I’ve looked at thousands of black and white photographs over the years — both my own and those of others — and I’ve noticed something that nobody talks about enough. Most of them are technically fine. The exposure is correct. The conversion is clean. The composition follows the rules but something is missing. You look at the image, you register that it exists, and then you move on. It doesn’t stop you. It doesn’t make you feel anything. It is a photograph that is correct in every measurable way and yet completely forgettable. I spent a long time trying to figure out why. The answer I eventually arrived at changed the way I make photographs. And it is simpler than I expected. The Problem Is Not What You Think Most photographers, when their work is not connecting or resonating, assume the problem is technical. They think they need better gear, better light, better editing software. Or they go looking for more rules; more compositional techniques to learn and more lighting setups to master.…