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Realist Black and White Photography

REALIST STYLE

Realist art attempts to portray its subject matter without artifice. Similar to naturalism, authentic realist paintings and prints see an integration of true-to-life colors, meticulous detail and linear perspectives for accurate portrayals of the world. 

Work that involves illusionistic techniques of realism dates back to the classical world, such as the deceptive trompe l’oeil used since ancient Greece. Art like this became especially popular in the 17th century when Dutch artists like Evert Collier painted objects that appeared real enough to touch. Realism as an artistic movement, however, usually refers to 19th-century French realist artists such as Honoré Daumier exploring social and political issues in biting lithographic prints, while the likes of Gustave Courbet and Jean-François Millet painting people — particularly the working class — with all their imperfections, navigating everyday urban life. This was a response to the dominant academic art tradition that favored grand paintings of myth and history. 

By the turn of the 20th century, European artists, such as the Pre-Raphaelites, were experimenting with nearly photographic realism in their work, as seen in the attention to every botanical attribute of the flowers surrounding the drowned Ophelia painted by English artist John Everett Millais.

Although abstraction was the guiding style of 20th-century art, the realism trend in American modern art endured in Edward Hopper, Andrew Wyeth and other artists’ depictions of the complexities of the human experience. In the late 1960s, Photorealism emerged with artists like Chuck Close and Richard Estes giving their paintings the precision of a frame of film.

Contemporary artists such as Jordan Casteel, LaToya Ruby Frazier and Aliza Nisenbaum are now using the unvarnished realist approach for honest representations of people and their worlds. Alongside traditional mediums, technology such as virtual reality, artificial intelligence and immersive installations are helping artists create new sensations of realism in art.

​​Find authentic realist paintings, sculptures, prints and more art on 1stDibs.

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Style: Realist
Portrait of Male Model Ingolf, Copenhagen Denmark
Portrait of Male Model Ingolf, Copenhagen Denmark

Portrait of Male Model Ingolf, Copenhagen Denmark

By Victor Arimondi

Located in Wilton Manors, FL

Victor Arimondi (1942-2001). Portrait of male model Ingolf wearing Torben Hardernberg, ca. 1975. Period print measures 9 x 11 inches. Artist studio stamp on verso. Victor Arimondi ...

Category

1970s Realist Black and White Photography

Materials

Photographic Paper

Grace Jones for After Dark
Grace Jones for After Dark

Grace Jones for After Dark

By Victor Arimondi

Located in Wilton Manors, FL

Victor Arimondi (1942-2001). Portrait of Grace Jones, 1975. Period print measures 8.5 x 11.25 inches; 10 x 13 inches framed. Artist studio stamp on ver...

Category

1970s Realist Black and White Photography

Materials

Photographic Paper

Portrait of Man in Denim
Portrait of Man in Denim

Portrait of Man in Denim

By Victor Arimondi

Located in Wilton Manors, FL

Victor Arimondi (1942-2001). Portrait, ca. 1975. Period print measures 9 x 12 inches. Artist studio stamp on verso. Victor Arimondi (November 8, 1942 – July 24, 2001) was an Italian American photographer and model who lived and worked in Europe before moving to the United States in the late 1970s. His early fashion photography, his portraits of Grace Jones and other artists, and his male nudes photographed in New York and San Francisco captured the pre-AIDS culture of the 1970s and early 1980s. Arimondi's nudes were collected in several books, including David Leddick's award-winning[1] The Male Nude, (New York: Taschen 1998, 2005 and 2015). The photographer's later work documented homeless individuals in San Francisco's Tenderloin neighborhood and the toll of the AIDS epidemic on the city. His photographs, featured in several posthumous exhibitions, also are in the collections of Sweden's museum of modern art, Moderna Museet, and San Francisco's GLBT Historical Society. Biography Arimondi was born Vittorio Maria Tevitti to his unwed mother, Alessandra Calligaris, in Bologna, Italy on November 8, 1942. His mother struggled financially, which left an impression on her only child. In 1948, she temporarily left him at a children's boarding school and orphanage in Italy to move to Sweden for a job. There she met and married Bruno Arimondi, who adopted her son. The family returned to Naples, Italy in 1952 where Victor graduated from high school.[1] In 1960, Arimondi returned to Sweden to study at the University College of Arts, Crafts and Design in Stockholm, although he did not graduate. Meanwhile, he worked at several blue collar jobs, including as a mailman, before he gave up on traditional full-time work to pursue what he considered more essential— a life of creative expression. He created costume-like clothing for himself and friends and at age 19 became a fashion model. Even as a teenager, the Italian born photographer who spent his 20s and 30s primarily based in Sweden, noted that he preferred fantasy to the trials of real life.[1] That conflict, and his passion for beauty as well as his sexual energy, were major factors in his life and his work.[2] From 1965 through 1972 Arimondi worked as model in London, Milan, Germany, New York and Stockholm, appearing in catalogs and fashion magazines including Vogue , Harper's Bazaar and Esquire and on the runway in several Valentino fashion shows. In 1972 he decided to try working on the other side of the lens as a photographer to better express his creativity.[2] Arimondi moved to New York in 1979 and continued to build his photography portfolio. Portrait of Bearded Man, New York City, 1979 Two years later, in 1981, he moved to San Francisco where he lived and worked for twenty years until his death of AIDS at age 58 on July 24, 2001. The year he moved to San Francisco, Arimondi opened a photo gallery in the Haight-Ashbury neighborhood for a short time. When he struggled financially, he gave up on trying to earn a living through commercial fashion photography and closed the gallery.[3] Arimondi returned to modeling for the financial benefits, though he did so on less of an international scale than in his early years. He continued to create photographic portraits of the denizens of the San Francisco gay and arts cultures, to shoot male nudes and publish his work in magazines, and he began to compose and photograph evocative still lifes using his own photographic images. Many of them touched on the death of dozens of his former photography models from AIDS. Arimondi was in the midst of a new photography project that brought together his background as a fashion photographer and his more recent social documentary work when he died several months after he learned he was HIV-positive.[4] The project featured his former colleague, haute couture cover model Ivy Nicholson,[5] who he found living homeless in San Francisco. Several of the haunting portraits he took of her were later included in a noted group exhibit at SF Camerawork. Art Arimondi's early photography in the 1970s in Stockholm included portraits of the stars of Sweden's fashion, theater and dance worlds. His first two photography exhibits were in Stockholm and met with mixed reviews. But as he matured as a photographer and tapped into his fashion world contacts, Arimondi landed a number of commercial fashion jobs, including shooting for the Italian designer Salvatore Ferragamo S.p.A.'s I.Magnin department store ad that ran in Vogue. Marlboro Man Nude, New York City,1980. He also shot other artists and models for his own portfolio, including Grace Jones, the Norwegian actress, Liv Ullmann, and the American writer, Norman Mailer. Arimondi's aesthetic vision was focused on fantasy and drama, and he prided himself on pushing limits.[6] Although less well-known than his San Francisco contemporary...

