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Coluche - Iconic portraits
Arnaud Baumann
Photography - 90 x 60 x 0.1 cm Photography - 35.4 x 23.6 x 0 inch
£1,244
No77 Spirit
Yevgeniy Repiashenko
Photography - 91 x 91 x 0.1 cm Photography - 35.8 x 35.8 x 0 inch
£1,311
Umbrella Silhouette II (S)
Tyler Shields
Photography - 57.2 x 76.2 cm Photography - 22.5 x 30 inch
£4,147
Member of Human League, Philip Oake - Boston, MA 1980
Michael Grecco
Photography - 50.8 x 40.6 x 5.1 cm Photography - 20 x 16 x 2 inch
£2,488
La femme de pêcheur
Marie Dorigny
Photography - 58 x 38 x 0.1 cm Photography - 22.8 x 15 x 0 inch
£1,244
Femme rêvée à la pierre
Michel Verna
Photography - 60 x 80 x 0.3 cm Photography - 23.6 x 31.5 x 0.1 inch
£844
Hangar backstage
Grzegorz Sikorski
Photography - 80 x 80 x 0.1 cm Photography - 31.5 x 31.5 x 0 inch
£222
Melancholic Tulip
André Kertész
Photography - 30 x 23 x 1 cm Photography - 11.8 x 9.1 x 0.4 inch
£1,333
Guggenheim Museum Bilbao 1
Antoine Kubler
Photography - 42 x 29.7 x 0.1 cm Photography - 16.5 x 11.7 x 0 inch
£222 £200
Upper Glasses Royal Ascot
Arthur Steel
Photography - 48 x 61 x 1 cm Photography - 18.9 x 24 x 0.4 inch
£1,622
Chrissie Hynde, Paris
Pierre Terrasson
Photography - 50 x 40 x 0.1 cm Photography - 19.7 x 15.7 x 0 inch
£1,333
Keith Richards
John Rowlands
Photography - 40.6 x 50.8 x 5.1 cm Photography - 16 x 20 x 2 inch
£1,120
Mark Ronson
Noa Grayevsky
Photography - 10.752 x 8.847 x 0.3 cm Photography - 4.2 x 3.5 x 0.1 inch
£1,333
The Silent Language
Amrita Bilimoria
Photography - 45.7 x 32 x 0.5 cm Photography - 18 x 12.6 x 0.2 inch
£1,327
André Villers Photograph of Picasso
André Villers
Photography - 40.64 x 50.8 x 0.1 cm Photography - 16 x 20 x 0 inch
£3,110
Rolling Stones (1998)
Kevin Westenberg
Photography - 40 x 51 cm Photography - 15.7 x 20.1 inch
£1,573
Shoot again (887)
Yves Cham
Photography - 45 x 60 x 0.01 cm Photography - 17.7 x 23.6 x 0 inch
£1,066
Ray of Light
Drew Doggett
Photography - 45.7 x 68.6 x 0.3 cm Photography - 18 x 27 x 0.1 inch
£1,368
Botanical Studies - The B-Sides - No. 01
Matthias Conrad
Photography - 75 x 50 x 0.1 cm Photography - 29.5 x 19.7 x 0 inch
£1,555
Carla Bruni - Gitane - dyptique
Philippe Robert
Photography - 105 x 145 x 1 cm Photography - 41.3 x 57.1 x 0.4 inch
£11,109
Les femmes guerrières
Charles Bayonne
Photography - 80 x 60 x 0.5 cm Photography - 31.5 x 23.6 x 0.2 inch
£1,066
L'Escalier
Christophe Battifero
Photography - 50 x 75 x 0.5 cm Photography - 19.7 x 29.5 x 0.2 inch
£515
La valse du réfectoire - série Une Vie de Moine
Jean-François Talivez
Photography - 23 x 35 x 0.1 cm Photography - 9.1 x 13.8 x 0 inch
£391
The girl from Seville #4 - Slices of Life Series
Anna Levesh
Photography - 100 x 75 cm Photography - 39.4 x 29.5 inch
£791
Sci sull'acqua Venezia
Vittorio Pavan
Photography - 50 x 40 x 0.1 cm Photography - 19.7 x 15.7 x 0 inch
£578
City Palace. Udaipur. Inde.
Olivier Perrin
Photography - 30 x 45 x 0.2 cm Photography - 11.8 x 17.7 x 0.1 inch
£667
Bruma Portfolio
Miguel Winograd
Photography - 35.6 x 27.9 x 5.1 cm Photography - 14 x 11 x 2 inch
£2,488
Sans Titre
Jean-François Spricigo
Photography - 27.5 x 27.5 x 1 cm Photography - 10.8 x 10.8 x 0.4 inch
£2,311
Without title (TP09AP11)
Teresa Pera
Painting - 76.5 x 58 x 0.1 cm Painting - 30.1 x 22.8 x 0 inch
£871
Small Maelstrom (Ref 855)
Jaanika Peerna
Fine Art Drawings - 46 x 46 cm Fine Art Drawings - 18.1 x 18.1 inch
£970
Still Cassius Clay V
Gerry Cranham
Photography - 30 x 45 x 0.1 cm Photography - 11.8 x 17.7 x 0 inch
£880
Ki no kioku (Memory of tree), Ibuta-ji, Matsusaka city, Mie prefecture, 2023-11, N°11
Teddy Peix
Photography - 28 x 20 x 0.01 cm Photography - 11 x 7.9 x 0 inch
£347
Noir 01 “Black River”
Hengki Koentjoro
Photography - 43 x 43 x 0.02 cm Photography - 16.9 x 16.9 x 0 inch
£844
Things aren't always what they seem
On Hansen
Photography - 69 x 100 x 0.3 cm Photography - 27.2 x 39.4 x 0.1 inch
£1,244
Urbain brutalisme - Digital Art digigraphie
Claire Giraudeau
Photography - 40 x 30 cm Photography - 15.7 x 11.8 inch
£133
Untitled from the series Shifty Packets
Colleen Wolstenholme
Fine Art Drawings - 28 x 36 cm Fine Art Drawings - 11 x 14.2 inch
£746
Calligraphing en l'air #6
Cody Choi
Photography - 75 x 50 x 1.5 cm Photography - 29.5 x 19.7 x 0.6 inch
£1,500
Anonymous Face
Darios Tossou
Photography - 90 x 60 x 0.8 cm Photography - 35.4 x 23.6 x 0.3 inch
£1,644
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!