is there a market for black and white pictures?

[chrblack]

Hi, I am new to Alamy, and I am wondering whether costumers are interested in b/w photography? 

 

I work exclusively in black and white and have so far published photos mainly on "art"-oriented websites like Saatchiart, Artfinder, or Artmajeur. However, often entire series are created, which, in my opinion, could fit well into a "stock concept". Are there any experiences, impulses for thought, criteria?

 

[Julie Edwards]

I do sell black and white work to papers and magazines but not via this place and they are mostly portraits or well known people.

There are plenty of black and white on this site.

That said. I think you have answered your own question - you said your publishing was on art websites. This is not an art stock site. The target market here is mostly books, (informational) magazines and news. If your work does not target that sort of market then it is unlikely to sell here

[Phil Robinson]

I have sold a few (very few) black and white versions of colour shots on here. They were of famous people, and I did the BW versions to make them look more dramatic - which they did. I have since stopped doing it as it isn't worth the effort.

As Julie said above, the market here is very different and the kind of thing that sells as 'art' elsewhere probably won't sell as editorial here.

Having said that, if you have the finished images already you might as well upload a few and see what happens.

[zxzoomy]

My black and white images of gay pride marches with placards, taken in the early 1980's, and similar, seem to sell ok here. But those are historical reportage which is very different from 'art'.  As others say, I would try it.

[John Mitchell]

They might license for personal use, but the most you would see is $19.99.

 

Editorial clients can easily convert colour to b&w.

[chrblack]

thanks a lot for these feedbacks.... I will give it a try with several existing series and see what is happening 🙏

[Vincent Lowe]

I have about fifty monochrome images on Alamy, mostly copies of the colour versions which are also on Alamy.  I didn't convert them specifically for Alamy but because I wanted prints for myself.  

I've only ever had one sale - Mont Blanc from the Dôme de Miage, taken in 1976 and stitched from three images.  No colour version of this one, it was on Ilford FP4 film.  Good fee at the time but that was way back in 'the good old days'.

 

[Vincent Lowe]

By the way, and apologies if you already know this, but even though they are monochrome they still have to be in RGB format, not greyscale.

[Michael Ventura]

Not sure about contemporary B&W pics but my archival B&W's sell pretty well.

[Gervais Montacute]

I like black & white better than colour. I do put some B&W on Alamy but more just for fun and sometimes they even sell.

[Mr Standfast]

Try it.

 

3 sales

80 pictures

over 15 years.

 

Not very commited to it, but not exactly exciting.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[BidC]

 

I have tried B+W on here, but I think only one of Grenfell tower has been licensed.

[Mark Scheuern]

Thanks to my Q2 Monochrom, I've been shooting more b&w lately and uploading some. No sales, yet, but it's too early to tell, especially since I don't exactly have a huge number of sales each month. Figure I might as well do it. I know customers can convert color to b&w, too, but I prefer to have control over how it's done.