Your favourite B&W photograph of all time?

Bosk

Bosk

Make photos, not war.
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I've been paying particular interest to B&W photography of late, having developed my first few rolls at home which has served to fuel and heighten my longstanding appreciation for this supremely 'pure' form of photographic expression.



And so the difficult question I'd like to ask you all is this.....

can you name your one most-loved Black and White image taken by any photographer, at any time since the start of the 20th century?



It could be a candid from Henri Cartier-Bresson, or a landscape taken by Ansel Adams, a portrait by Diane Arbus, a nude from Bellocq.... the impossible part is choosing only only one. (so choose more if you must!)


And please, if you're able to provide a link to a scan or thumbnail of your chosen image we will all have the chance to admire it. :)
 
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My choice (a difficult one to say the least) would probably be-


Tomoko Uemura in her bath
by W. Eugene Smith

Link to image: click here.
 
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Bosk said:
My choice (a difficult one to say the least) would probably be-


Tomoko Uemura in her bath
by W. Eugene Smith

Link to image: click here.
Click to expand...

Interesting. That was a photo I thought of not as my favorite, but certainly one of the more memorable. Many W. Eugene Smith's photos come to mind for memorable ones.

I'll have to think on the favorite. I am not sure I really have just one. Of course you said most loved, and that may not be the same as favorite anyway.
 
I would find it impossible to name just one photograph, but of my top ten, at least half would be by Josef Koudelka, and probably half of those would be from his book Exiles.

I can only find an inadequate thumbnail of the first image that came to mind, you'll just have to imagine its luminescent beauty:

http://pedagene.creteil.iufm.fr/ressources/image/photo11a.jpg

I'm also very fond of Lee Miller's Portrait of Space, taken in Egypt in 1936:

http://www.spamula.net/blog/i04/miller05.jpg

But there are many photographs I love.

Ian
 
There are much to many. Much much too many.

Just looking at Ians and Matts cool puppet one...

However, the one that got me into photography was by Doisneau, a family in Paris on a motorcycle. No idea what it is called though.
 
kully said:
There are much to many. Much much too many.

Just looking at Ians and Matts cool puppet one...

However, the one that got me into photography was by Doisneau, a family in Paris on a motorcycle. No idea what it is called though.
Click to expand...

I know the one, very memorable

For me this by Lewis Morley is always the first I think of, it coincided with my first attempts with a proper camera, part of the inspiration I think
:D
 
oftheherd said:
Interesting. That was a photo I thought of not as my favorite, but certainly one of the more memorable. Many W. Eugene Smith's photos come to mind for memorable ones.
Click to expand...
It's definately a "challenging" image to view, particularly for the first time. I think what attracts me to it most is the look on the face of the mother, which is filled with a phenomonal humanity that leaves me speechless.

There is surely a case to be argued for black and white being able to deliver such stunningly immediate connection to the mind of the viewer in a way that colour cannot, nor can motion film IMO.
 
Bosk said:
My choice (a difficult one to say the least) would probably be-


Tomoko Uemura in her bath
by W. Eugene Smith

Link to image: click here.
Click to expand...

Another vote for Tomoko Uemura in her bath, but all the Minamata series is really memorable.
 
Most of mine would be by O Winston Link. I'd have to find the book " The Last Steam Railroad in America" to get you any titles though.
 
Why limit it to photography since 1900? Many early photographs, and Fox Talbot's in particular, continue to amaze me both as compositions and as technical achievements. He was an ardent experimenter, both recording and transforming nature. Some of the early processes had incredible tonal range, as these photographs by Talbot demonstrate. His compositions had an unstudied balance to them, and it seems to me that he took a special delight just in the appearance of such everyday things as a ladder or a broom.
 
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