Black and white photos yield a timeless flavor to the scenes. It can convey nostalgic emotions such as remembering past traditions, childhood places or people we used to know. A photo of a person helping another person in black and white can even convey a feeling of kindness in humanity.
Black and white photos can also amplify the 'harshness' of the picture that the photographer wants to tell his or her audience. Without the distraction of colors, 'harsh' attributes are amplified. For example, in architecture photography, sharp angles, impossible lines and perfect symmetry of buildings can convey the brutalist theme pretty effectively to the viewers in black and white. This gives a 'brutal', overwhelming feeling of impending doom much like in the 1971 Stanley Kubrick's dystopian flick, A Clockwork Orange.
Black and white photography is also very popular in street photography. Most of the 'street scenes' are actually quite mundane, such as construction work, boring carparks, concrete office buildings and everyday people just walking around town. When some of these photos are switched to black and white, it instantly made the pictures much more visually interesting.
Here are some before and after photos.
Before:
After:
Have fun doing black and white photography! 📸