Reflecting on BW Minimalist Photography

Monochrome imagery and a minimal aesthetic make a match made in visual heaven. I became interested in photography thanks to visual consumption. Back in 2007, while studying for my BA, an existential tantrum guided me towards creative expression. These always materialised in the form of written text, but I craved something visual as well. I tried learning the basics of drawing and graphic design and I quickly realised those crafts were simply not made for me. Eventually, while seeking some inspiration, I stumbled upon (really, through that site when it was good) the capabilities of the photographic medium.

Photography resonated so much with me because most of the free time I had during my teenage years was dedicated to reading Tolkien books and gaming on my computer; which by the way, I somewhat built myself. In those early 2000's years, hardware and software were both fascinating worlds to me. They kept me so curious, that I even befriended some older folks who were what we now know as hackers. Great guys indeed, and one of them was a photography enthusiast as well. Coincidence? Who knows… As the scientist I am nowadays, I pose there must be something about digital photography speaking to people like myself — geek folks drawn towards tech — into the enlightened world of electronic gadgets.

Photography was my “eureka” moment later on during my grad-student years; and there was something about black and white, but also about what we call “minimal”. Sayings frequently sprout that “less is more”; and like any other mantra, there's pretty much everything unknown. How exactly does one achieve that sweet spot of getting more out of less? The bitter-sweet answer is that there's no recipe book.

Amidst this sad truth on creativity, I'm a bit in the know of how images trigger our willingness to assign meaning to something. And by the way, there's even a bleeding-edge scientific field making progress on “Visualisation Psychology” right now! For this, I recommend reading images — rather than glimpsing them as the mere background of the infinite-scrolling habit — which will make you understand better certain types or genres in photography.

In other words, increasing the quality of our visual nutrition is imperative for us to evolve as photographers. Said that we curated an illustrative set of images that might teach you a thing or two about how to achieve minimal results with the aid of black and white format:

black and white windows — *Photo by Vitaly Taranov*

black and white sphere — *Photo by Luca Bravo*

minimal roller coaster black and white — *Photo by JC Dela Cuesta*

black and white perspective building — *Photo by Osman Rana*

minimal book tabletop — *Photo by Water Journal*

black and white window — *Photo by Ana Silva*

black and white wide open spaces — *Photo by Tom Skrabek-Wazynski*

black and white ferris wheel — *Photo by Siyan Ren*

black and white leaf — *Photo by Yusuf Evli*

We hope studying these striking minimalist images in black and white get your creative juices flowing!

The Better Black And White Guide will ensure you get high-quality images.

black and white toned landscape — *Photo by Paula Vermeulen*

dark leaves black and whites — *Photo by Andrew Neel*

black and white building minimal — *Photo by Lance Anderson*

black and white lonely person — *Photo by Matthew Henry*

black and white three birds — *Photo by Glen Carrie*

black and white skyscrapers perspective — *Photo by Joel Filipe*

black and white staircase — *Photo by Kyaw Tun*

black telephone white background — *Photo by Quino AI*

black and white grainy texture — *Photo by Hulki Okan Tabak*

misty mountain top black and white — *Photo by Dave Hoefler*

Make sure you take a look at Kent DuFault's Better Black And White Guide. This is a complete step-by-step guide on black-and-white conversions. Which translate into getting everything you need to know about controlling tone and contrast to get the images you want!