B&W Tonality Part II: Examples

Dave Heath, New York City, 1962

Robert Frank said "Black and white are the colors of photography," but he was wrong. Turns out, black and white were the colors of film photography—mainly, anyway—during the medium's first hundred and fifty or sixty years. The colors of digital photography are highly controllable, easily reproducible, effectively unlimited colors, thank you very much. (It was Carl Weese who said to me way back in the mid-'90s that B&W was already essentially perfect—true—but that digital was the coming of age of color. Also true.)

But black-and-white's long, 160-year period of dominance was a happy historical accident in my view. Not only did it "encourage" practitioners into a long and fecund concentration on tone and its many mysteries, but the basic "double negative" nature of the majority of photographic techniques meant that the print was a common necessity. We and the culture of our chosen medium are the richer for both those things.

Today I just wanted to mention that for any practitioner (and I've always written for practitioners), seeking out and continually appreciating examples is an important learning tool as well as, of course, an ongoing delight. Regular readers know how much I adore photobooks, and there are many reasons why, mainly that they are the basic form of artworks created by photographers. But one lesser reason, for me, is that they're an easy and practical way of keeping examples at hand. That avuncular and energetic paragon of 20th century American landscape photography, Ansel Adams, even published a whole book called Examples.

I've only had the opportunity to collect photobooks occasionally and sporadically, so my library is quite small, less than a thousand volumes. But one thing I'm always on the lookout for, even if I can't buy them when I find them, are books that are examples of fine B&W photography. I appreciate beautiful B&W for its own sake, and the pictures don't have to be to my own taste in tonality for me to appreciate them; I like distinct and coherent styles finely rendered in well-crafted books.

It would be absolutely impossible to compile a list of great books that are examples of well-done B&W, but I'll mention a few now and more as we go along here (and, if all goes well, we'll be offering a great one ourselves soon, for a bargain price). If you work in monochrome, whether film or digital or both, it's a very good idea to keep a lookout for excellent examples by successful masters of tonality.

You can find them anywhere if you're on the lookout. They need not be great books and they need not be by famous photographers. In the past I've bought auction catalogs and even fashion magazines because they contained examples of superb B&W. One little thing I love is a publication of a photo gallery to celebrate its fifteenth anniversary. It is Seeing Things, published by the Fraenkel Gallery in San Francisco in 1995. It's meant as a little shopfront window for the gallery's offerings and Jeffrey Fraenkel's excellent taste, and it contains a wide variety of work by many disparate photographers in both B&W and color. It pulls off the hard trick of reproducing many different kinds of work, mostly with great success. The cover is an snapshot, an exquisite one. As a book it's close to ephemera, but the judgement brought to bear on the reproduction was outstanding and this slender, modest paperback is a little gem.

Then there's Ground Time, the legacy of Kent Reno. Kent died in 2011 of Parkinson's disease. He was a most interesting photographer, in my view. He started with an ambition to be a photojournalist, but was diverted into a long, successful career as an airliner pilot. At first he tried to practice professional photography in the spaces between flights, but he found that impractical, so he became a devoted amateur who photographed while he was on the ground all over the world in between flights—hence "ground time." He remained ambitious and serious. He was a superb printmaker, with highly refined judgement. Ground Time, his book, is a treat. Kent's taste in tonality is somewhat different than mine but it is highly coherent and purposive, and beautifully reproduced in the book. One could do worse from a life as an amateur photographer (amateur in the highest sense of the word) than to leave behind such a well-seen, well-made testament.

Ground Time is hard to find, and so is this next book—Explorations by Ray McSavaney. Ray's name will be familiar to practitioners and fans of the West-Coast school of large-format photography. His book on the other hand can be appreciated by anyone. There's a bit of dissonance in it for me—his prose is foursquare and earthbound, but the pictures soar, and sing. I find them collectively to be very close to magical; as a photographer he's a great favorite of mine. I didn't know him. I hope he was a good guy. I'm a fan and a devoted admirer. In the present context, you could do a lot worse than to study Ray's great command of tonality.

