For most of my previous monthly features, I have worked with themes that were relatively narrow. Images with crows and ravens[link] photos that are predominantly white [link] and even portraits featuring freckles [link] For the latest, I moved to a more general category, self portraits [link]

This week, I'm going perhaps even more general, and looking at some excellent monochrome (black and white, etc.) work. However, I hope that this collection will stand out, despite a simple sounding theme. Besides looking for images that were very striking and showing great craft, I also hope you will agree that these images aren't typical. For me, these images stand out because I wouldn't expect such an image to be black and white, or wouldn't expect a black and white image to look like this. It could be the theme, the emotion, the subject, or even the genre of photography that surprised me.

In the end, I always love a good surprise, especially in terms of conceptual contrasts. I hope you enjoy these images as much as I do.




Whether or not you share my surprise, I hope you share my love of these photos, and my profound respect for the artists who created them.