Does Black and White Photography Actually Look More Artistic Than Color?

Choosing between black and white and color is one of the oldest arguments in photography, and most takes on it stay shallow. This video doesn't claim to settle the debate, but it does offer a genuinely useful framework for thinking about when and why each choice works.

Coming to you from Mike Chudley, this thoughtful video opens with a point that sounds obvious but carries real weight: black and white isn't real. Step outside and the world is in color. The moment you strip that away, you've reinterpreted reality rather than recorded it. Chudley quotes Joel Sternfeld to anchor the idea: "Black and white is abstract. Color is not. Looking at a black and white photograph, you are already looking at a strange world." That abstraction, he argues, is exactly why black and white can feel more considered or intentional, even when it isn't. Color competes for attention in a frame. A bright red coat, a green bin, something in the background that has nothing to do with the moment you're trying to capture. Black and white neutralizes all of that, and the simplification does a lot of the artistic heavy lifting.

There's also a running joke Chudley references that lands because it's a little too true: if a photo isn't working, the light is flat, the color is off, the whole thing feels dull, just throw it in black and white and add some grain. Suddenly it feels arty. He takes this seriously rather than dismissing it, making a real distinction between using black and white because it's genuinely right for the image versus using it to hide a mediocre one. Strong bodies of work in black and white, he points out, aren't built on rescued throwaways. The images are already good. The black and white is a choice, not a fix. He also raises the question of whether black and white carries a kind of inherited prestige, given that photographers like Henri Cartier-Bresson and Robert Frank worked almost entirely in monochrome, largely because they had no other option, and whether that history quietly elevates how we perceive the format today.

One of the more practical sections of the video covers how Chudley shoots with his Leica M11 set to a high-contrast black and white JPEG preview while still capturing raw files. It changes how he sees while shooting, stripping away color so that shape, light, and composition become the focus. Check out the video above for the full rundown from Chudley, including his actual opinion on whether black and white is more artistic than color and the quotes that pushed him toward it.