I'm apparently alone in my admiration for this next book. Mexico: the Revolution and Beyond is a superlative presentation of the archive of the Mexican working photographer Agustin [sic] Victor Casasola. If you don't mind historical pictures or if you have an interest in Mexico, this book is a very fine example of the preferred tonalities of an earlier era (of which you can also get a good taste from Shorpy). Produced by Turner in Madrid and printed and bound in Spain, it's a ravishing example of expert bookmaking. The reproductions balance on the razor's edge of spot-on.

I guess that's enough for now. Even with my small library, as soon as I start talking about books, more and more start popping into my mind, both before I publish the post and afterward.

Before I go I would be remiss not to mention two of TOP's previous Books of the Year, Richard Benson's The Printed Picture and our friend Keith Davis's Multitude, Solitude: the Photographs of Dave Heath. I hope you bought the former title during the stretch of time that I was urging you to, because it's already gotten pretty expensive. If you're interested in B&W tonality, the latter is one you need to have. It, too, is already out of print and rising in price. I should have bought two!

At any rate, these are just a few of my exemplars. Yours could very well be different. Whatever style of photography you practice or prefer, however, collecting some examples helps you calibrate your eye and gives you something to strive for. And I have to say it has brought me great joy.

Mike

Original contents copyright 2017 by Michael C. Johnston and/or the bylined author. All Rights Reserved. Links in this post may be to our affiliates; sales through affiliate links may benefit this site.

A matter of tone
Give Mike a “Like” or Buy yourself something nice

(To see all the comments, click on the "Comments" link below.)
Featured Comments from:

Eric Brody: "I had the privilege of doing a couple of workshops with Ray McSavaney. He was a genuine photographic hero to me and to many others. Bruce Barnbaum prophetically said years before his passing that he'd not get his deserved fame until he died; sad but true. His book is inspirational but spending time with him was the real treat. He spoke incredibly slowly and with long pauses, but if one had the patience to wait, what came out was pure excellence.

"I spent one of the best photographic afternoons of my life in a house at Bodie, just him and I, chatting and fiddling with our view cameras. His print reviews were incredibly thoughtful and well done. His death from lymphoma was just sad. John Sexton and others got together and have saved his archives.

"Glad you mentioned him, Mike, brought back some wonderful memories."

Joe Holmes: "My all-time favorite book of B&W photos is the crazy-wonderful Cherry Blossom Time in Japan: The Complete Works by Lee Friedlander. It's published by Frankel Gallery and printed, according to the description, 'by the laborious dry-trap process (in which one ink at a time is laid on its page and must dry before the next ink is printed).' I don't know anything about the process, but the images are incredible, at least in the hardbound first edition I found in a used bookstore a few years ago.

"The other crazy but genius trick of the book is that the landscape and portrait oriented photos each get their own half of the book. Open the book one way and you can view the horizontal images until halfway through the book. Flip the book over and it turns into a book that you look through in portrait orientation. Two books in one!

"Of course the most crazy-wonderful of all about the book is that Friedlander created an entire body of work about Japanese cherry blossoms in black and white!

"Googling about, I see that plenty of used copies seem to be available, and far less expensive than, say, Friedlander's Flowers and Trees. (Be sure you're getting the hardbound—don't know if the trade version is printed as well.)"

Mike replies: Your comment by itself is an excellent little thumbnail review of that book. Extreme measures in printing taken in the service of rendering gentleness, delicacy, and subtlety.

I had to have it when it came out, even though I didn't have the money for it at the time. "Crazy-wonderful" is the perfect description, you hit the nail on the head.

Roy Feldman: "Everyone has a different palette. For me any book by Salagdo and the Turnley French Kiss book provides the template(s) I try to achieve."

Jeff Markus: "Ray was a very good guy, one of the best. In the ego-driven eighties/nineties L.A. photo world he was a calm oasis, a gentle soul. Always modest about his talent, which was very large. An absolutely sublime printer."

Steve Caddy: "One of the finest, most nuanced black-and-white books I've ever seen—Pentti Sammallahti's Here, Far Away—was also a TOP discovery."

