The New York Times  has become a true champion of B&W photography. Their ongoing series “1 in 8 MIllion” with striking B&W work by Todd Heisler is a prime example of how seriously the Times treats B&W. (Find “1 in 8 MIllion” here.)

They recently answered questions from readers about “1 in 8 Million,” and they were asked why the photos were in B&W.   We liked their answer, below:

From The New York Times:

Why Use Black and White Photography?

Q. Kudos on this series, it's fabulous and I'm quite glad it's getting so much attention. How did you decide to present these stories in b/w as opposed to color? Would color photography produce a less striking effect? — R.D., Cleveland

Meaghan Looram: Black and white photography was something we decided on very early on in the development process, for both practical and aesthetic reasons. On a practical level, we want each profile, though unique in narrative, to be visually coherent with every other profile. We hope that each character's story will feel to the viewer like a different story in the same anthology, a different phrase in the same paragraph, a different car on the same train. A black and white palette is an easy way to unify disparate situations, regardless of variations in environment and light sources.

We are also using black and white for some of the same reasons we chose to sequence the photographs in a slower, more stately pace than most audio slideshows: we want to strip down the visuals to a stark, and hopefully elegant minimalism, so that the viewer can better focus on the subject's voice and the story being shared. Todd's photographs are complicated and intimate enough for the eye to rest on for quite some time, and yet they are pared down in a way that does not distract a viewer from the subtleties of the audio with which they are matched.

But beyond the practical and technical considerations, we also think that black and white lends a certain timelessness to the series, giving it a classic and cinematic look.