Category

1970s Realist Black and White Photography

Materials

Photographic Paper

Abstracted Trees Reflected in Water - Black & White Landscape Photograph
Abstracted Trees Reflected in Water - Black & White Landscape Photograph

Abstracted Trees Reflected in Water - Black & White Landscape Photograph

By Jeff Nixon

Located in Soquel, CA

Abstracted Trees Reflected in Water - Black & White Landscape Photograph Beautiful black and white abstracted landscape photo by Jeff Nixon (American, 1952-2022). A grove of tre...

Category

Late 20th Century Realist Black and White Photography

Materials

Paper, Silver Gelatin

Dunes Eureka Valley - Black & White Landscape Photograph 1984 Signed John Nixon
Dunes Eureka Valley - Black & White Landscape Photograph 1984 Signed John Nixon

Dunes Eureka Valley - Black & White Landscape Photograph 1984 Signed John Nixon

By Jeff Nixon

Located in Soquel, CA

Half Dome in Yosemite - Black & White Landscape Photograph Beautiful black and white landscape photograph showing the Dunes at Eureko Valley California by Jeff Nixon (American, ...

Category

Late 20th Century Realist Black and White Photography

Materials

Paper, Silver Gelatin

The Observer, Portrait of Jackson Nash by Graham Nash
The Observer, Portrait of Jackson Nash by Graham Nash

The Observer, Portrait of Jackson Nash by Graham Nash

By Graham Nash

Located in Soquel, CA

The Observer, Portrait of Jackson Nash by Graham Nash Gorgeous archival digital photograph, limited edition giclee by Graham Nash (American, b. 1942) of a Nash's first born son Jac...

Category

1980s Realist Black and White Photography

Materials

Archival Ink, Laid Paper

Vintage Silver Gelatin Print of a Mushroom by Alexander Lowry
Vintage Silver Gelatin Print of a Mushroom by Alexander Lowry

Vintage Silver Gelatin Print of a Mushroom by Alexander Lowry

Located in Soquel, CA

Vintage Silver Gelatin Print of a Mushroom by Alexander Lowry High-contrast silver gelatin print showing the underside of a mushroom on the forest floor by Alexander Lowry (1937-201...

Category

1960s Realist Black and White Photography

Materials

Silver Gelatin, Photographic Paper

"Lennon Backstage in Toronto 1969" 28x21" Framed
"Lennon Backstage in Toronto 1969" 28x21" Framed

"Lennon Backstage in Toronto 1969" 28x21" Framed

Located in Southampton, NY

Thomas Monaster has photographed many great rock and roll legends like John Lennon, Bob Dylan, The Rolling Stones, Janis Joplin and Jimi Hendrix to name just a few. We are please to ...

Category

2010s Realist Black and White Photography

Materials

Archival Pigment

"Yosemite" - Black & White Landscape Photograph AP
"Yosemite" - Black & White Landscape Photograph AP

"Yosemite" - Black & White Landscape Photograph AP

By Jeff Nixon

Located in Soquel, CA

Beautiful black and white landscape photograph titled "Yosemite," by Jeff Nixon (American, 20th Century). A mountain range stands high against a cloudless sky and above a forest reflected in a pond below. Signed "Jeff Nixon AP, Yosemite '87," on verso. Presented in a new white mat, 16"H x 20"W. Jeff Nixon began photographing in the late 1960's, and by the end of the millennium had acquired an impressive list of credentials; many years as a year round resident of Yosemite Valley, noted instructor in the techniques of black and white photography which he gleaned from his years of working with Ansel Adams, and learning the Zone System from the master himself. Jeff has been an instructor for two California Junior Colleges, Modesto and Columbia, has led extension courses for UC Santa Cruz and UC Berkeley, and taught and lectured in numerous seminars and classes. He has taught workshops and has had many showings nationwide, working with Morley Baer, Chris Rainier, Rod Dresser, and John Sexton as either field or darkroom assistant. He was also the production and research assistant for the Ansel Adams Publishing Rights Trust, Carmel Highlands...

