Large white cathedral on a hill
Monochrome Madness,  Photographic techniques,  Themed galleries,  Travel in general

Gallery: seeing the world in black and white (again)

Joel Sternfeld, US photographer

My blog is full of travel photos, most in colour but some in black and white. A couple of years ago I posted a galley entitled ‘Seeing the world in black and white’ for a Sunday Stills challenge. It’s a fun exercise, experimenting with colour images in order to see the world a bit differently. So today, for Leanne’s Monochrome Madness theme of Travel, I’ve converted some more favourites into monochrome.

What many of these images have in common I realised, in addition to the theme of travel, is the isolating of a building or part of a building against the sky. That’s a technique that seems to lend itself to black and white conversion. Or maybe it’s just a coincidence that I picked them out of the archives today?

My feature photo was taken of course in Paris; it’s the Sacré Coeur in Montmartre

Modern building with a triangular spire

The Paulinum, a building of Leipzig University, Germany


Old battered wooden boat on a beach

Low tide in Faro, Portugal


Man in a narrow street lined with tall houses

Carved stone lion

Domed roof under a stormy sky

Marble dome with decorative patterns around the base

Small elephant carved on a stone pillar

Looking up a spiral staircase

Inside Cape May Lighthouse, New Jersey


Large radio telescope dish

The Very Large Array, New Mexico


White stone wall with white wooden cross

Bell in an adobe arch

Capilla de Nostra Senora de Guadalupe in Albuquerque, New Mexico


Stone cross with a crucifix attached

Dead trees and a sand dune

Dead Vlei, Namibia


Two large worn stone figures

Sculpture of a large hand with a naked man standing on finger and thumb

Curved wall with large lettering

Looking up at a large hotel sign on a building

Metal fire escape and balconies zigzagging down a building

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