History of Black and White Photography

Mr. Mussari

Photography One

History of Black and White Photography

Before there was color photography, there was black-and-white photography. Before national magazines were published with nothing but color photos, they used to run a color photo on the cover and a few color photos sprinkled through the rest of the magazine. Everything else was black-and-white. Imagine that! Today, most photos are displayed in color in magazines and billboards. However….those that are shown in black and white often convey a very powerful and artistic message.

In its very early days of photographic processing in its simplest form a darkened room was used to develop the very first kind of processes, silvered copper plates and papers. The actual term “darkroom” wasn’t established until around 1841, when new light sensitive processes were introduced and where such a working space was preferable amongst professionals and enthusiasts.

With the invention of roll film and development of the hand held camera more control came to the amateur photographer. Roll film enabled photographers to set up their own darkroom to process their own films and make their own black and white prints. In the 1890’s processing equipment and chemicals became available to the amateur for small-scale printing, and many photographers would make their own darkroom converting a space in their home, such as a bathroom or to those that had it a spare room and even some making a more permanent feature in the garden to accommodate this new past time.

Early color film, processing and printing was expensive– much more expensive than black-and-white. Worse still, the quality of the images was often poor, particularly from low-cost labs used by amateurs. This was because the film wasn't so hot, the processing (except for very high-end magazine and advertising work) was shaky, and the volume wasn't there. For pros, only some jobs called for color images. The majority of photographs that were reproduced in print-even on television-were black and white. Color reproduction in magazines and books was usually poor right up to the 1970s or early 1980s. Sometimes it was downright lousy.

Around 1975-80, color photography became the fad. People everywhere were taking and developing pictures in color! Black and white photography lost its appeal to some people with the advances in color photography.

However………black and white IS back!

Black-and-white is back in print advertising. In today's saturated-color manipulated-image world, black-and-white feels real. To many, it looks fresh. It's as easy to manipulate b/w images digitally as color ones.

Black-and-white is back because brides want to see black-and-white photos in their wedding albums.
Black-and-white is back because it's still a great way to learn about how film "sees" light. That's why good photo educators have never abandoned teaching beginners how to work with black-and-white film and images. That's why we still teach how to expose, process and print black-and-white film in professional photography courses.
The bottom line? Black-and-white photography is back because it's beautiful.
There's magic in the black-and-white darkroom. Truly, I can’t wait for you to see how awesome it is to have control over your photographs and for you to see how beautiful your photographs will be when YOU control the camera, the developing and the printing!
So, let’s begin this adventure…together! 