Category

1980s Realist Black and White Photography

Materials

Paper, Silver Gelatin

Black and White Misty Sailboat Journey, Regatta Seascape, Mediterranean Coast
Black and White Misty Sailboat Journey, Regatta Seascape, Mediterranean Coast

Black and White Misty Sailboat Journey, Regatta Seascape, Mediterranean Coast

By Kind of Cyan

Located in Barcelona, ES

This is an exclusive limited edition black and white giclée print, on 100% cotton Hahnemühle Photo Rag Fine Art matte paper. This series of black and white photographs captures the raw power and beauty of the ocean and other bodies of water. The images showcase a range of seascapes, from calm and serene to tumultuous and chaotic. Waves are a prominent feature in many of the photographs, with their sharp edges and frothy white caps creating a sense of energy and movement. Other photographs in the series explore the more subtle aspects of the sea, such as the gentle ripples that form on the surface of the water, or the abstract reflections of sunlight and moonlight over the moving surface of the sea. The print measures 24 x 36 inches total, with an image size of 20 x 32 in. and a 2 inch surrounding white border. Details: + Title: Misty Sailboat...

Category

2010s Realist Black and White Photography

Materials

Rag Paper, Archival Pigment

Still Creek in the Forest - Silver Gelatin Print
Still Creek in the Forest - Silver Gelatin Print

Still Creek in the Forest - Silver Gelatin Print

Located in Soquel, CA

Still Creek in the Forest - Silver Gelatin Print This photo depicts a shallow creek running through the woods by san Francisco photographer Florencio E. Monteverde (Italian/American...

Category

20th Century Realist Black and White Photography

Materials

Photographic Paper, Silver Gelatin

Sierra Mountain Reflections - Black & White Landscape Photograph
Sierra Mountain Reflections - Black & White Landscape Photograph

Sierra Mountain Reflections - Black & White Landscape Photograph

By Robert Werling

Located in Soquel, CA

Stunning black & white landscape photograph with trees reflecting in water in the Sierra Nevada mountains by California artist Robert Werling. Signed on mat lower right: "Bob Werling." Presented in a silver metal frame. Image, 15"H x 19"W. Robert Werling was born in San Francisco, California in 1946 and realized an interest in art at an early age. While briefly attending a commercial art school, he found photography to be his medium and went on to obtain both a BA and an honorary MS from the Brooks Institute of Photography in Santa Barbara, CA. He also studied privately under Ansel Adams from 1966 to 1970 and Imogen Cunningham from 1969 to 1975. Through his affiliation with Adams, Werling came to know and work with other noted photographers. Brett Weston became his close friend and mentor and Marion Post Wolcott, relying on his darkroom expertise, entrusted her negatives to his printing genius. While creating an impressive number of his own fine art prints, Werling also lectured extensively and worked as an instructor for the Brooks Institute, the University of California, Santa Barbara, the Zone System Seminars and Workshops in the United States, and for the Werkschule fur Fotografie in Soltau, Germany. Werling has exhibited his photographs in over sixty one-man and group shows in both the United States and Europe. He was guest curator of photography for the Santa Barbara Museum of Art organizing VIVO, the Contemporary Japanese Photography and Brett Weston’s photographs...

Category

1990s Realist Black and White Photography

Materials

Photographic Paper, Silver Gelatin

Vertical Black and White Giclée of Zen Forest Waterfall, Landscape, Feng Shui
Vertical Black and White Giclée of Zen Forest Waterfall, Landscape, Feng Shui

Vertical Black and White Giclée of Zen Forest Waterfall, Landscape, Feng Shui

By Kind of Cyan

Located in Barcelona, ES

This is an exclusive limited edition black and white Giclée print, on 100% cotton Hahnemühle Photo Rag Fine Art matte paper. This beautiful black and white high contrast photograph is titled " Zen Forest Waterfall" and displays a stimulating waterfall in a beautiful japanese forest...

Category

2010s Realist Black and White Photography

Materials

Emulsion, C Print, Giclée, Paper

Mary Pickford Douglas Fairbanks at Walpi First Mesa Hopi Village 1920 Photograph
Mary Pickford Douglas Fairbanks at Walpi First Mesa Hopi Village 1920 Photograph

Mary Pickford Douglas Fairbanks at Walpi First Mesa Hopi Village 1920 Photograph

Located in Soquel, CA

Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks at Walpi First Mesa Hopi Village 1920 Photograph Original Sepia toned Silver gelatin photographic print by Charles Roshe (British, 1885-1974). Provenance: Mary Pickford, Elizabeth (Bess) Huggins. Image 10.75"H x 13.75"W He was Mary Pickford's favorite cinematographer and a personal friend, shooting all of the films in which she starred from 1918 to 1927, before they had a falling out during production of Coquette (1929). He was the first cinematographer to receive an Academy Award, along with Karl Struss, for Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans (1927), and won again for The Yearling (1946), with Leonard Smith and Arthur Arling. He was also nominated four times. Walpi, pueblo (village), Navajo county, northeastern Arizona, U.S., on the edge of a high mesa in the Hopi Indian Reservation. It comprises a group of angular stone houses of two to three stories crowded on a narrow tip of the steep-walled mesa at an elevation of 6,225 feet (1,897 metres). The original pueblo (founded c. 1700) was on a lower part of the mesa, but following the Pueblo Rebellion, the inhabitants moved to the top as a defensive measure against Spanish retaliation. Walpi is known for an antelope ceremony and for snake dances, held during odd years in August and generally closed to non-Hopi spectators. Shitchumovi (Sichomivi) pueblo is adjacent and Hano is nearby. Pickford was the first Canadian to win an Oscar. She was also the second to win best actress and the first for a role in a film with sound. She was one of the founding members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. In 1919 Pickford took the lead in organizing the United Artists Corporation with Griffith, Charlie Chaplin, and Douglas Fairbanks. In 1920, after the dissolution of her first marriage (1911–19) to actor Owen Moore, she married Fairbanks (divorced 1936). Pickford’s popularity continued unabated in Pollyanna (1920), Little Lord...