Mike replies: And right on theme for this post, because it too is out of print now and hard to find. Buying photobooks is like buying a house—gotta seize the opportunities when they present themselves!

brad: "Mike surprised me with his mention of my friend Kent Reno. I thought you would like a 'Kent Story.' That's Kent at the right.

"Kent was a very cool customer. Picture Sam Shepard in 'The Right Stuff.' Kent had been a Flight Safety Officer in the Air Force, and was an excellent pilot. He was DC-8 Captain and had thousands of hours flying for Trans International Airlines out of Oakland, California. When seeing Kent he might mention something about one of his flights. He had a great sense of humor. His delivery was almost emotionless, like he was just recounting a humdrum event.

"So, Kent says, telling me of a flight from Europe to the States: 'We were out a few hours and a flight attendant came into the cabin. She said a women in seat 17F [or whatever] is causing quite a commotion. She's handing out large amounts of cash to the other passengers. She's up and down the aisle giving out money.'

"Kent said the crew was always playing little jokes on each other, so he smiles at the attendant and says, 'nice one!' Then the attendant showed him a fistful of large bills saying, 'She says this is for us.' Kent answered, 'I'd better go back and talk to her.' So, he takes the cash and goes back to her seat. He said she was well dressed but looked a bit ruffled and had been drinking. He sat in an empty seat next to her and introduced himself. Returning the cash, he said, 'we can't accept gifts. It's company policy.' The woman just looked at him and was quiet for a bit, then grabbed him by his coat and began screaming, 'who's flying the plane? Who's flying the plane?!?' He told the women the co-pilot was a very good pilot and that the aircraft was in good hands. He got her calmed down and they landed safely.

"He figured the women had some illicit cash in her carry-on, and had gotten through screening at the departure airport (this was the 1990s) but then, en route, she figured Customs in New York would find the money and she'd be in trouble. So she decided to give it away rather than be detained in New York.

"Kent was a really good photographer. We met through our Stock Photo Agent. Kent sold a lot of stock. He loved photography and loved flying. When he retired, he spent a lot of time on his photo projects.

"When he wanted to fly for fun he would rent a Stearman Biplane. He said flying the Stearman was 'really flying.'

"Kent was a great guy. Thanks Mike."

Comments

[Herman Krieger]

I'll stick to black and white for photo essays.

[mike plews]

Keep coming back to this one. Never disappoints.

https://www.amazon.com/Sudek-Sonja-Bullaty/dp/051756419X/ref=sr_1_8?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1492624109&sr=1-8&keywords=sudek

[scott kirkpatrick]

"Less than a thousand" photobooks, if it is not too much less, doesn't sound small to me. I would estimate that is approaching 20 m of tall shelves. Where do you put them all. And how easily can you find them?

[David Brown]

"It was Carl Weese who said to me way back in the mid-'90s that B&W was already essentially perfect—true—but that digital was the coming of age of color."

You have mentioned this in the blog multiple times, and I took it to heart the first time I read it (here) because, it is, yes, true! I have even exchanged correspondence with Carl about the exact quote, and although he admits saying something to the effect, he apparently doesn't remember the exact phrase, either. I still use it when teaching black and white, however.

Cheers,

[Mike.]

Mike, if you can offer for sale Darkroom, by Lustrum Press (Ralph Gibson) I'll love you forever. I had a soft cover version of this book and I almost worn it away. One day I threw it out and I have regretted it ever since. Even though I now shoot digital, I still miss that book.

Mike.

[Chris]

There are some nice examples of black and white tonality in these photos by Nobuyuki Kobayashi - https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/gallery/2017/mar/22/nature-photography-nobuyuki-kobayashi-japan.

Incidentally, the Guardian is becoming a very interesting source of photos.

[Maciej Miechoński]

Mike, your pictures are great examples to calibrate our eyes but it's difficult to find them in different posts. Maybe you could consider puting link (for example on the left side of the blog) to gallery of your B&W pictures? And maybe link to color pictures, too? :-)

[Richard Newman]

Some images require color to work well (e.g. s carnival midway at night). for some images, color is a distraction and needs B&W (e.g. many street scenes). For many it can go either way. DIgital makes the decision so much easier than with film. No more carrying two cameras, or makng internegatives in the darkroom. Now versions in color and B&W can be viewed side by side, and the choice made. For many photographers, the question is how to choose, and how to adjust B&W tonality for the best effects. Hopefully you will cover this in detail. So far, very good.

