Worth noting that the use of black and white isn't just an Instagram-style filter being applied in Photoshop; the photographer is making these images on black and white film, using a large format camera that's not too different from the ones people were using to take portraits a hundred years ago. You can see a picture of the artist and his camera on this page [0].

[0]: https://www.ericpickersgill.com/about-eric-pickersgill-remov...