black & white

My appreciation of photography began with Annie Leibovitz's black & white photographs of rock stars in Rolling Stone. I remember going to the library and pouring over issue after issue, in awe of her work. I saw black & white photography as moody, sexy, and artistic; something my untrained eye didn't see in color photography. Black & white was art; color was for family photos.

Over the years I have realized the true brilliance of color photography and how emotive it can be. Photographers like Mitch Epstein, Sharon Collins, and William Eggleston have drastically changed the way I look at color photography. As a result I have all but abandoned black & white photography. But sometimes, like this picture I took in Chicago in 2007, I yearn for the moodiness and abstraction that I fell so in love with.