I adore half-timbered houses and they are so well suited to monochrome photos because of the stark contrast they display.

This house stands in the old part of town of Weinheim.

This one in the even older part of the town (although many don’t know this).  Both are a few hundred years old.

A farmhouse from the Odenwald showing the typical stone foundation with the half-timbered first floor and a later finished attic floor with shingles.

All these examples are from the southwest of Germany.  But I was in the north a few weeks ago and the styles in houses is completely different.

The contrast in the brickwork again is ideally suited to monochrome photography.

Contrast it is also with this heavily ornamented house.

The sepia-toned photography makes this house – it is part of the monastry of Lorsch, a UNESCO world heritage site – timeless.  It could have been taken 100 years ago, or last summer (which it was).

This is for Cee’s Black & White Photo Challenge with the subject of — houses.