Black and white
Save your search and find it in your favorites
Saved search
Your search is accessible from the favorites tab > My favorite searches
Unsaved search
A problem occurred
Recconais qu'il y a toujours une inconnue
Julie Peiffer
Photography - 62 x 40 x 0.5 cm Photography - 24.4 x 15.7 x 0.2 inch
$1,332
Tornando con le spese, Novembre 1955 - New York
Fabrizio La Torre
Photography - 60 x 42 x 0.5 cm Photography - 23.6 x 16.5 x 0.2 inch
$1,831
Financial District New York
Claude Guillaumin
Photography - 50 x 70 x 1 cm Photography - 19.7 x 27.6 x 0.4 inch
$1,776
HRH Princess Elizabeth With HRH The Prince of Wales
Cecil Beaton
Photography - 76.2 x 76.2 cm Photography - 30 x 30 inch
$1,274
Ray Charles
Philippe Gras
Photography - 60 x 60 x 0.3 cm Photography - 23.6 x 23.6 x 0.1 inch
$1,054
Rome : Dark Corner
Ellie Sass (Sassayiannis)
Photography - 50 x 70 x 0.1 cm Photography - 19.7 x 27.6 x 0 inch
$533
Practice What You Preach
Damien Deroubaix
Print - 70 x 85 x 0.1 cm Print - 27.6 x 33.5 x 0 inch
$777
Kate Moss Venice Beach IV
Christoph Martin Schmid
Photography - 44 x 33 cm Photography - 17.3 x 13 inch
$888
Nature-morte aux pinceaux
Pierre Brochet
Photography - 30 x 40 cm Photography - 11.8 x 15.7 inch
$499
Débarcadère 2
Jean-Guy Nakars
Photography - 40 x 60 x 0.1 cm Photography - 15.7 x 23.6 x 0 inch
$276
In Mood, Switzerland
Mindaugas Gabrenas
Photography - 36 x 36 x 0.1 cm Photography - 14.2 x 14.2 x 0 inch
$999
Loulou Cassis
Bernard Biancotto
Photography - 60 x 90 x 1 cm Photography - 23.6 x 35.4 x 0.4 inch
$666
1910 Arbres Trees
Eugène Druet
Photography - 59 x 50 x 0.5 cm Photography - 23.2 x 19.7 x 0.2 inch
$1,387
La montée des eaux
Fabienne Cresens
Photography - 100 x 100 cm Photography - 39.4 x 39.4 inch
$1,221
Flowers of delusion
Elena Raceala
Photography - 61 x 91.4 x 0.3 cm Photography - 24 x 36 x 0.1 inch
$1,199
Cubic Feet Empaquetages
Christo and Jeanne-Claude
Photography - 50 x 70 x 0.2 cm Photography - 19.7 x 27.6 x 0.1 inch
$4,995
Trying to reach
Robert Stieghorst
Fine Art Drawings - 30 x 26 x 2 cm Fine Art Drawings - 11.8 x 10.2 x 0.8 inch
$1,443
One for All, All for One
Bisco Smith
Painting - 61 x 46 x 0.1 cm Painting - 24 x 18.1 x 0 inch
$2,775
Picasso Preside la Corrida - Frejus, 1962
Lucien Clergue
Photography - 45.7 x 55.9 cm Photography - 18 x 22 inch
$12,000
Lost in The Fog, Rio De Janeiro, Brazil
Guilherme Licurgo
Photography - 58.4 x 88.9 x 0.3 cm Photography - 23 x 35 x 0.1 inch
$2,500
Panthère strassée
François Rambaud
Sculpture - 55 x 150 x 35 cm Sculpture - 21.7 x 59.1 x 13.8 inch
$10,545
Sans titre
Odonchimeg Davaadorj
Fine Art Drawings - 30 x 41.5 cm Fine Art Drawings - 11.8 x 16.3 inch
$1,221
Man with Black Sand
Ricky Cohete
Photography - 91.4 x 61 x 0.3 cm Photography - 36 x 24 x 0.1 inch
$2,222
The Basketball game
Paul Almasy
Photography - 69.5 x 49.6 x 1 cm Photography - 27.4 x 19.5 x 0.4 inch
$971
Window to Our Soul
Ejaz Khan
Photography - 83.8 x 124.5 x 2.5 cm Photography - 33 x 49 x 1 inch
$3,600
Monochrome 6th avenue
Adrien Faveau
Painting - 120 x 120 x 2 cm Painting - 47.2 x 47.2 x 0.8 inch
$3,996
Butch Chanel: John, Robert and Michael, NYC
Michael James O'Brien
Photography - 91.4 x 61 x 0.3 cm Photography - 36 x 24 x 0.1 inch
$5,000
... C’est Naturel !
