Why do many photographers present street photography in B&W?

Question

This is more of a general observation and an attempt to analyse it. Most of the street photographs I have come across have been presented (either shot in or post processed) in B&W. Are there notable benefits of doing so other than "it-looks-nice"? Is this a best practice in street photography?

Answer 1

When using B&W, you have decided that the colors are suppressing the subject and you want the viewer to concentrate on geometric's. But this is strictly decided by the photographer eye. A more detailed article about this subject can be found here

Answer 2

I think it's also often because there can be a great many distracting elements in a street photograph - unwanted grafiti, rubbish, posters etc. By presenting the image in B&W the eye doesn't stop for long on all these other elements with their clashing colours and shapes which only serve to detract from the subject.

Answer 3

I debated on whether this should be a comment or an answer...

I know a number of photographers in my area who do street photography in b&w and color. B&W is usually the style of choice for photographing the down and out people in our society such as the homeless and desperate. The reasons they use b&w (enough are acquaintances and friends for me to know their preferences) are pretty simple:

• B&W makes it look "gritty"
• It can hide exposure problems (blown out sections or noisy sections)
• It creates mood and if the subject is depressing can easily contribute to that feel

Now, color always seems to be used for general street photography such as the coming and going of people through the day doing whatever they're doing. I don't usually see b&w for that.

Answer 4

My 2 cents:

Usually there are many things happening on the street and the photographer usually does not have control over them. This means there will be many distractions. B&W images take care of this by atleast getting rid of the colors. ofcourse, if you have a big chimp dancing on the street and you click a picture of someone standing in the corner, the attention will still be diverted to the chimp.

Secondly, black and white adds really good contrast and makes things pop out. Also, expressions look very interesting in b&W/sepia which I believe is one of the reasons for the success of instagram.