Black and white
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Lirio roto, Obra del Grupo Danza del Alma, Cuba
Sonia Almaguer
Photography - 24 x 32 x 2 cm Photography - 9.4 x 12.6 x 0.8 inch
£1,066
Ali In Training
Russell McPhedran
Photography - 76 x 101 x 0.001 cm Photography - 29.9 x 39.8 x 0 inch
£844
Untitled, Tbilisi
Luca Battaglia
Photography - 60 x 90 x 0.1 cm Photography - 23.6 x 35.4 x 0 inch
£889
SJWMN/JP#06 (Still just writing my name / Japan)
Patrick Hartl
Painting - 80 x 60 x 2 cm Painting - 31.5 x 23.6 x 0.8 inch
£1,422
Steve McQueen, Erfurt
François Gragnon
Photography - 61 x 45.7 x 5.1 cm Photography - 24 x 18 x 2 inch
£1,120
Andy Warhol and Keith Haring
Christopher Makos
Photography - 38.1 x 48.3 cm Photography - 15 x 19 inch
£3,732
Telltale
Solomon Jamy Brown
Photography - 70 x 50 x 0.05 cm Photography - 27.6 x 19.7 x 0 inch
£1,021
Zitouna Mosque
Bettino Craxi
Photography - 49 x 53 x 0.4 cm Photography - 19.3 x 20.9 x 0.2 inch
£489
La veste du peintre
Guillaume Lavigne
Fine Art Drawings - 65 x 50 x 0.1 cm Fine Art Drawings - 25.6 x 19.7 x 0 inch
£711
Kano 1975
John Craven né Conte
Photography - 30 x 40 x 0.5 cm Photography - 11.8 x 15.7 x 0.2 inch
£844
Paris - Passage de la Voûte
Vladimir Bazan
Photography - 49 x 38 x 1 cm Photography - 19.3 x 15 x 0.4 inch
£498
1972 Vienna Muse My Love My Queen
Florian Hunger-Pegof
Photography - 24 x 18 x 0.3 cm Photography - 9.4 x 7.1 x 0.1 inch
£1,733
L'homme brun Dark haired man
Christer Hamp
Photography - 30 x 21 cm Photography - 11.8 x 8.3 inch
£1,689
Boxes of Flowers
James Fink
Photography - 50.8 x 40.6 x 0.6 cm Photography - 20 x 16 x 0.25 inch
£705
Les Jumelles au chapeau
Hannibal Renberg
Photography - 39 x 39 cm Photography - 15.4 x 15.4 inch
£720
Your hand+mine= love #MyMum
Udo Roosen
Photography - 80 x 60 x 1 cm Photography - 31.5 x 23.6 x 0.4 inch
£1,777
Jeanne Moreau / Paris Match
Jack Garofalo
Photography - 60 x 60 x 0.1 cm Photography - 23.6 x 23.6 x 0 inch
£1,706
Breaking lemmings
Robert Stieghorst
Photography - 30 x 26 x 1 cm Photography - 11.8 x 10.2 x 0.4 inch
£1,155
Tokyo Pic Nic II
Motohiko Hasui
Photography - 45.5 x 56 x 0.3 cm Photography - 17.9 x 22 x 0.1 inch
£444
Fluidity of a woman V
Katya Taneva
Photography - 120 x 80 x 0.2 cm Photography - 47.2 x 31.5 x 0.1 inch
£3,057
Alter Ego (after Roger Ballen)
Roger Ballen
Design - 80.5 x 20.5 x 1.2 cm Design - 31.7 x 8.1 x 0.5 inch
£1,111
Culinary Atronomy #1
Andrés Rozo Samer
Photography - 60 x 60 x 0.1 cm Photography - 23.6 x 23.6 x 0 inch
£960
100th Anniversary Celebration Coffret # 6 - Bangkok
Fabrizio La Torre
Print - 29.7 x 21 x 0.3 cm Print - 11.7 x 8.3 x 0.1 inch
£578
Belongings 1
Raquel Pellicano
Photography - 61 x 91 x 0.1 cm Photography - 24 x 35.8 x 0 inch
£1,671
Michael Jackson VI
David Nutter
Photography - 50.8 x 61 x 5.1 cm Photography - 20 x 24 x 2 inch
£2,115
Korean students
Lluc Queralt
Photography - 60 x 90 x 0.1 cm Photography - 23.6 x 35.4 x 0 inch
£1,066
Cathédrale Saint-Pierre de Beauvais
Sébastien Béghuin
Photography - 60 x 50 x 0.1 cm Photography - 23.6 x 19.7 x 0 inch
£1,200
Homeland
Anet Duncan
Fine Art Drawings - 26 x 21 x 7 cm Fine Art Drawings - 10.2 x 8.3 x 2.8 inch
£604
Get a Clue I Got You Cornered Trump
Carla Sumarlidson
Painting - 182.9 x 91.4 x 2.5 cm Painting - 72 x 36 x 1 inch
£1,377
Mont moderne
Aurélien Desbois
Fine Art Drawings - 50 x 30 cm Fine Art Drawings - 19.7 x 11.8 inch
£444
Elizabeth Taylor Spain
Burt Glinn
Photography - 45.7 x 61 x 5.1 cm Photography - 18 x 24 x 2 inch
£1,120
The Taj Mahal At Agra
Shepherd & Robertson
Photography - 101.6 x 152.4 cm Photography - 40 x 60 inch
£475
A bird without a song
Haude Bernabé
Sculpture - 102 x 65 x 72 cm Sculpture - 40.2 x 25.6 x 28.3 inch
£8,709
Memories I
Victoria Dearing
Photography - 27.5 x 44.5 x 0.3 cm Photography - 10.8 x 17.5 x 0.1 inch
£444
Wally ghost 01
Thomas Campion
Photography - 75 x 50 x 2 cm Photography - 29.5 x 19.7 x 0.8 inch
£489
Untitled II. From the Series Chiromorphose
Nico Baixas / Gos-com-fuig
Photography - 49.8 x 49.8 x 0.3 cm Photography - 19.6 x 19.6 x 0.1 inch
£1,037
Agnès Varda - Les plages d'Agnès
Jean-Loup Gautreau
Photography - 30 x 40 cm Photography - 11.8 x 15.7 inch
£267
Masque 1972 Mask. Masque de la vie Life mask
Mirabelle Dors
Fine Art Drawings - 60 x 100 x 0.3 cm Fine Art Drawings - 23.6 x 39.4 x 0.1 inch
£1,111
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!