Category

1920s Realist Black and White Photography

Materials

Photographic Paper, Silver Gelatin

Monsieur - Madame Paulhan Fly a Farman Airship 1910 Los Angeles Int. Air Show
Monsieur - Madame Paulhan Fly a Farman Airship 1910 Los Angeles Int. Air Show

Monsieur - Madame Paulhan Fly a Farman Airship 1910 Los Angeles Int. Air Show

By Roy Christian

Located in Soquel, CA

Reprint of a vintage photograph titled "Monsieur (Louis) and Madame Paulhan of France ready to fly a Farman model lll in Los Angeles - 1910 from an original photograph by an unknown ...

Category

Early 2000s Realist Black and White Photography

Materials

Photographic Paper, Silver Gelatin

Ice Abstraction
Ice Abstraction

Ice Abstraction

By Brett Weston

Located in Buffalo, NY

Signed and dated on the front of the mount. Limited edition of 35. Number 9 of 35. From the “Twenty Photographs, 1970-1977” Portfolio.

Category

1970s Realist Black and White Photography

Materials

Silver Gelatin

Early 20th Century Photograph -- Sidewalk Club of the Motherlode
Early 20th Century Photograph -- Sidewalk Club of the Motherlode

Early 20th Century Photograph -- Sidewalk Club of the Motherlode

By Sigismund Blumann

Located in Soquel, CA

"Sidewalk Club of the Motherlode" a Lithobrome photograh by Sigismund Blumann (American, 1872-1956). Signed "Sigismund Blumann" lower right. Titled "Sidewalk Club of the Motherlode" on verso. Image size, 11.25"H x 13.25"W. Between 1923 and 1932, his pictures were accepted at photographic salons in Amsterdam, Toronto, Rochester, Seattle, and Los Angeles. In 1927, a one-person exhibition of his bromoil prints traveled to camera clubs in Chicago, Akron, Cincinnati, and New York. In addition to bromoil, a process that yields pointillistic images, Blumann utilized such unusual processes as kallitype (Vandyke brown), lithobrome, and pastelograph (the latter two probably his own inventions) to create original photographs using chemical processes he invented. Sigismund Blumann (1872–1956) (figure 1) was a prominent tastemaker in Californian photography during the 1920s and 1930s. Based in the San Francisco Bay Area for his entire career, he edited magazines, wrote books, and made creative photographs. From 1924 to 1933 Blumann edited Camera Craft, the leading West Coast photographic monthly. Subsequently he established his own periodical, Photo Art Monthly, which he published until 1940. In these two magazines — for over fifteen years — Blumann found a large audience of mainstream pictorial photographers. In addition, he wrote five instructional books on photography...

Category

1920s Realist Black and White Photography

Materials

Photographic Paper, Silver Gelatin

Avro Lancaster Bomber DS689 ABC-fitted original 1943 silver gelatin photograph
Avro Lancaster Bomber DS689 ABC-fitted original 1943 silver gelatin photograph

Avro Lancaster Bomber DS689 ABC-fitted original 1943 silver gelatin photograph

Located in London, GB

To see our other original vintage warbird aeroplane posters, photographs and paintings, scroll down to "More from this Seller" and below it click on "See all from this Seller". Lancaster Bomber DS689 with Crew Original silver gelatin photograph c. 1943 21 x 16 cm Stamped to reverse ‘This Photograph has been Passed by Censor’ and ‘Copyright Aeroplane [Magazine]’ A photograph of the ground- and air-crew of DS689. The engine fitter second from left is Samuel Greisman. That the aeroplane has five operations marked on its nose suggests a date of late August or early September for the photograph. This photograph was publisehd in ‘Jews in Uniform’ by Michael Greisman, published by Aster Publishing. DS689 OW-S (identifiable from another photograph we have listed on account of the nose art...

Category

1940s Realist Black and White Photography

Materials

Silver Gelatin

Large Silver Gelatin Russian Photograph Potsdam Conference Winston Churchill
Large Silver Gelatin Russian Photograph Potsdam Conference Winston Churchill

Large Silver Gelatin Russian Photograph Potsdam Conference Winston Churchill

By Samariy Gurariy

Located in Surfside, FL

Potsdam conference meeting depicting Josef Stalin, Winston Churchill and Harry Truman (not visible) at the conference table, gelatin silver print, date of printing unknown, 16-1/2" x 22-3/4" sheet, date of printing unknown. Provenance: acquired from the estate of photographer Samariy Gurariy...

Category

20th Century Realist Black and White Photography

Materials

Silver Gelatin

Decked In Finery, Slim Aarons Estate Edition
Decked In Finery, Slim Aarons Estate Edition

Decked In Finery, Slim Aarons Estate Edition

By Slim Aarons

Located in Los Angeles, CA

An unknown guest at a New Year's Eve party held at the Romanoff Restaurant in Hollywood, Los Angeles. Slim Aarons Estate Edition, Certificate of Authenticity included Numbered and s...

Category

1960s Realist Black and White Photography

Materials

Lambda

"Death Valley" After Ansel Adams - Black & White Landscape Photograph
"Death Valley" After Ansel Adams - Black & White Landscape Photograph

"Death Valley" After Ansel Adams - Black & White Landscape Photograph

By Jeff Nixon

Located in Soquel, CA

"Death Valley" After Ansel Adams - Black & White Landscape Photograph Beautiful black and white landscape of Death Valley by Jeff Nixon (American, 1952-2022). Nixon was a student, a...

