Black and white
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Little girls on the street
Samuel Cueto
Photography - 40 x 50 x 1 cm Photography - 15.7 x 19.7 x 0.4 inch
$996
Capucine 1957 Slim Aarons Limited Edition Estate Stamped Print
Slim Aarons
Photography - 76.2 x 50.8 cm Photography - 30 x 20 inch
$2,987
Wall Street, New York City
Leonard Freed
Photography - 48.3 x 33 cm Photography - 19 x 13 inch
$3,000
I am not there
Mihaela Ivanova
Photography - 50 x 50 x 0.2 cm Photography - 19.7 x 19.7 x 0.1 inch
$586
Graphisme d'arbre
Mathieu Pujol
Photography - 75 x 50 x 1 cm Photography - 29.5 x 19.7 x 0.4 inch
$941
Zone blanche (PM11)
Palmi Marzaroli
Painting - 20 x 20 x 0.1 cm Painting - 7.9 x 7.9 x 0 inch
$1,494
Music Notes (Party At The Moontower)
Shepard Fairey (Obey)
Print - 30 x 30 x 1 cm Print - 11.8 x 11.8 x 0.4 inch
$277
Un air d exotisme : Mahe Seychelles
Jean-Pierre Fleury
Photography - 100 x 100 cm Photography - 39.4 x 39.4 inch
$2,722
Rufus Wainwright (2010)
Kevin Westenberg
Photography - 60 x 51 cm Photography - 23.6 x 20.1 inch
$2,324
Robert Plant (1993)
Kevin Westenberg
Photography - 101 x 76 cm Photography - 39.8 x 29.9 inch
$4,404
Ian McCulloch Echo and the Bunnymen
Kevin Westenberg
Photography - 76 x 61 cm Photography - 29.9 x 24 inch
$3,181
Vision 9
Gina Vor
Fine Art Drawings - 29.7 x 21 x 0.1 cm Fine Art Drawings - 11.7 x 8.3 x 0 inch
$166
Mezzogiorno al Pantheon, 1 & 2, Rome
Fabrizio La Torre
Photography - 57 x 67 x 2 cm Photography - 22.4 x 26.4 x 0.8 inch
$2,567
Beauty in the Beast
Amrita Bilimoria
Photography - 101.6 x 152.4 x 0.5 cm Photography - 40 x 60 x 0.2 inch
$5,500
Bagheera
Amrita Bilimoria
Photography - 101.6 x 138.4 x 0.5 cm Photography - 40 x 54.5 x 0.2 inch
$6,000
Catherine Deneuve à Venise, Italie,
Vittorio Pavan
Photography - 50 x 40 x 0.1 cm Photography - 19.7 x 15.7 x 0 inch
$775
Entrer dans la lumière
Dominique Jullien
Photography - 20 x 30 x 1 cm Photography - 7.9 x 11.8 x 0.4 inch
$387
The capability to transform into any shape
On Hansen
Photography - 69 x 100 x 0.3 cm Photography - 27.2 x 39.4 x 0.1 inch
$1,500
Ebony Jet (Girlfriend), NYC
Michael James O'Brien
Photography - 152.4 x 101.6 x 0.3 cm Photography - 60 x 40 x 0.1 inch
$8,000
Reflecting landscape 12
Yasuo Kiyonaga
Photography - 80 x 30 x 0.3 cm Photography - 31.5 x 11.8 x 0.1 inch
$1,549
Reflecting landscape 10
Yasuo Kiyonaga
Photography - 80 x 30 x 0.1 cm Photography - 31.5 x 11.8 x 0 inch
$1,549
Reflecting landscape 09
Yasuo Kiyonaga
Photography - 80 x 30 x 0.1 cm Photography - 31.5 x 11.8 x 0 inch
$1,549
Reflecting landscape 08
Yasuo Kiyonaga
Photography - 80 x 30 x 0.1 cm Photography - 31.5 x 11.8 x 0 inch
$1,549
Reflecting landscape 07
Yasuo Kiyonaga
Photography - 80 x 30 x 0.1 cm Photography - 31.5 x 11.8 x 0 inch
$1,549
Reflecting landscape 06
Yasuo Kiyonaga
Photography - 80 x 30 x 0.1 cm Photography - 31.5 x 11.8 x 0 inch
$1,549
Reflecting landscape 05
Yasuo Kiyonaga
Photography - 80 x 30 x 0.1 cm Photography - 31.5 x 11.8 x 0 inch
$1,549
Reflecting landscape 04
Yasuo Kiyonaga
Photography - 80 x 30 x 0.1 cm Photography - 31.5 x 11.8 x 0 inch
$1,549
Reflecting landscape 03
Yasuo Kiyonaga
Photography - 80 x 30 x 0.1 cm Photography - 31.5 x 11.8 x 0 inch
$1,549
Reflecting landscape 02
Yasuo Kiyonaga
Photography - 80 x 30 x 0.1 cm Photography - 31.5 x 11.8 x 0 inch
