©NYI Student Gloria Restrepo
Perhaps a quarter of a century ago some of the pundits of photography (synonym for camera magazine contributing editors) tolled the death knell for black-and-white photography. Done, they mournfully intoned. B&W is dead, gone, finished! Rest in peace, they said. The king is dead, long live the king – and it's name is color photography. As for B&W, of the dead say nothing but good.

But just as Mark Twain informed the world that the reports of his demise were premature so let us now proclaim that B&W photography (and its film developing and printing) are still with us. Not only with us but alive and kickin', as they say down yonder!

Does that mean that color photography has given up the ghost? Oh, certainly not, by no means! Color photography still represents at least 95% of the film market and is likely to retain that dominant lead perhaps forever. But we at NYI assure you that there is currently a very healthy active interest in B&W, and we think it's high time we talked about this grand old timer.

Many of us, especially among younger photographers and those who only just recently began their photographic interests, only know color film and processing. B&W is alien corn, so to speak. That's partly due to intense advertising hype but also due to the severely limited availability of B&W laboratory facilities. If film manufacturers sell the public on the notion of color photography and bang the drum (very slowly) for B&W then it stands to reason that B&W commercial laboratories will gradually disappear. That seems to have been the case. But B&W is still here and is still thriving, thanks be to such giants in the film industry as Kodak, Ilford, and Agfa; others in the film industry have been less vigorous in this respect, concentrating more on color.

Why B&W you may ask, and it is a legitimate and logical question. There are numerous possible explanations. Here are a few, and perhaps you can think of additional reasons.

B&W photography is an abstraction actually. Abstraction, by definition, suggests that something is removed from its original place, thus changing the nature of the object. Since we view the world in color, the removal of color from our perception fits the definition of abstraction. If we take color out of photography, leaving only black and white and shades of gray, we have made the end product different enough from the original so that one's attention is surely aroused. In fact, in the early days of photography – the days of L.J.M. Daguerre and William Henry Fox Talbot – people were curious and puzzled why photographs were not in color. Furthermore, no real progress in color photography was made until the end of the 19^th century. Even those color beginnings were very primitive compared to today's color technology. So, from the earliest days in photography, the phenomenon of black-and-white images prevailed and eventually even accepted as reality when, of course, it was not.

©NYI Student Paula M. Rose
But abstraction is not the only reason for the appeal of B&W photography. Certainly the ability of B&W to emphasize shape, form, and texture – uncluttered by color – is important. When a painter starts his work he usually begins with rough B&W sketches, using pencil, pen, charcoal, etc. The artist needs to nail down the general shape, form, even the texture of his subject before he adds the color. And he must approximate the interplay of light-and-dark tonalities on his subject, what we sometimes call chiaroscuro. So, in a sense, B&W photography functions as a kind of quick form of sketching; to many of us, that holds an instant appeal.

Also, in some cases, B&W carries with it a greater sense of realism than color does. That sounds strange, doesn't it, considering that we view the world in color? The problem with color photography, though, is that the colors it presents are often a far cry from the colors we find in the real world. Consider the color of blood. In reality it seems considerably different than it appears in color photography. Gory scenes photographed in color seem to be less repulsive and hence less realistic. Therefore, B&W seems to be well suited for documentary and photojournalistic photography. There are other valid reasons for choosing B&W photography, but let us move on now.

We need to discuss various types of B&W film, of course. But first we need to convince you how relatively easy it is to process B&W film right in your own facilities. That seems to be the biggest stumbling block that keeps people from trying B&W. You might assume that B&W printing would be next on the list, but we prefer to discuss B&W film after film development. What we're trying to do is to get a good B&W negative in your hands before we even consider constructing a darkroom and undergoing the relatively considerable expense involved in that undertaking!

You can find adequate B&W processing facilities in the major cities of North America and in the principal cities of much of the rest of the world. But if you can't there are two good alternatives: 1) developing and printing your B&W film in your own darkroom, and 2) using certain B&W film that can be developed and printed using color processes in color darkrooms found nearly everywhere.

Let's talk about working in your own facilities. "But," you exclaim, "I have no darkroom!" To this argument we say you don't really need one, at least not at this stage of the game.

Consider these stories, and they're supposed to be true, too. The late great Alfred Stieglitz (the father of modern American photography) loaded his 8x10 and 4x5 film holders under his dining room table. His darkroom? A long dark tablecloth draped generously over the table served to darken the area underneath. He developed his film and printed his images at night in an unlit attic and washed both negatives and prints in a bathtub. His contemporary, Edward Weston, draped dark cloths over the windows of his vintage Ford and loaded and unloaded his film holders inside the car. Not so remarkable a fact except, of course, that this was sometimes done in Death Valley or the Mojave Desert with temperatures reaching 125-degrees in the shade! We don't recommend either Stieglitz' or Weston's seemingly primitive method. but: where there is a will there is a way!

The first step is to learn how to develop a roll of B&W film in your own location. It's similar to baking a cake but a good deal easier (if not quite so tasty). Here's what you need to get started: