about

About Monophie

Why black and white photography?

By displaying an image in grayscale, the meaning of light and shadow, contrasts, lines and shapes become more important.

The reduction to brightness levels primarily gives the image a graphic effect. The lines, shapes and contours of the motif are emphasized more.

Another effect of the grayscale is timelessness. This timelessness makes, consciously or unconsciously, the pictures more comparable to those of other photographers.

Bad tongues may now claim that a bad color photo is turned into a good black and white photo. But for a good black and white photo you need (in digital photography) a good color photo as a starting point.

I personally take photos in black and white and set the camera to monochrome. This makes the image appear monochrome in the viewfinder. Since I shoot in RAW, that doesn't change anything at first. But I get a better feel for the grayscale, and can better assess how the picture will look and whether I like it that way.

But my photographic focus is on things and people from my direct environment.
I am not interested in any zeitgeist, mainstream or fashion - I photograph objects and living things that I consider exciting. I use image editing sparingly and minimalistically.

I have been taking pictures with interruptions for over 40 years.

As a 10 year old I had a Kodak Instamatik 220 and used it to take one or two useful photos. When I was 22, I bought my first SLR camera and had access to a black and white laboratory, where pictures were taken in the classic manner, with chemicals and photo paper. Today I only take digital photos with the Fujifilm X-Trans system.