Photography does not always need color to tell a powerful story.

Sometimes removing color allows us to see something deeper—the light, the shadows, the texture, the expression and the emotion contained within a single moment.

That is part of the visual language behind Walk By Faith, an original black-and-white photograph by Photographer Sheraton Walls.

When Color Is Removed, the Story Changes

Color immediately attracts the eye. We notice a blue sky, green grass, bright clothing or the warm colors of a sunset.

Black-and-white photography removes those visual signals.

What remains is the structure of the photograph itself.

Light becomes more noticeable. Shadows become stronger. Shapes become more defined. Texture becomes part of the story.

Instead of asking the viewer to concentrate on what color something was, monochrome photography encourages the viewer to concentrate on what the moment feels like.

That difference can give a black-and-white photograph an emotional strength that is difficult to reproduce in another form.

Light Becomes Part of the Subject

Photography has always depended on light.

The word itself comes from ideas associated with drawing or writing with light, and nowhere is the importance of light more apparent than in black-and-white photography.

Without color competing for attention, the movement from bright highlights to deep shadows becomes one of the dominant elements of the image.

In a successful black-and-white photograph, light does more than illuminate the subject.

Light helps tell the story.

Shadows Create Emotion

Photographers do not only photograph light.

We photograph the absence of it.

Shadows give an image depth and dimension. They can conceal information, create separation and leave parts of a scene for the viewer to interpret.

That can be especially powerful in a photograph dealing with faith.

Faith often involves moving forward without being able to see everything that lies ahead.

A photograph does not have to explain every detail to communicate that idea.

Sometimes what remains hidden is as important as what can clearly be seen.

Texture Becomes More Visible

Black-and-white photography can also make us more aware of texture.

Surfaces, lines, grain, weather, clothing, buildings and landscapes can take on a different visual character once color is removed.

This is particularly significant with traditional film photography.

Film has its own photographic character. Grain and tonal transitions become part of the physical appearance of the image rather than simply something placed over a photograph afterward.

Walk By Faith originated as a photograph captured on 35mm film with a Canon AE-1 camera.

That traditional photographic process is part of the history of the image and part of the character carried into the print today.

Black and White Can Make a Photograph Feel Timeless

Color can sometimes reveal exactly when a photograph was taken.

Clothing colors, decorating styles, signs, vehicles and other visual clues can immediately place an image within a particular period.

Black and white can reduce some of those distractions.

The photograph can begin to exist outside of a specific decade.

That timeless quality is one reason black-and-white photography has remained important through generations of photographic change—from film cameras and darkrooms to today’s digital photography.

Emotion Before Decoration

A black-and-white photograph does not have to match the colors of a room to have a presence in that room.

Its strength can come from something more fundamental.

For collectors and homeowners, that can also make black-and-white photography particularly versatile. A monochrome print can work naturally with modern, traditional, minimalist and gallery-style interiors without requiring the surrounding décor to follow the colors within the photograph.

But its greatest value is not simply decorative.

The photograph should still make you feel something.

Why Walk By Faith Works in Black and White

The message behind Walk By Faith is not dependent upon color.

It is about something that cannot be photographed directly: faith.

You cannot photograph faith itself.

You can photograph a moment that causes someone to think about faith.

You can use light and darkness.

You can use distance and perspective.

You can create a composition that invites the viewer to stop for a moment and consider what the image means personally.

That is where black-and-white photography becomes especially powerful.

By removing some of the visual information, the photograph can leave more room for interpretation.

Different people can stand before the same photograph and see something different.

A Photograph Made Before the World Around It Changed

The history of Walk By Faith adds another dimension to the image.

The photograph was captured approximately 30 days before Hurricane Katrina devastated the Gulf Coast in 2005.

At the moment the photograph was made, there was no way to know what would happen only weeks later.

A moment was captured on film.

Then history changed the world surrounding it.

More than two decades later, the photograph remains.

Its black-and-white presentation gives that preserved moment a visual quality that connects its past with the present.

The Power of Simplicity

Some photographs command attention because they contain extraordinary color.

Others become powerful because they remove it.

Black-and-white photography asks the photographer to depend on the foundations of the medium: composition, timing, light, shadow, texture and emotion.

When those elements come together, the absence of color does not make the photograph incomplete.

It can make the message clearer.

For Walk By Faith, black and white is more than an artistic treatment.

It allows the photograph’s message to remain at the center of the image.

Walk By Faith.