Shooting more black and white landscapes

The Jet d’Eau in Geneva, Switzerland

Most photographers who are at least a little bit serious about their craft know about Ansel Adams, who, as the most important landscape photographer ever known, is famous for his stunning black and white American landscape photographs. Credited with influencing the creation of American national parks, it was the majesty of his photographs as much as the majesty of the subjects that influenced many people back east to start caring about the environment and about the preservation of our landscape.

Back in those days, Ansel Adams didn't have a choice but to shoot in black-and-white because the color film was not yet available. However, his photographs have stood the test of time and are prime examples of how black-and-white photography still has a crucial place in the art of landscape image-making. Of course, this is also true of Hiroshi Sugimoto as well as Michael Kenna, both of whom have made a name for themselves with their minimalistic monochromatic take of the natural beauty of our world.

However, I have always found it difficult to make compelling black and white landscape photographs, but I think this year is the year in which this fact will change. Here is one example from the first pictures I took this year, and even though I thought that it looked great in color, I have patiently reworked it as a black-and-white photograph. I must say that I'm pretty pleased with the results, and I will continue to explore this kind of image-making in the future.