My default response appears to be to capture images in black and white. I frequently get asked why this is and in thinking about it I realised that a large part of it, is that abstracting colour stops the distraction and interpretation of the colour. Seeing and capturing in B&W you are immediately expressing the emotion of the image, rather than the subject, because you are abstracting it from the reality of what we know and perceive.

In a colour image the viewer can immediately relate to the scene and interpret the ‘lovely day’ or sunshine, knowing how it looks and feels. Extracting the colour emphasises the emotion, the viewer can just think ‘that’s nice light’, and for me, that’s what it’s all about – light! If you’ve got nice light it doesnt matter what the colour is……often. Mostly, this gives you great expression.

So, abstracting colour makes you focus on the light, not on the colour and immediate interpretation of the colour and what it means for you in your everyday life. In B&W it’s immediately about what the image is trying to show, not what it is; what is the photograph about, not what is it of. 9 times out of 10 it’s about the emotion that’s trying to be portrayed, it’s about the light in the scene. And that, I think, is why I like B&W.