When colour recedes, how do we learn to see anew?
I wrote The Inner Practice of Black-and-White Photography to examine questions that keep returning in my photographic practice: when I choose black and white, what do I want a photograph to reveal, and what am I willing to let recede? For me, black and white is more than a result of post-processing. It is a way of seeing and making decisions that begins before I release the shutter.
Across twenty chapters, I explore five interconnected practices: Clear Awareness, Shaping Form, Refinement, Firing, and Gathering the Spirit. I move from anticipating grey tones in a world of colour to working with contour, texture, volume, and negative space; from exposure, contrast, local adjustments, and grain to rhythm, bodily presence, and chance on the street. Drawing also on Chinese ink-wash painting, I consider technical choices alongside the expressive intentions they serve.
I do not regard black and white as inherently more truthful or profound than colour. Nor do I believe that deep shadows or coarse grain create meaning on their own. What matters to me is whether these choices remain responsive to the life before the camera. Rather than prescribe fixed answers, I offer experiences of seeing that readers can take into their own practice, question, and test—giving the world more attention, and their own judgement more time.
