Somewhere is everywhere.

I have always been interested in interpretation.

Much of my life has been spent as a conductor, working with music created by someone else and asking how I can bring something of myself to it without obscuring what was there in the first place.

Photography presents a surprisingly similar challenge.

The world already exists.

The mountain doesn't need me to make it impressive. The building doesn't need me to give it geometry. The river doesn't need me to create its movement.

My job is to decide where to stand.

What to include.

What to leave outside the frame.

And when to press the shutter.

I am particularly drawn to black-and-white photography because removing color changes the conversation.

The eye begins searching for something else.

Line.

Light.

Shadow.

Form.

Texture.

Contrast.

Sometimes grandeur.

Sometimes extraordinary simplicity.

The photographs in Somewhere in Monochrome come from my travels and from places much closer to home.

Some were planned.

Many weren't.

They simply began with that wonderful moment when something caught my attention and I thought:

There's a photograph here.

— Don Scott Carpenter