Category

Late 20th Century Realist Black and White Photography

Materials

Paper, Silver Gelatin

Untitled (Lower West Side)

Untitled (Lower West Side)

By Milton Rogovin

Located in Buffalo, NY

An original gelatin silver print by American social documentary photographer Milton Rogovin depicting a resident of Buffalo's East Side in the early 1960's. This work is hand signed ...

Category

1970s Realist Black and White Photography

Materials

Silver Gelatin

Winter in Palos (Two)

Winter in Palos (Two)

By Paul Kozal

Located in Phoenix, AZ

sepia toned gelatin silver print framed dimensions are 21.5 x 17.5 inches Paul Kozal has been photographing for over 25 years. His award-winning photographs have been exhibited in n...

Category

1990s Realist Black and White Photography

Materials

Silver Gelatin

Eggs and Slicer
Eggs and Slicer

Eggs and Slicer

By Edward Weston

Located in Buffalo, NY

Edward Weston (American, 1886-1958) Eggs and Slicer, 1930 Gelatin silver print, printed later by Cole Weston; signed, titled, dated and numbered '3E' by Cole Weston in pencil and 'Ed...

Category

1950s Realist Black and White Photography

Materials

Silver Gelatin

Large Silver Gelatin Photograph Russian USSR Soviet Parade Yuri Gagarin Photo
Large Silver Gelatin Photograph Russian USSR Soviet Parade Yuri Gagarin Photo

Large Silver Gelatin Photograph Russian USSR Soviet Parade Yuri Gagarin Photo

By Samariy Gurariy

Located in Surfside, FL

Yuri Gagarin Meeting Workers at Foundry Stankolit, depicting the famous Russian cosmonaut (Moscow, 1961) Gelatin silver print, gloss finish, date of printing unknown. Provenance: acquired from the estate of photographer Samariy Gurariy...

Category

20th Century Realist Black and White Photography

Materials

Silver Gelatin

Large Silver Gelatin Russian Photograph Potsdam Conference Truman Photo WWII
Large Silver Gelatin Russian Photograph Potsdam Conference Truman Photo WWII

Large Silver Gelatin Russian Photograph Potsdam Conference Truman Photo WWII

By Samariy Gurariy

Located in Surfside, FL

Potsdam conference meeting depicting Josef Stalin, Winston Churchill and Harry Truman on the balcony gelatin silver print, matte finish on photograph, artist's stamp verso, approximately 11" x 15-1/2" sheet, date of printing unknown. Provenance: acquired from the estate of photographer Samariy Gurariy...

Category

20th Century Realist Black and White Photography

Materials

Silver Gelatin

Alfred Hitchcock and Ina, Hollywood, Harper's Bazaar

Alfred Hitchcock and Ina, Hollywood, Harper's Bazaar

By Jeanloup Sieff

Located in New York, NY

Alfred Hitchcock and Ina, Hollywood, Harper's Bazaar, 1962 Gelatin Silver Print image size: 12 x 8 inches print size: 13 x 9 1/2 inches signed in pen recto on lower right; photog...

Category

1960s Realist Black and White Photography

Materials

Silver Gelatin

Power (White Male): Signed, original 1970s photograph by African American artist
Power (White Male): Signed, original 1970s photograph by African American artist

Power (White Male): Signed, original 1970s photograph by African American artist

Located in Bryn Mawr, PA

New York based, African American photographer Beuford Smith, becoming active in the Civil Rights era of the late 1960s and ‘70s, is best known for his socially conscious photographs of Black communities, significant events, and political and cultural leaders at work. Smith’s evocative black and white photos, often verging on abstraction, reveal his empathy for his subjects, and arouse strong emotional responses from his viewers. Smith's photographs have been exhibited at the Studio Museum in Harlem, Brooklyn Museum, Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, The Broad in Los Angeles, de Young Museum in San Francisco, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Tate Modern in London, Addison Gallery of Art, New York University, Tate Modern, and others. His work can be found in the permanent collections of the Museum of Modern Art, Whitney Museum of American Art, the National Gallery of Art, J. Paul Getty Museum, Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, New York Public Library, Princeton University, Haverford College, Cleveland Museum of Art, Carnegie Museum of Art, Baltimore Museum of Art, National Gallery of Art, Detroit Institute of Arts, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, and others. Inspired by Roy DeCarava’s intimate approach to photographing the Black community in Harlem, Smith joined DeCarava as a founding member of the Harlem-based Kamoinge Workshop, a collective of mutually supportive Black photographers, which also included Anthony Barboza, Louis Draper, Ming Smith...

Category

1970s Realist Black and White Photography

Materials

Silver Gelatin

Portrait of Model with Chain
Portrait of Model with Chain

Portrait of Model with Chain

By Victor Arimondi

Located in Wilton Manors, FL

Victor Arimondi (1942-2001). Portrait, ca. 1975. Period print measures 9 x 11 inches. Artist studio stamp on verso. Victor Arimondi (November 8, 1942 – July 24, 2001) was an Italia...

