Black and white
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The other world
Shérazade (Sher) Auclair
Photography - 50 x 70 cm Photography - 19.7 x 27.6 inch
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Chanel Paris
Bart Van Leeuwen
Photography - 63.5 x 81.3 x 5.1 cm Photography - 25 x 32 x 2 inch
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Enfant des rues Cotonou
Philippe De Poulpiquet
Photography - 30 x 40 x 1 cm Photography - 11.8 x 15.7 x 0.4 inch
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Sur les Quais
Yves Bordes Lapeyre
Photography - 60 x 90 x 1 cm Photography - 23.6 x 35.4 x 0.4 inch
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Liberia: Liberian in front of a Termite Hill
Martin Munkacsi
Photography - 34.9 x 25.1 cm Photography - 13.75 x 9.88 inch
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Untitled (Church Spire, Seville)
Martin Munkacsi
Photography - 37.8 x 29.8 cm Photography - 14.88 x 11.75 inch
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Saint Laurent Ovation à la fin de sa collection
Pierre Boulat
Photography - 24.5 x 30.1 x 0.2 cm Photography - 9.6 x 11.9 x 0.1 inch
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La parisienne vaut bien une messe
Sylvia Galmot
Photography - 50 x 30 cm Photography - 19.7 x 11.8 inch
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Noce dans le Berry, la nuit de noce.
Pierre Boulat
Photography - 30 x 40 x 0.3 cm Photography - 11.8 x 15.7 x 0.1 inch
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Marie Chantal en manteau d'ocelot
Pierre Boulat
Photography - 50 x 40 x 1 cm Photography - 19.7 x 15.7 x 0.4 inch
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Larguez les amarres !
Pierre Gély-Fort
Photography - 45 x 80 x 0.2 cm Photography - 17.7 x 31.5 x 0.1 inch
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Maïs, Le Marais D'Arles
Lucien Clergue
Photography - 25.2 x 16.5 x 0.3 cm Photography - 9.9 x 6.5 x 0.1 inch
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Frozen Fickle Fiction Made More Baby Kiss
Daniel Erban
Fine Art Drawings - 56 x 76 cm Fine Art Drawings - 22 x 29.9 inch
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Violent delights, violent ends
Daniel Erban
Fine Art Drawings - 56 x 76 cm Fine Art Drawings - 22 x 29.9 inch
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Tribute to Soulages (Hommage à Soulages)
Bruno Cantais
Painting - 100 x 81 x 3 cm Painting - 39.4 x 31.9 x 1.2 inch
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Muhammad Ali , Chicago
Thomas Hoepker
Photography - 15 x 15 x 0.1 cm Photography - 5.9 x 5.9 x 0 inch
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Chicago 45, Portrait of a Woman
Hugo Erfurth
Photography - 36.5 x 26 x 0.3 cm Photography - 14.38 x 10.25 x 0.1 inch
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Treehouse next to waterfall
Peter de Boer
Painting - 40 x 30 x 2 cm Painting - 15.7 x 11.8 x 0.8 inch
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Untitled (Solarized Landscape)
Maurice Tabard
Photography - 28.6 x 22.9 x 0.3 cm Photography - 11.25 x 9 x 0.1 inch
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Untitled (Solarized Double Exposure)
Maurice Tabard
Photography - 28.6 x 21 x 0.3 cm Photography - 11.25 x 8.25 x 0.1 inch
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Untitled (Solarized Double Exposure)
Maurice Tabard
Photography - 28.6 x 21 x 0.3 cm Photography - 11.25 x 8.25 x 0.1 inch
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L'infini, le regard vers le monde
Babs
Painting - 100 x 100 x 3 cm Painting - 39.4 x 39.4 x 1.2 inch
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David Gilmour & Jacques Boumendil à la caméra_'Pink Floyd Live at Pompeii'
Jacques Boumendil
Photography - 30 x 40 x 1 cm Photography - 11.8 x 15.7 x 0.4 inch
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Le refus du combat
Dominique Mückli
Sculpture - 26.5 x 26.5 x 26.5 cm Sculpture - 10.4 x 10.4 x 10.4 inch
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Phobie administrative
Alain Wieder
Photography - 40 x 50 x 0.8 cm Photography - 15.7 x 19.7 x 0.3 inch
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Visite médicale
Alain Wieder
Photography - 70 x 50 x 0.8 cm Photography - 27.6 x 19.7 x 0.3 inch
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Birds in Flight