[Bob Rosinsky]

Clyde Butcher is a master artist. He is known for his black and white landscape photos of uninhabitable parts of Florida. Until recently, he used 8 X 10 and larger view cameras and black and white film. He's older now and mostly shoots digital black and white. He's a super nice guy and has a brilliant way of seeing. I know his books are available on Amazon as well as from his studio/gallery in Venice, Florida.

[Collin J Örthner]

Amazon Canada is offering the Dave Heath book for a deal still at CDN$61.73

https://www.amazon.ca/Multitude-Solitude-Photographs-Dave-Heath/dp/0300208251/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1492644047&sr=8-1&keywords=dave+heath+multitude

[Hermon Joyner]

My personal gold standard for B&W printing in books has always been Howard Bond's "Light Motifs." It's a selection of his photos of cathedrals and churches in England. Printed by Gardner/Fulmer Lithograph in 1984, the images have perfectly rendered highlight and shadow detail with exquisite mid-range contrast. They are also printed in a warm brown tone which resembles the old Agfa Portriga Rapid paper, in a good way. These reproductions can stand up to the actual prints of most first-class photographers. I've never seen better than these.

Another book of the same vintage, 1985, and also printed by Gardner/Fulmer Lithograph is Linda Butler's "Inner Light: The Shaker Legacy." Butler's images are softer in contrast and more open feeling, but printed with great depth and richness.

A more recent book is Don Worth's 2005 "Close to Infinity." Published by Photography West Graphics and printed by Duel Graphics, Inc., this one is close to the epitome of west coast B&W. Deep blacks, sparkling whites, and nearly 3D in visual impact, "Close to Infinity" is close to perfect.

Honorable mentions are Walker Evans "First and Last" and the four volume Atget set from MOMA. All of these are about as good as they get for me.

[Andrew Sharpe]

I remember commenting on a previous article of yours concerning your disdain of current black and white photos. I pointed my website to you, and you said, "you understand tonality". Thanks for that, and thanks for this short series on black and white tonality.

[Peter in Boulder]

Ansel Adams' Examples is one of my favorite books. The background information on these images is solid gold. It's a great how-to and photo book in one.

[Paul Van]

I wouldn't call a thousand book library small! I have no idea how many books I have, preferring to keep multiple bookcases scattered throughout the house.
Sadly, I have been in homes where there are no bookcases, or indeed, books at all.
I try to avoid those people, but try to cultivate friendships with people who keep their books and music (albums, preferably) on display!

[Federico]

Wow! I am impressed at how the price went up in a single day for your suggestions -the bargain offers being obviously taken by your readers. You are having a minor Parr-Badger effect on the market!

[Kusandha]

Really appreciating and enjoying this series of articles. Looking forward to learning a lot. I bought the David Heath book when it was recommended, happy I have it now.

On a separate but related point, I photograph in colour more than B&W, and am now wondering what you would consider are good references for colour. Any suggestions?

[brad]

Hi Mike;
This is a good series. Thank you.

This stuff begins with a negative or file. When working with film, zone placement is fairly straightforward. As for a full set of values, photography, like other arts, shouldn't be restrictive (Man Ray's Rayography).

In the digital world, (to my mind) there are two camps: The image capture camp and the printing camp. I like pigment printing technology; it gives me greater control and richer values in a rag paper print than I got with silver or dye transfer. To me, the image capture camp is murky and unknown with new cameras and sensors every year. In the film days, if you didn't like the sensor you could easily change it for a few dollars. Now the film comes imbedded in the camera and you're stuck with it.

I did my color film work primarily with Kodachrome 64. When exposing it I worked from the top down. Metering for the highest values and judged what the areas of the scene receiving little light would look like. With black and white film I do the opposite. I measure shadow values and adjust for highlights in processing. When working in digital black and white, I treat the exposure as I would a color transparency exposure, working from the top down. With studio lights, I photograph a white card and look for a spike in the histogram. Recording image values in digital capture (black and white) is completely different from the way values are recorded on B+W film. The color digital and the color film reversal process are more similar.

