Some of the best photographs in color make no attempt to utilize the entire available palette. A splash of just one hue can crystalize a moment or a mood in a way that a full spectrum often cannot. Sometimes black and white photography simplifies a chaotic world, stripping away distractions to focus on the subjects at hand. This isn’t necessarily true all the time, and there are many reasons for creating images in black and white. The monochrome image as well gives photographers that same distillation of intent that black and white can achieve, and still allows for the vibrant saturation of real life. Collected here are images that celebrate the primarily monochrome vision.
n artist dressed as the Hindu goddess rehearses a play ahead of a performance to celebrate the Dusshera festival in New Delhi.
A monk from the Buddhist organization Bodu Bala Sena uses his phone to take pictures during a speech by Ashin Wirathu at a convention in Colombo, Sri Lanka on September 28, 2014.
Masked protesters walk through a cloud of tear gas during a 48-hour strike by the two major Greek workers unions in central Athens November 7, 2012.
Hamas supporters attend the 25th anniversary of the ruling party of the Gaza Strip in Gaza City on December 8, 2012.
he peloton races along a country road at sunrise during stage 4 of the Absa Cape Epic mountain bike team stage race in the Overberg region of South Africa on 29 March 2012.
man walks through an agricultural field in Loikaw, Myanmar on October 10, 2014.
A woman peers through the the eye slit of her burqa as she waits to try on a new burqa in shop in the old town of Kabul, Afghanistan on April 11, 2013.
Romanians attend a laser party called "Abduction Beamz 05" during an open air free party organised inside a forest near Bucharest late on May 17, 2013.
Communist Party course trainees in Red Army uniforms line up at the Jinggangshan Cemetery for Revolutionary Martyrs, in Jinggangshan, China on October 14, 2012.
A Yeoman Warder stands amongst the ceramic poppies as Queen Elizabeth II and her husband Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, visit the Tower of London's 'Blood Swept Lands and Seas of Red' poppy installation at the Tower of London on October 16, 2014. The art installation will eventually consist of over 800,000 ceramic poppies, and serves to symbolise British and Colonial military fatalities in WW1
Some of the over 4,000 participants in the Color Run Boise 5k celebrate near the finish line in Boise, Idaho on Aug. 23, 2014.
School girls stand on the edge of a sea port in Colombo, Sri Lanka on May 20, 2013, after travelling from their town of Kalmunai, over 370 kilometres east of the capital.
abbasiali, ASK Afridi, coAdmin, Dr Maqsood Hasni, faridkhan, I Am In Love, intelligent086, life., loneliness4ever, maya, Moneeb, MR.Fkas, Mr.Khan, pErIsH_BoY, S.Athar, sarfraz_qamar, sheem, SheeN, soni kudi, suroor,
Aanchal,
n artist dressed as the Hindu goddess rehearses a play ahead of a performance to celebrate the Dusshera festival in New Delhi.
A monk from the Buddhist organization Bodu Bala Sena uses his phone to take pictures during a speech by Ashin Wirathu at a convention in Colombo, Sri Lanka on September 28, 2014.
Masked protesters walk through a cloud of tear gas during a 48-hour strike by the two major Greek workers unions in central Athens November 7, 2012.
Hamas supporters attend the 25th anniversary of the ruling party of the Gaza Strip in Gaza City on December 8, 2012.
he peloton races along a country road at sunrise during stage 4 of the Absa Cape Epic mountain bike team stage race in the Overberg region of South Africa on 29 March 2012.
man walks through an agricultural field in Loikaw, Myanmar on October 10, 2014.
A woman peers through the the eye slit of her burqa as she waits to try on a new burqa in shop in the old town of Kabul, Afghanistan on April 11, 2013.
Romanians attend a laser party called "Abduction Beamz 05" during an open air free party organised inside a forest near Bucharest late on May 17, 2013.
Communist Party course trainees in Red Army uniforms line up at the Jinggangshan Cemetery for Revolutionary Martyrs, in Jinggangshan, China on October 14, 2012.
A Yeoman Warder stands amongst the ceramic poppies as Queen Elizabeth II and her husband Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, visit the Tower of London's 'Blood Swept Lands and Seas of Red' poppy installation at the Tower of London on October 16, 2014. The art installation will eventually consist of over 800,000 ceramic poppies, and serves to symbolise British and Colonial military fatalities in WW1
Some of the over 4,000 participants in the Color Run Boise 5k celebrate near the finish line in Boise, Idaho on Aug. 23, 2014.
School girls stand on the edge of a sea port in Colombo, Sri Lanka on May 20, 2013, after travelling from their town of Kalmunai, over 370 kilometres east of the capital.
abbasiali, ASK Afridi, coAdmin, Dr Maqsood Hasni, faridkhan, I Am In Love, intelligent086, life., loneliness4ever, maya, Moneeb, MR.Fkas, Mr.Khan, pErIsH_BoY, S.Athar, sarfraz_qamar, sheem, SheeN, soni kudi, suroor,
Aanchal,