gone out of photography, but like all other processes that have gone before digital, it’s just another method of recording an image.
I would describe my Black & White Photography as abstract; I am not looking to record what I see but what I would like to see the final image look like.
My more recent work has been more project based, inspired by the excellent book by Irving Penn – Small Trades I have started working on the project “Tools for Small Trades”. This won a portfolio award in the British Black & White Photography magazine, which has inspired me to finish this project with a published book.
I hope you enjoy looking at my work and I look forward to your feedback.
Stephen Hodgetts