$1,549
Floating memories 07
Yasuo Kiyonaga
Photography - 40.6 x 50.8 x 0.3 cm Photography - 16 x 20 x 0.1 inch
$885
Floating memories 06
Yasuo Kiyonaga
Photography - 40.6 x 50.8 x 0.3 cm Photography - 16 x 20 x 0.1 inch
$885
Floating memories 05
Yasuo Kiyonaga
Photography - 40.6 x 50.8 x 0.3 cm Photography - 16 x 20 x 0.1 inch
$885
Floating memories 04
Yasuo Kiyonaga
Photography - 40.6 x 50.8 x 0.3 cm Photography - 16 x 20 x 0.1 inch
$885
Floating memories 02
Yasuo Kiyonaga
Photography - 40.6 x 50.8 x 0.3 cm Photography - 16 x 20 x 0.1 inch
$885
Floating memories 01
Yasuo Kiyonaga
Photography - 40.6 x 50.8 x 0.3 cm Photography - 16 x 20 x 0.1 inch
$885
Black and white
Before the arrival of photography – with the exception of some etchings and lithographs – all the images we consumed were in colour. Quite simply, because no one would ever have thought to do anything else – why paint in black and white when colour was so readily available?
Yet despite this, today many photographers still choose to work in black and white – such as Pauline Théon, Kadir Von Lohuizen or Joh Lowenstein – even though their photos are taken in colour by the camera itself. Is the black and white trend a fleeting effect of fashion, or a symbolic return to the roots of the photography movement? Black and white photography has something that colour photos, despite recent innovations and the extraordinary quality of images today, cannot quite access. The use of black and white lends significant force to the composition: the contrasts, the shadows and the figures all stand out more strongly. People simply feel differently when faced with a colour photo versus a black and white image.
Colour is a distraction of sorts, a disturbance: colour is a nuisance.
And yet, some photographers still prefer colour to black and white, whilst others merge touches of colour with otherwise monochrome compositions. But in the end, all agree that both styles impose a totally different way of looking at a photo: from researching the shot to post production work, when artists develop or retouch the image. The use of colour is therefore something of a process in its own right, relating to two different ways of viewing the world and showing it others. The question, then, is what is being told, and why is it being in the way that it is?
The symbolic value of putting black and white together is a good starting point for reflecting on the fascination that they generate even today. There could not be a more fascinating, more striking ambivalence than when black, the 'colour' of darkness and burnt coal, considered a non-colour, is placed alongside white – representing light, and the result of all the colours merged together.
The problem faced by photographers today is that black and white still carry strong connotations of the past, of an era before the popularisation of colour and its massive cultural recovery amongst the press and photo journalists. In fact, it is rare now that contemporary subjects are photographed in colour, but we still associate black and white images with a retro feel.
So what does contemporary art have to say about it all? Discover Artsper's selection of black and white works: on the border of past and present, of the real and the imaginary… let us guide you!