Category

1970s Realist Black and White Photography

Materials

Photographic Paper

Portrait of Nude Man
Portrait of Nude Man

Portrait of Nude Man

By Victor Arimondi

Located in Wilton Manors, FL

Victor Arimondi (1942-2001). Portrait, ca. 1975. Period print measures 11 x 14 inches. Artist studio stamp on verso. Victor Arimondi (November 8, 1942 – July 24, 2001) was an Italian American photographer and model who lived and worked in Europe before moving to the United States in the late 1970s. His early fashion photography, his portraits of Grace Jones and other artists, and his male nudes photographed in New York and San Francisco captured the pre-AIDS culture of the 1970s and early 1980s. Arimondi's nudes were collected in several books, including David Leddick's award-winning[1] The Male Nude, (New York: Taschen 1998, 2005 and 2015). The photographer's later work documented homeless individuals in San Francisco's Tenderloin neighborhood and the toll of the AIDS epidemic on the city. His photographs, featured in several posthumous exhibitions, also are in the collections of Sweden's museum of modern art, Moderna Museet, and San Francisco's GLBT Historical Society. Biography Arimondi was born Vittorio Maria Tevitti to his unwed mother, Alessandra Calligaris, in Bologna, Italy on November 8, 1942. His mother struggled financially, which left an impression on her only child. In 1948, she temporarily left him at a children's boarding school and orphanage in Italy to move to Sweden for a job. There she met and married Bruno Arimondi, who adopted her son. The family returned to Naples, Italy in 1952 where Victor graduated from high school.[1] In 1960, Arimondi returned to Sweden to study at the University College of Arts, Crafts and Design in Stockholm, although he did not graduate. Meanwhile, he worked at several blue collar jobs, including as a mailman, before he gave up on traditional full-time work to pursue what he considered more essential— a life of creative expression. He created costume-like clothing for himself and friends and at age 19 became a fashion model. Even as a teenager, the Italian born photographer who spent his 20s and 30s primarily based in Sweden, noted that he preferred fantasy to the trials of real life.[1] That conflict, and his passion for beauty as well as his sexual energy, were major factors in his life and his work.[2] From 1965 through 1972 Arimondi worked as model in London, Milan, Germany, New York and Stockholm, appearing in catalogs and fashion magazines including Vogue , Harper's Bazaar and Esquire and on the runway in several Valentino fashion shows. In 1972 he decided to try working on the other side of the lens as a photographer to better express his creativity.[2] Arimondi moved to New York in 1979 and continued to build his photography portfolio. Portrait of Bearded Man, New York City, 1979 Two years later, in 1981, he moved to San Francisco where he lived and worked for twenty years until his death of AIDS at age 58 on July 24, 2001. The year he moved to San Francisco, Arimondi opened a photo gallery in the Haight-Ashbury neighborhood for a short time. When he struggled financially, he gave up on trying to earn a living through commercial fashion photography and closed the gallery.[3] Arimondi returned to modeling for the financial benefits, though he did so on less of an international scale than in his early years. He continued to create photographic portraits of the denizens of the San Francisco gay and arts cultures, to shoot male nudes and publish his work in magazines, and he began to compose and photograph evocative still lifes using his own photographic images. Many of them touched on the death of dozens of his former photography models from AIDS. Arimondi was in the midst of a new photography project that brought together his background as a fashion photographer and his more recent social documentary work when he died several months after he learned he was HIV-positive.[4] The project featured his former colleague, haute couture cover model Ivy Nicholson,[5] who he found living homeless in San Francisco. Several of the haunting portraits he took of her were later included in a noted group exhibit at SF Camerawork. Art Arimondi's early photography in the 1970s in Stockholm included portraits of the stars of Sweden's fashion, theater and dance worlds. His first two photography exhibits were in Stockholm and met with mixed reviews. But as he matured as a photographer and tapped into his fashion world contacts, Arimondi landed a number of commercial fashion jobs, including shooting for the Italian designer Salvatore Ferragamo S.p.A.'s I.Magnin department store ad that ran in Vogue. Marlboro Man Nude, New York City,1980. He also shot other artists and models for his own portfolio, including Grace Jones, the Norwegian actress, Liv Ullmann, and the American writer, Norman Mailer. Arimondi's aesthetic vision was focused on fantasy and drama, and he prided himself on pushing limits.[6] Although less well-known than his San Francisco contemporary...

Category

1970s Realist Black and White Photography

Materials

Photographic Paper

Versailles, Bosquet de l'Arc de Triomphe, 1904, No. 6483
Versailles, Bosquet de l'Arc de Triomphe, 1904, No. 6483

Versailles, Bosquet de l'Arc de Triomphe, 1904, No. 6483

By Eugène Atget

Located in Middletown, NY

Albumen silver print from glass negative, 8 1/2 x 7 inches (215 x 178 mm). From the artist's series on sculptures on the grounds of Versailles. Annotated in Atget's hand in pencil o...

Category

Early 20th Century Realist Black and White Photography

Materials

Photographic Paper, Silver Gelatin

Vintage Silver Gelatin Signed Print Old Jew in Jerusalem Pious Craftsman
Vintage Silver Gelatin Signed Print Old Jew in Jerusalem Pious Craftsman

Vintage Silver Gelatin Signed Print Old Jew in Jerusalem Pious Craftsman

Located in Surfside, FL

Rare vintage signed and dated silver gelatin black & white framed photograph. This photo is signed but I cannot make out the signature. It is from the aftermath of the six day w...

