When you photograph people in color, you photograph their clothes. But when you photograph people in black and white, you photograph their souls. -Ted Grant, Canadian photojournalist.
I'm often asked why I work in black and white. Or, the question may be implicit in the way a viewer frames a comment. By way of reply, I often refer to this famous observation by the late, great Canadian photojournalist, Ted Grant. He understood that color has a powerful emotional tug, and that it could easily distract readers from his photo-story of a personality in the news.
My view is this: photography is at its best when telling stories, especially when telling them about people. Freed from the certain distraction of color, black-and-white photos can often tell human stories with both a power and intimacy that color photos cannot match. That is my credo.
There are times, however, when color is an important part of the story, or when it is the whole story. Festivals, fashion, and fall foliage come to mind. In such cases, of course, I switch my camera to color.
