Minimalist Black & White Photography

Fine art wildlife photographer, Greg Metro, sets out some helpful points to consider when aiming to produce both beguiling and atmospheric monochrome wildlife images

Greg Metro

I have become fascinated and passionate about a unique photography genre; minimalist black-and-white wildlife photography. Most wildlife photography captures many details of the animals, their environment and their behaviours. On the other hand, minimalist wildlife photography presents a unique visual experience that is more mysterious and moody, just offering shapes and outlines of the animals and leaving a lot to the imagination.

While living in the Philippines, I was introduced to minimalist black-and-white landscape photography by professional fine art photographer, Red Ognita. I mostly shot seascapes and long exposures, across the Philippines and Asia, applying what I learned. After my family moved to Africa recently, I have become inspired by photographing wildlife in the vast African landscape. After seeing some of the moving black-and-white photography of Andy Biggs, I thought that techniques of minimalist black-and-white landscape photography could be applied to wildlife photography and I soon developed this new, personal wildlife photography style.