Category

1960s Realist Black and White Photography

Materials

Silver Gelatin

Portrait of Nude Man
Portrait of Nude Man

Portrait of Nude Man

By Victor Arimondi

Located in Wilton Manors, FL

Victor Arimondi (1942-2001). Portrait, ca. 1975. Period print measures 11 x 14 inches. Artist studio stamp on verso. Victor Arimondi (November 8, 1942 – July 24, 2001) was an Italian American photographer and model who lived and worked in Europe before moving to the United States in the late 1970s. His early fashion photography, his portraits of Grace Jones and other artists, and his male nudes photographed in New York and San Francisco captured the pre-AIDS culture of the 1970s and early 1980s. Arimondi's nudes were collected in several books, including David Leddick's award-winning[1] The Male Nude, (New York: Taschen 1998, 2005 and 2015). The photographer's later work documented homeless individuals in San Francisco's Tenderloin neighborhood and the toll of the AIDS epidemic on the city. His photographs, featured in several posthumous exhibitions, also are in the collections of Sweden's museum of modern art, Moderna Museet, and San Francisco's GLBT Historical Society. Biography Arimondi was born Vittorio Maria Tevitti to his unwed mother, Alessandra Calligaris, in Bologna, Italy on November 8, 1942. His mother struggled financially, which left an impression on her only child. In 1948, she temporarily left him at a children's boarding school and orphanage in Italy to move to Sweden for a job. There she met and married Bruno Arimondi, who adopted her son. The family returned to Naples, Italy in 1952 where Victor graduated from high school.[1] In 1960, Arimondi returned to Sweden to study at the University College of Arts, Crafts and Design in Stockholm, although he did not graduate. Meanwhile, he worked at several blue collar jobs, including as a mailman, before he gave up on traditional full-time work to pursue what he considered more essential— a life of creative expression. He created costume-like clothing for himself and friends and at age 19 became a fashion model. Even as a teenager, the Italian born photographer who spent his 20s and 30s primarily based in Sweden, noted that he preferred fantasy to the trials of real life.[1] That conflict, and his passion for beauty as well as his sexual energy, were major factors in his life and his work.[2] From 1965 through 1972 Arimondi worked as model in London, Milan, Germany, New York and Stockholm, appearing in catalogs and fashion magazines including Vogue , Harper's Bazaar and Esquire and on the runway in several Valentino fashion shows. In 1972 he decided to try working on the other side of the lens as a photographer to better express his creativity.[2] Arimondi moved to New York in 1979 and continued to build his photography portfolio. Portrait of Bearded Man, New York City, 1979 Two years later, in 1981, he moved to San Francisco where he lived and worked for twenty years until his death of AIDS at age 58 on July 24, 2001. The year he moved to San Francisco, Arimondi opened a photo gallery in the Haight-Ashbury neighborhood for a short time. When he struggled financially, he gave up on trying to earn a living through commercial fashion photography and closed the gallery.[3] Arimondi returned to modeling for the financial benefits, though he did so on less of an international scale than in his early years. He continued to create photographic portraits of the denizens of the San Francisco gay and arts cultures, to shoot male nudes and publish his work in magazines, and he began to compose and photograph evocative still lifes using his own photographic images. Many of them touched on the death of dozens of his former photography models from AIDS. Arimondi was in the midst of a new photography project that brought together his background as a fashion photographer and his more recent social documentary work when he died several months after he learned he was HIV-positive.[4] The project featured his former colleague, haute couture cover model Ivy Nicholson,[5] who he found living homeless in San Francisco. Several of the haunting portraits he took of her were later included in a noted group exhibit at SF Camerawork. Art Arimondi's early photography in the 1970s in Stockholm included portraits of the stars of Sweden's fashion, theater and dance worlds. His first two photography exhibits were in Stockholm and met with mixed reviews. But as he matured as a photographer and tapped into his fashion world contacts, Arimondi landed a number of commercial fashion jobs, including shooting for the Italian designer Salvatore Ferragamo S.p.A.'s I.Magnin department store ad that ran in Vogue. Marlboro Man Nude, New York City,1980. He also shot other artists and models for his own portfolio, including Grace Jones, the Norwegian actress, Liv Ullmann, and the American writer, Norman Mailer. Arimondi's aesthetic vision was focused on fantasy and drama, and he prided himself on pushing limits.[6] Although less well-known than his San Francisco contemporary...

Category

1970s Realist Black and White Photography

Materials

Photographic Paper

Dans le Quartier Hongrois de Mea Shearim, Jerusalem Vintage Silver Gelatin Print
Dans le Quartier Hongrois de Mea Shearim, Jerusalem Vintage Silver Gelatin Print

Dans le Quartier Hongrois de Mea Shearim, Jerusalem Vintage Silver Gelatin Print

By Frederic Brenner

Located in Surfside, FL

Meah Shearim photograph of Torah scholars. Rabbis in Jerusalem. Photo of Hungarian quarter. Frédéric Brenner (born 1959) is a French photographer known for his documentation of Jewish communities around the world. His work has been exhibited internationally, among others, at the International Center of Photography in New York, the Musée de l'Élysée in Lausanne, Rencontres d'Arles in Arles, the Brooklyn Museum in New York, and the Joods Historisch Museum in Amsterdam. Brenner was born in Paris and grew up in France. In 1981, Brenner received a B.A. in French Literature and Social Anthropology from the Paris-Sorbonne University. He went on to study at the École des hautes études en sciences sociales and received a M.A. in Social Anthropology, also awarded by the Sorbonne. Brenner is the recipient of the Niépce Prize and his book Diaspora: Homelands in Exile won the 2004 Visual Arts Award from the Jewish Book Council. At age 19, Brenner began photographing Orthodox Jews in the Mea Shearim...

Category

1970s Realist Black and White Photography

Materials

Silver Gelatin

Ocean Force, Photography by Pico Garcez

Ocean Force, Photography by Pico Garcez

By Pico Garcez

Located in Brooklyn, NY

Pico Garcez (b.1963, São Paulo, Brazil) In Love with Photography, Iconography and Painting, exercises his gaze from childhood when he began to play with his first camera. Practicing ...

Category

2010s Realist Black and White Photography

Materials

Cotton, Archival Paper, Inkjet, Archival Pigment

Black and White Seascape of Los Angeles Crashing Wave, Contemporary Photograph
Black and White Seascape of Los Angeles Crashing Wave, Contemporary Photograph

Black and White Seascape of Los Angeles Crashing Wave, Contemporary Photograph

By Kind of Cyan

Located in Barcelona, ES

This is an exclusive limited edition black and white giclée print, on 100% cotton Hahnemühle Photo Rag Fine Art matte paper. This series of black and white photographs captures the ...