Digital camera BS:
For me, gaining a good command of any current serious digital camera is a challenge. When a camera (sensor) is reviewed and it's reported Dynamic Range is said to be 14 stops, I'm not sure I know what that means. I know 14 should be better than 12, (RedCamera now has a 16+ DR sensor
http://www.red.com/products/epicw-8k?utm_source=red.com&utm_medium=homepage_slide_epicw&utm_campaign=Resolution_Matters )
but where are those extra stops? Above neutral gray or below, or spread evenly over the range. No one talks of distribution, as per your highlight contrast vs. shadow contrast comment Mike. Does that sensor respond to all lighting situations similarly? Will the distribution be the same at 6000 deg K as it is at 2000 deg K? It takes me some time to learn a sensor. I can't do it in a day or two. Maybe the Tech reviewers are smarter and more knowledgeable than I am. But, until I see the values printed on paper, to me, the Tech babble is just that..
Fuji's new X-Trans sensor seems really good for B+W work (Fuji marketing says they more closely emulated film). Many agree on this. That's not scientific/Tech data, that's an artist's opinion(s) and of greater value to me when selecting a camera to test. How do I extrapolate that kind of information from a DxOMark Report?

From images I've seen, Sony's IMX-193-AQK sensor is of interest. Some report it's used in the Nikon D7200 (a camera I might buy), while others say the D7200 uses a Toshiba HEZ1 TOS-5105 sensor. Does any TOP reader know for sure?

https://www.dxomark.com/Reviews/Nikon-D7200-Preview-Performance-boost-for-Nikon-s-flagship-APS-C-DSLR

https://nikonrumors.com/2015/12/16/list-of-all-nikon-dslr-cameras-and-their-sensor-manufacturerdesigner.aspx

https://chipworks1.force.com/DefaultStore/ccrz__Products?operation=quickSearch&searchText=NIK-D7200_Pri-Camera

Conspiracy theory: As I recall, the earthquake in Japan closed Nikons sensor foundry along with Sony's. Was there a supply problem for Sony sensors forcing a switch to Toshiba? How would I find out? I can find the beginning SN for the change in Nikon's switch from a plastic to metal take up fork in the F100. How do I find out which sensor really lives in a D7200? And, if there was a change, when did it happen?

Digital cameras are like laptops. If you find one you like, in a couple of years the manufacturer may no longer support it. Batteries and compatible memory may be tough to find. You're forced to buy a new camera. This technology was a gift to camera makers.

To be able to previsualize really well with a digital sensor I need a lot of time with it. I need to know its nature. When working with B+W film, I don't give it any thought, it comes quickly after some years at it. I don't make friends with my digital gear. I have old Nikon film cameras that I still use a lot. They're old friends. Digital cameras are around for a year or two and by the time I begin to know them they are gone... before they quickly deprecate to salvage value. They aren't friends, they're just visiting tools that are hard for me to get to know.

I think film, scanned and pigment printed or silver wet printed, is a more suitable medium for black and white photography than anything digitally captured. Don't get me wrong, I've seen some wonderful digital B&W images - but, nothing film couldn't do as well.

Some qualities can't be adjusted in post production.

[Rob L.]

First, the story about Kent is why I hang out at this joint. Heckuva a crowd at this place! Second, you keep driving me to purchase books! I'd complain, but, books!

One of my favorite aspects to photography is that the medium defines the art in so many ways, and how the decisions made by(and for) the artist define the end result. Tonality isn't always totally controlled by whim; if you're shooting for newsprint your choices are more limited than if you're putting on a gallery show, or printing Palladium. So diving through a lot of collections helps to get a sense of what possibilities exist that I've not been exposed to - digital spoils you a bit with an illusion of endless choices, the reality being there are so many possibilities you quickly limit yourself.

[Nigli]

At your suggestion I bought the recent reprint of Koudelka's Gypsies. Best prints I've seen in a book.

[David Lee]

So many books, so little time. And money. Great reading about Kent Reno. You don't hear much about pilot-photographers. The ones I now are not very good. Myself included...