Elegant, chic, mysterious attractive, timeless, and yet so trendy, the black-and-white portrait is a truly creative choice for portrait photographers. Black-and-white gives the image an authentic and yet modern spirit. It therefore knows how to capture and magnify precious moments to immortalize them.

Black-and-white brings us back to light and shadows which alone allow shapes and textures to be sublimated. Black-and-white knows how to bring out the contrasts which give all its strength and character to the image. The image then acquires greater depth. The creative field is expanding. The viewer then has greater freedom of interpretation and more chance of simply feeling the essential: an emotion.

We have selected 10 photographers among the best in this discipline who deserves to be known. These images are proof that despite our different cultures and traditions, black-and-white portraiture and the emotion they generate are universal.