The Power of Black & White Photographs

With his latest exhibit of photographs, American painter and photographer Daniel Promin, described the great power of black and white photographs. Based on the principles of light and shadow, the viewer's attention of black and white photo is focused on the content, and at the same time it is emphasizing action, spreading a special atmosphere, breathing soul and creating a sense of eternal truths of art and life.

The black-and-white world which Daniel Promin shows us is composed of thirty motives with content-pleasing opposites. His majestic work gives us a feeling as if colors truly don’t exist in reality, because they’re faded, poured into a subtle correlation of white, gray and black tones, which exactly through that gradation reflects his view of the everyday life. Thirty photographs, thirty flashes converted in lasting memory, thirty moments that had to be captured, and Daniel Promin couldn’t allow them to disappear, regardless whether found them important at that particular moment or not. For Promin these moments, no matter how ordinary or common they might be, for some reasons were important and captivating. With the harmonization of documentary and photographic visual art achieved by framing, carefully choosing the composition, the relationship between light and shadow, panorama or selecting interesting faces, he creates his own, unique experience of a reality, which due to the absence of colors redirects the viewer's attention directly to the story.

Daniel Promin walks and travel, watches and observes, reflects and captures it all on camera. He portrays the world around him. From children playing with soap bubbles, or lonesome skater who dances with his own shadow, to imaginary strangers lost among the billboards, antiques fair where among objects from a distant past reflect pieces of the present, modern architecture and neglected bridges, a nightmare that creates a kit of pigeons on the city market, a river that flows lazily past the town, quiet, white and winter studded landscapes, dreamy foggy lake and storm clouds above the wheat fields, and idyllic plowed field with two horses and a flock of sheep resting in the snow, his photos are of great diversity. Among his photos, there is also one stunning portrait of a dark-skinned girl with mysterious eyes and beautiful smile that looks as she’s telling everyone just how beautiful life is, whether painted on color or with black and white magic. Peacock, a heavenly bird with lavish feathers fills the whole frame, looking like fine graphic filigree. Each photo is a separate small black-and-white world, vivid and captivating, poetic and dramatic.

No matter when and where the picture was taken, in a city or in the countryside, somehow Daniel Promin makes as go back to a time when the whole world of photography was black and white. For this talented artist, seeing in color, but being able to look in black-and-white has a nostalgic appeal of a time that he projects with his camera.