Black and white
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Loulou Cassis
Bernard Biancotto
Photography - 60 x 90 x 1 cm Photography - 23.6 x 35.4 x 0.4 inch
€600
Ituango, Pigment Prints
Miguel Winograd
Photography - 96 x 78 x 0.3 cm Photography - 37.8 x 30.7 x 0.1 inch
€863
Small Maelstrom (Ref 855)
Jaanika Peerna
Fine Art Drawings - 46 x 46 cm Fine Art Drawings - 18.1 x 18.1 inch
€2,756
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
€1,200
1910 Arbres Trees
Eugène Druet
Photography - 59 x 50 x 0.5 cm Photography - 23.2 x 19.7 x 0.2 inch
€1,250
Nature-morte aux pinceaux
Pierre Brochet
Photography - 30 x 40 cm Photography - 11.8 x 15.7 inch
€450
Noir 01 “Black River”
Hengki Koentjoro
Photography - 43 x 43 x 0.02 cm Photography - 16.9 x 16.9 x 0 inch
€950
Cimetière Britannique de Contay 14-18
Philippe Grincourt
Photography - 34 x 51 x 0.1 cm Photography - 13.4 x 20.1 x 0 inch
€160
Financial District New York
Claude Guillaumin
Photography - 50 x 70 x 1 cm Photography - 19.7 x 27.6 x 0.4 inch
€1,600
Flowers of delusion
Elena Raceala
Photography - 61 x 91.4 x 0.3 cm Photography - 24 x 36 x 0.1 inch
€1,080
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
€1,300
One for All, All for One
Bisco Smith
Painting - 61 x 46 x 0.1 cm Painting - 24 x 18.1 x 0 inch
€2,500
Picasso Preside la Corrida - Frejus, 1962
Lucien Clergue
Photography - 45.7 x 55.9 cm Photography - 18 x 22 inch
€11,506
Sans titre
Odonchimeg Davaadorj
Fine Art Drawings - 30 x 41.5 cm Fine Art Drawings - 11.8 x 16.3 inch
€1,100
Man with Black Sand
Ricky Cohete
Photography - 91.4 x 61 x 0.3 cm Photography - 36 x 24 x 0.1 inch
€2,131
The Basketball game
Paul Almasy
Photography - 69.5 x 49.6 x 1 cm Photography - 27.4 x 19.5 x 0.4 inch
€875
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
€4,794
Monochrome 6th avenue
Adrien Faveau
Painting - 120 x 120 x 2 cm Painting - 47.2 x 47.2 x 0.8 inch
€3,600
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
€590
Kate Moss Venice Beach IV
Christoph Martin Schmid
Photography - 44 x 33 cm Photography - 17.3 x 13 inch
€800
Bicicletas, Crianças e Outras Alegrias
Geraldo Pestalozzi
Photography - 29.7 x 42 cm Photography - 11.7 x 16.5 inch
€500
Fire Hydrant, Harlem, New York City
Leonard Freed
Photography - 48.3 x 33 cm Photography - 19 x 13 inch
€2,877
Femme dans le désert
Emmanuelle Barbaras
Photography - 30 x 40 x 1 cm Photography - 11.8 x 15.7 x 0.4 inch
€700
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
€11,000
La femme de pêcheur
Marie Dorigny
Photography - 58 x 38 x 0.1 cm Photography - 22.8 x 15 x 0 inch
€1,400
Nouveau départ
Xavier-Alexandre Pons
Photography - 100 x 100 x 1 cm Photography - 39.4 x 39.4 x 0.4 inch
€2,100
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
€500
Under The Bridge
Paul J Bucknall
Photography - 91.4 x 61 x 0.3 cm Photography - 36 x 24 x 0.1 inch
€882
A Widow in Her Bedroom, 55th St, NYC
Diane Arbus
Photography - 35.6 x 27.9 cm Photography - 14 x 11 inch
€36,436
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
€680
Window to Our Soul
Ejaz Khan
Photography - 83.8 x 124.5 x 2.5 cm Photography - 33 x 49 x 1 inch
€3,452
Aiguille du midi
Eric Bouvet
Photography - 60 x 40 x 0.1 cm Photography - 23.6 x 15.7 x 0 inch
€1,400
Reflet, La voyeuse
Stéphane Aït Ouarab
Photography - 75 x 60 x 0.2 cm Photography - 29.5 x 23.6 x 0.1 inch
€1,400
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
€1,918
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
€2,397
Grandma Divers IX
Alain Schroeder
Photography - 120 x 80 x 1 cm Photography - 47.2 x 31.5 x 0.4 inch
€2,500
Bill T. Jones
Robert Mapplethorpe
Photography - 50.2 x 40 x 0.3 cm Photography - 19.75 x 15.75 x 0.1 inch
€43,148
Catherine Deneuve à Venise, Italie,
Vittorio Pavan
Photography - 50 x 40 x 0.1 cm Photography - 19.7 x 15.7 x 0 inch
€700
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
€4,315
Miami Stripes 09 11bn
Luca Artioli
Photography - 114.3 x 177.8 x 0.3 cm Photography - 45 x 70 x 0.1 inch
€4,794
Run DMC- Back to the source
OverSide
Photography - 70 x 50 x 0.5 cm Photography - 27.6 x 19.7 x 0.2 inch
€350
Growing space VII
Gergana Tabakova
Fine Art Drawings - 25 x 25 x 0.1 cm Fine Art Drawings - 9.8 x 9.8 x 0 inch
€500
Céréales 3
Sébastien Chauchot
Photography - 40 x 35 x 1 cm Photography - 15.7 x 13.8 x 0.4 inch
€350 €315
Upper Glasses Royal Ascot
Arthur Steel
Photography - 48 x 61 x 1 cm Photography - 18.9 x 24 x 0.4 inch
€1,825
Defining Shadows II
Maureen J Haldeman
Photography - 101.6 x 76.2 x 0.6 cm Photography - 40 x 30 x 0.25 inch
€1,342
Rome : Dark Corner
Ellie Sass (Sassayiannis)
Photography - 50 x 70 x 0.1 cm Photography - 19.7 x 27.6 x 0 inch
€480
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!