Chahrazed Fekih
Photography - 20 x 10 x 0.2 cm Photography - 7.9 x 3.9 x 0.1 inch
$555 $388
Jeanne Hébuterne - Planche 114
Nadine Van Der Straeten
Print - 59.4 x 42 x 1 cm Print - 23.4 x 16.5 x 0.4 inch
$655
Reflet, La voyeuse
Stéphane Aït Ouarab
Photography - 75 x 60 x 0.2 cm Photography - 29.5 x 23.6 x 0.1 inch
$1,554
Fire Hydrant, Harlem, New York City
Leonard Freed
Photography - 48.3 x 33 cm Photography - 19 x 13 inch
$3,000
Femme dans le désert
Emmanuelle Barbaras
Photography - 30 x 40 x 1 cm Photography - 11.8 x 15.7 x 0.4 inch
$777
Nouveau départ
Xavier-Alexandre Pons
Photography - 100 x 100 x 1 cm Photography - 39.4 x 39.4 x 0.4 inch
$2,331
Paradis perdu 9 - série portraits de femmes
Stéphane Vereecken
Photography - 40 x 30 x 2 cm Photography - 15.7 x 11.8 x 0.8 inch
$555
Under The Bridge
Paul J Bucknall
Photography - 91.4 x 61 x 0.3 cm Photography - 36 x 24 x 0.1 inch
$926
A Widow in Her Bedroom, 55th St, NYC
Diane Arbus
Photography - 35.6 x 27.9 cm Photography - 14 x 11 inch
$38,000
Le Baiser - Jane Birkin & Serge Gainsbourg
Tony Frank
Photography - 75 x 110 x 4 cm Photography - 29.5 x 43.3 x 1.6 inch
$12,210
Gallinacean III
Brigitte Chombart de Lauwe
Fine Art Drawings - 40 x 50 x 2 cm Fine Art Drawings - 15.7 x 19.7 x 0.8 inch
$755
Untitled - Expression no. 2
Jackson Pollock
Print - 74 x 58.5 x 0.2 cm Print - 29.1 x 23 x 0.1 inch
$48,839
Bicicletas, Crianças e Outras Alegrias
Geraldo Pestalozzi
Photography - 29.7 x 42 cm Photography - 11.7 x 16.5 inch
$555
Rev Dr. Martin Luther King with Willie Mays
Harry Adams
Photography - 61 x 61 x 0.3 cm Photography - 24 x 24 x 0.1 inch
$2,000
Grandma Divers IX
Alain Schroeder
Photography - 120 x 80 x 1 cm Photography - 47.2 x 31.5 x 0.4 inch
$2,775
Bill T. Jones
Robert Mapplethorpe
Photography - 50.2 x 40 x 0.3 cm Photography - 19.75 x 15.75 x 0.1 inch
$45,000
Frida Kahlo, Casa Azul Coyoacan
Leo Matiz
Photography - 22.2 x 16.5 x 2.5 cm Photography - 8.75 x 6.5 x 1 inch
$4,500
Miami Stripes 09 11bn
Luca Artioli
Photography - 114.3 x 177.8 x 0.3 cm Photography - 45 x 70 x 0.1 inch
$5,000
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!