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Where photographers who shoot in black and white come to learn, share and grow

  • When Minimalism Stops Working

    When Minimalism Stops Working

    A community member said something recently that stopped us. Sometimes minimalism is so quiet it does not say anything and loses its soul. They are right. And it is worth talking about why that happens and how to make sure your minimalism is working for the image rather than substituting for it.

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  • Behind The Shot With Phil Anker

    Behind The Shot With Phil Anker

    Phil Anker always takes in Salisbury Cathedral on his photo walks because of what the light does in the cloisters at different times of day. One afternoon a man sat on a corner wall with beautiful light falling on him and Phil sat down on the low wall opposite, opened his flip screen, and waited.…

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  • Is Black and White Just a Filter?

    Is Black and White Just a Filter?

    Someone asked us recently whether black and white is sometimes treated as a filter or a mood rather than a genuine creative decision and how you know when a subject actually calls for monochrome. It is one of the best questions we have been asked in a while. Here is our honest answer.

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  • Weekly News Roundup

    Weekly News Roundup

    Viltrox announces two more APS-C EVO lenses ahead of their June 8 launch, the Sony a7R VI begins shipping, Luminar Neo is running its biggest sale of the year, Peak Design’s new travel bags hit retail, Light Lens Lab adds a 75mm to the Leica M lineup, the Nikon 120-300mm f/2.8 shows up at Roland…

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  • Behind The Shot With Shane Guidaboni

    Behind The Shot With Shane Guidaboni

    Shane Guidaboni was riding the 66 bus through Brookline in 2015 when he noticed a mother asleep across the aisle, one daughter out cold on her lap, the other wide awake and quietly going through her purse. He had no camera. He had an iPhone 6s and about thirty seconds of soft afternoon light coming…

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  • The Five Stages of Buying a New Camera

    The Five Stages of Buying a New Camera

    Every photographer who has ever bought a new camera has been through all five stages. The denial that you need one. The research that somehow only turns up five star reviews. The purchase. The brief and glorious euphoria. And then the quiet realization that your photographs look exactly the same as they did before. You…

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  • Behind The Shot With Thomas Hren

    Behind The Shot With Thomas Hren

    It started with a used photography book and an invitation for coffee. By the end of the conversation Claudia had shared something she rarely told anyone. A few days later she was standing in a studio. What happened between them that day is what true portrait photography looks like when it is done with honesty,…

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  • Photographer Spotlight: Steven Sosa

    Photographer Spotlight: Steven Sosa

    Steven Sosa has been at it long enough to know that the style you develop is not something you plan. It is something you discover through practice and persistence and the willingness to keep going even when the motivation is hard to find. He shoots street on a Fujifilm X-Pro 2, X100V, Ricoh GR3, and…

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  • Why Black and White Is the Language of Portrait Photography

    Why Black and White Is the Language of Portrait Photography

    There is a reason the most enduring portraits in the history of photography are almost all in black and white. It is not nostalgia and it is not aesthetics. It is about what happens when you remove color from a face and what the viewer is forced to look at instead.

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  • Weekly News Roundup

    Weekly News Roundup

    A meaningful week. The Ricoh GR IV Monochrome wins the Camera Grand Prix Technical Award, the Viltrox 55mm EVO review consensus comes in strong, Leica releases a phone, Canon discontinues a classic lens and raises prices, Capture One announces a 6% price increase, and Viltrox is not done yet.

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