Chris Bickford went against tradition and shot surfers in B&W, and ended up with stunning work that’s getting him a lot of attention. Read our exclusive Q&A about “After the Storm,” below; to see more of this terrific work go here for more B&W surf shots on his blog, and here for the slide show in the New York Times that brought Bickford to our attention. (Photo above - Copyright 2009 Chris Bickford, All Rights Reserved.)

Why B&W for surfing? People normally would think color, especially for such a colorful subject. What about this project said B&W?

It was mainly an intuitive decision. B&W was the way "After the Storm"  should be shot; I just knew that.

Partly because the Outer Banks (OBX) of North Carolina, where the piece is set, has an otherworldly, yesteryear vibe that seeps into the collective imagination about the place (even though a lot of that old flavor is disappearing now).  

Also, I wanted to emphasize the relationship between big storms and big surf on the Outer Banks. And black-and-white just seemed to help bring out the chiaroscuro tones of the storms and the wild textures of the surf, sand, and sky.  

On the west coast and in exotic destinations (like Hawaii and Indonesia) surf comes from storms that are often thousands of miles away. So you have these sunny beautiful beaches with perfect waves coming in out of nowhere, so obviously people like to shoot those places in color.

But the OBX gets most of its surf from storms that pass directly through. So we get a lot of weather, and a lot of crazy, junky, ragged surf. B&W really emphasized those elements for me.

Talk a bit about what B&W means to you in general, and how it fits into your personal and pro work.

"After the Storm" would not be nearly as interesting in color, whereas a piece of mine like "In the Night," which is set on the Lower East Side of Manhattan and plays with the color of the artificial light there - neon, blue-gelled lights, etc., would lose most of its impact were it in black & white. I am actually more of a color photographer in my personal work. In my professional work I find a lot of uses for black & white, especially for private clients, as black & white has a certain emotional quality to it. I think it's a definite & conscious choice that you make, and knowing what is clearly a black-and-white photo or project versus one that is in color can really make the difference between a great series and a mediocre one.  

Tech info: Camera, lenses, housings, film, post production, etc.

"After the Storm" was shot with a Canon 5d and a dedicated Aquatech housing. That, and a pair of swimfins and a few wetsuits. Processed in Adobe Camera Raw and Photoshop.

And the shots were edited ruthlessly. I have lots of great shots that didn't make it in the final cut. People see them and say, ‘Oh, I love that shot so much,’ but some of them threw off the coherence of the piece, so they remain outtakes. 

Do people comment on the unexpected - that these surfing pics are in B&W?

Yeah, sometimes. They usually say that the work is "moody" and "dark"...which it is, but not in any kind of pathological or negative way.  There is a lot of joy in the work as well, and I think that's what grabs people--this interplay between light and dark, fun and danger... people who live here or have visited tend to comment on how strongly the piece captures the spirit of the Outer Banks, which I appreciate, because that's always what I'm trying to do in my work, to capture the spirit, the feeling, the mood of a place or an event.   

How did the NYTs come to use these photos?

I had gone to Venice last year and shot photos of the Venetian Carnival as part of a long-term project I'm doing on Carnival celebrations around the world. Travel magazines tend not to be interested in festivals and annual celebrations because they are time-sensitive, but travel sections in newspapers will run them. I figured the New York Times had the best Travel section of any newspaper I knew, so I asked around to get a contact number and then bugged the photo editor of the travel section incessantly until he got back to me. He loved the Venice photos and wanted to run the piece as a Web slideshow. After it ran they invited me to visit the offices. That's when i showed them the surfing work and they asked if they could run it in the fall. Miki Meek, the web travel producer, saw the piece again at the Look3 photography festival in Charlottesville, where it was featured as an official selection, and she asked if I wouldn't mind if they ran it as a summer piece.   

Do you have other B&W projects planned?

I want to do a piece on the summer camp I went to as a boy, up in the Appalachian mountains of West Virginia... it hasn't changed in 100 years and it' still haunts my dreams. I need to spend a little time with the family that runs it. It's been in the same family for generations, and I used to know them very well, but we've been out of touch for a while. I approached them about it last year but they are a little leery, you know, sensitive about me taking photos of young kids, etc. Also, although I was for the most part a good camper, one day I drew a picture of a naked woman on the side of my tent flap and the director had to change the tent because the ink showed through to the outside. I'm sure those big tent canvases cost a couple thousand bucks at the time. So I think somewhere in the back of his mind he remembers that... anyway, one day I'm gonna do it, and when I do I'm probably going to shoot a lot of it in medium format or maybe even 4x5, black and white...

Anything else you'd like to add.

Just a big thanks to you for featuring my work; you've also got me thinking about that summer camp project again...I need to get on that.