Black and White Photography as Living Memory
What Will Your Photographs Look Like in 30 Years?
For a long time, I didn’t see the appeal of black and white photography. Colour felt modern, vibrant, and closer to how life actually looks. It seemed obvious that the best way to preserve a memory was in full colour.
But as time went on, I realised something unexpected: colour doesn’t age well. Film prints fade, slides shift, and digital colour grades tied to trends start looking out of date within a few years. The very thing I thought would make an image “real” was also what made it feel tied to a moment that quickly passed.
Black and white, by contrast, endures.
Why Colour Dates and Black and White Doesn’t
Colour is powerful, but it carries the weight of its time. Clothes, interiors, cars, and even hairstyles instantly give away the decade in a colour photograph. Think of the deep, saturated tones of 1970s Kodachrome, the faded orange of family prints from the 1980s, or the teal-and-orange trend in modern digital editing. Each one feels locked in its era.
Black and white strips that away. Without colour, the viewer sees people, expressions, and connections, not fashion or background. It isn’t just an aesthetic choice — it’s a way of making an image resist being dated.
A Personal Discovery
This struck me deeply the first time I saw a black and white photograph of my mother as a child. She was six years old, sitting on a bed with her sister, both absorbed in a stack of books. The photograph could have been taken yesterday.
There was no faded 1970s colour cast, no visual “age” at all. Just two children, alive in the frame. For a moment, I was face to face with a version of my mother I could never otherwise have known.
That is the quiet strength of black and white. It fixes a memory in the present, no matter how far away it was made.
The History of Black and White as Memory
Mrs Charles H. Rigdon, taken 174 years ago in 1851. Remove the scratches and the image could have been taken yesterday in any modern studio.
For over a century, black and white was the language of memory. Entire generations are remembered in monochrome: Victorian studio portraits, wartime family photographs, weddings from the 1930s, 1940s, and 1950s.
When we look at those images today, they don’t feel old — they feel immediate. A bride and groom from 1924 look straight at us with the same clarity as a couple married last year. Soldiers in photographs from the First World War are not sepia-toned relics; they are young men meeting our eyes.
Black and white carries memory without the filter of an era. That’s why so many of those images continue to resonate powerfully a hundred years later.
The Emotional Weight of Monochrome
Colour stimulates the eye, but monochrome stimulates empathy. By stripping away distractions, black and white forces us to focus on faces, gestures, and emotion. The viewer spends less time analysing a dress colour or a wallpaper shade, and more time recognising human connection.
In weddings and portraits, that matters. A couple laughing together, a child resting in a parent’s arms, or a family gathered for a portrait — all become stronger in black and white. Without colour, the eye rests where it should: on people.
Why Weddings Benefit from Black and White
For couples choosing their wedding photography, black and white is not an “extra” — it’s an essential. Colour frames bring vibrancy and context, but black and white brings weight and permanence.
Balance in storytelling: a wedding gallery that mixes colour and monochrome carries both energy and timelessness.
Elegance: certain moments, like speeches, first dances, and quiet portraits, gain emotional strength when presented in black and white.
Future-proofing: when you look back in 30 years, your monochrome frames won’t feel tied to editing styles or trends — they’ll still feel present.
As a photographer, I encourage couples to include black and white in their wedding coverage because those are often the images that stand the test of time.
Black and White Portraits: Family Across Generations
For family sessions and portraits, black and white is equally powerful. A portrait session with parents, children, or grandparents becomes more than just a record of appearance. It becomes a document of connection that future generations can recognise without the filter of a particular decade.
Think of the difference between a colour photo from the 1970s (instantly tied to its time) and a black and white portrait. The monochrome image feels universal. It could be from yesterday, or from 100 years ago. That timelessness makes it an heirloom.
Black and White Film as Archive
A father and daughter, photographed in black and white. Can you guess the year this was taken? That’s the beauty of monochrome portraiture — it resists dating, leaving only the connection between people.
For film shooters, black and white isn’t just about style. It’s also one of the most stable photographic mediums ever made. Properly developed and stored, a black and white negative can outlast colour negatives, slides, and even most digital formats.
At Liquid Light Lab, we develop black and white films with care:
Classic stocks like Ilford HP5 and Kodak Tri-X retain their characteristic grain and tonality.
Slower films like Fomapan 100 or Rollei Retro deliver incredible detail.
Developers like Pyro enhance archival permanence, adding stain and sharpness that will still matter decades from now.
And once developed, negatives are scanned to high-resolution 16-bit TIFFs with wide dynamic range. This isn’t just about a JPEG for social media — it’s about a digital file robust enough to archive alongside the negative itself.
In short: a roll of black and white film, properly processed, is one of the strongest ways to make your life and work last.
Practical Advice for Clients
Wedding couples: request a portion of your coverage in black and white. These are the frames that will still feel fresh when your children look at your album.
Portrait clients: consider booking a black and white session specifically designed to feel timeless, free from colour distractions.
Film shooters: always keep a roll of B&W in your bag. Even if you normally favour colour, those monochrome frames will be the ones you look back on longest.
Timeless, in the True Sense
The word “timeless” is often overused in photography. But with black and white, it’s accurate. Whether it’s a 19th-century portrait or a frame made yesterday, monochrome photographs place us face to face with people as they were, not as their era made them look.
Whether it’s your wedding day, a family portrait, or a roll of film you’ve just shot, black and white doesn’t just preserve memory — it keeps it alive.
Black and White Film: Preserving Family and History
📸 For weddings and portraits: explore black and white sessions with Liquid Light Whisperer, where every image is created to last.
🎞️ For film shooters: send your black and white rolls to Liquid Light Lab for hand development and high-resolution scans that preserve your negatives for the future.