Martin Munkacsi
Photography - 40.6 x 30.5 x 0.3 cm Photography - 16 x 12 x 0.1 inch
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Horses in a Valley
Martin Munkacsi
Photography - 29.2 x 39.1 x 0.3 cm Photography - 11.5 x 15.4 x 0.1 inch
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Horses with Mountains
Martin Munkacsi
Photography - 29 x 34.8 x 0.3 cm Photography - 11.4 x 13.7 x 0.1 inch
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Aerial view of Mountains and Roads
Martin Munkacsi
Photography - 34.3 x 26.7 x 0.3 cm Photography - 13.5 x 10.5 x 0.1 inch
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Three Gentleman on Horseback
Martin Munkacsi
Photography - 29.7 x 38.4 x 0.3 cm Photography - 11.7 x 15.1 x 0.1 inch
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Untitled 132
Martin Munkacsi
Photography - 37.3 x 27.9 x 0.3 cm Photography - 14.7 x 11 x 0.1 inch
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Untitled P27
Martin Munkacsi
Photography - 29.5 x 36.6 x 0.3 cm Photography - 11.6 x 14.4 x 0.1 inch
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Untitled P67
Martin Munkacsi
Photography - 25.4 x 34.3 x 0.3 cm Photography - 10 x 13.5 x 0.1 inch
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Untitled P-92
Martin Munkacsi
Photography - 31.8 x 26.4 x 0.3 cm Photography - 12.5 x 10.4 x 0.1 inch
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Roaming Horses
Martin Munkacsi
Photography - 26.4 x 34.3 x 0.3 cm Photography - 10.38 x 13.5 x 0.1 inch
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The Heart Of Prague
Kirill Postovit
Painting - 105 x 68 x 1.5 cm Painting - 41.3 x 26.8 x 0.6 inch
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Shadows’s city: Berlin
Udo Roosen
Photography - 80 x 60 x 1 cm Photography - 31.5 x 23.6 x 0.4 inch
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Death Valley, États-Unis
Stephane Cormier Cormier
Photography - 47 x 47 x 1 cm Photography - 18.5 x 18.5 x 0.4 inch
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Nice, le plongeoir, La Réserve, bateau en direction de la Corse
Patrice CLEMENT
Photography - 40 x 40 x 1 cm Photography - 15.7 x 15.7 x 0.4 inch
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The dominating personality of my banker
Daniel Erban
Fine Art Drawings - 56 x 76 cm Fine Art Drawings - 22 x 29.9 inch
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Looking for my centre
Jose Ladrón de Guevara
Fine Art Drawings - 100 x 130 cm Fine Art Drawings - 39.4 x 51.2 inch
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Dot, dot, dot... ... ... 6/10
JP Malot
Fine Art Drawings - 50 x 70 cm Fine Art Drawings - 19.7 x 27.6 inch
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1 - Les âges de la vie - Jadis
Mita Vostok
Photography - 60 x 40 x 1 cm Photography - 23.6 x 15.7 x 0.4 inch
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Virginie Ledoyen
Franck Leclerc
Photography - 40 x 40 x 1 cm Photography - 15.7 x 15.7 x 0.4 inch
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Charles Aznavour
Franck Leclerc
Photography - 60 x 50 x 1 cm Photography - 23.6 x 19.7 x 0.4 inch
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Marilyn Monroe at Grand Central Station
Ed Feingersh
Photography - 25 x 30 cm Photography - 9.8 x 11.8 inch
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Marilyn Takes It To The Streets
Ed Feingersh
Photography - 30 x 40 cm Photography - 11.8 x 15.7 inch
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Marilyn Takes It To The Streets
Ed Feingersh
Photography - 25 x 30 cm Photography - 9.8 x 11.8 inch
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The Midnight Symphony
Kirill Postovit
Fine Art Drawings - 24 x 34 x 0.1 cm Fine Art Drawings - 9.4 x 13.4 x 0 inch
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Mike Tyson, Small, Unframed
Albert Watson
Photography - 60.3 x 50.5 cm Photography - 23.75 x 19.88 inch
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Receiver 3
Margaret Neill
Fine Art Drawings - 74.9 x 55.9 cm Fine Art Drawings - 29.5 x 22 inch
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Receiver 1
Margaret Neill
Fine Art Drawings - 74.9 x 55.9 cm Fine Art Drawings - 29.5 x 22 inch
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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!