Black and white film photography is an art. Taken to its highest level, it’s a mystical art. There are forces at work. Forces that need to be calmed and directed. It’s analog . Non reproducible. It’s not binary. Its universal.
Early practitioners were sometimes burned as witches, but more often feared as wizards. Wizards who could conjure the soul into a two dimensional object.
This mystical side of photography was lost when corporations started canning mass-produced film and running huge chemical plants that developed it. When digital photography emerged, especially cell phones, the magic was almost lost but for knowledge buried deep in the Akashic records.
Fortunately, knowledge is eternal and all we need to do is to seek it. Just don’t burn me. I’m not a witch.