Category

2010s Realist Black and White Photography

Materials

Archival Pigment, Paper

Che (Che Guevara cutting canes)
Che (Che Guevara cutting canes)

Che (Che Guevara cutting canes)

Located in San Francisco, CA

This artwork titled "Che (Che Guevara cutting cane) 1962 (printed later) is a gelatin silver print by noted Cuban artist Ernesto Fernandez Nogueras, b.1939. It is signed, titled and dated at the lower margin. The photograph size is 10 x 6.5 inches, framed size is 17.85 x 15.85 inches. Custom framed in a black frame, with white matting. It is in excellent condition. About the artist: Ernesto Fernandez trained under the tutelage of several established photographers during the 1950s in Havana. He is one of the four great photographers of the Revolutionary period of Cuba. As a young man he witnessed both the excesses of Havana as a “playground” of the USA, and the poverty that produced the hotbed of revolutionary thought and action. He was in the Cuban capital as the revolution reached its climax, and his pictures document a time of great hope. They are celebrations of youth’s ability to bring about change and to reinvent a new world. Alongside Korda, Salas and Corrales, Fernandez documented the heady days of the Triumph of the Revolution and continued to photograph Fidel Castro, Che Guevara and other leading lights of the new system, including some wonderfully intimate studies of Alicia Alonso...

Category

Mid-20th Century Realist Black and White Photography

Materials

Silver Gelatin

Alberto Giacometti dans son Atelier, 1954 (Giacometti in his studio)
Alberto Giacometti dans son Atelier, 1954 (Giacometti in his studio)

Alberto Giacometti dans son Atelier, 1954 (Giacometti in his studio)

By Sabine Weiss

Located in New York, NY

Sabine Weiss Alberto Giacometti dans son Atelier, 1954 (Giacometti in his studio), ca. 1970 Gelatin silver print mounted on paper Signed in graphite by Sabine Weiss on the mount directly underneath the photograph Frame Included This now iconic photograph of Alberto Giacometti in his studio was taken in 1954 by the celebrated photographer Sabine Weiss, who at the time, had unparalleled access to the artist. It was printed ca. 1970 and signed on the mount directly underneath the photograph in a limited edition of an undisclosed size. Highly collectible. Elegantly matted and framed in a museum quality wood frame with UV plexiglass. Measurements: Framed 18 x 14.5 x 1.25 inches Photograph 12.5 x 8.75 inches Sabine Weiss biography: For over sixty years, Sabine Weiss’s name has been synonymous with the seminal era of French Humanist photography. A living legend, Weiss’s images from 1950s Paris speak of a postwar time when a feeling of hope and joie de vivre could be felt in the people populating the city’s cafes, squares, streets, and in all corners throughout Paris. Weiss would photograph individuals going about their daily lives capturing their emotions and creating a style that combined spontaneity and informality, backed by photographer’s intuition and knack for seeing and celebrating the simple joys of life. As she said, “I take photographs to hold on to the ephemeral, capture chance, keep an image of something that will disappear: gestures, attitudes, objects that are reminders of our brief lives. The camera picks them up and freezes them at the very moment that they disappear. I love this constant dialogue between myself, my camera and my subject, which is what differentiates me from certain other photographers, who don’t seek this dialogue and prefer to distance themselves from their subject.” Originally from Switzerland, Weiss moved to Paris in 1946 where she first assisted fashion photographer Willy...

Category

Mid-20th Century Realist Black and White Photography

Materials

Silver Gelatin

Cat in the Shadows - Black and White Photo by Carmel Artist Peter McArthur
Cat in the Shadows - Black and White Photo by Carmel Artist Peter McArthur

Cat in the Shadows - Black and White Photo by Carmel Artist Peter McArthur

Located in Soquel, CA

Black and white photo of a cat on a gravel road by Peter McArthur (American, b. 1947). In the top portion of the composition, a cat sits in the shadows of a gravel road. The exposure of the photograph perfectly captures the texture of the gravel, the delicate highlights on the cat, and the deep shadows in the background. Signed "Peter McArthur" in the lower right corner. Presented in a white mat. Image size: 9.25"H x 6.25"W Mat size: 16"H x 13"W Peter McArthur (American, b. 1947) is a long time Carmel Valley resident specializing in Black and white landscape photography. He is also one of very few artists in the country that hand make frames for his work from scratch. McArthur has been photographing in black and white since...

Category

1970s Realist Black and White Photography

Materials

Photographic Paper, Silver Gelatin

Mt Lyell Clouds, Yosemite - Black & White California Landscape Photograph
Mt Lyell Clouds, Yosemite - Black & White California Landscape Photograph

Mt Lyell Clouds, Yosemite - Black & White California Landscape Photograph

By Charles Cramer

Located in Soquel, CA

Elegant hand signed black & white photo highlighting the sharp contrast between the Yosemite mountain range of Mt. Lyell and the beautiful clouds above by Charles Cramer (American, b...

Category

1980s Realist Black and White Photography

Materials

Photographic Paper, Silver Gelatin

Portrait

Portrait

By Victor Arimondi

Located in Wilton Manors, FL

Portrait, ca. 1975. Period print measuring 8.75 x 11.25 inches. Unframed. Studio stamp on verso. Mounting and framing services available. Victor Arimondi (November 8, 1942 – July 24, 2001) was an Italian American photographer and model who lived and worked in Europe before moving to the United States in the late 1970s. His early fashion photography, his portraits of Grace Jones and other artists, and his male nudes photographed in New York and San Francisco captured the pre-AIDS culture of the 1970s and early 1980s. Arimondi's nudes were collected in several books, including David Leddick's award-winning[1] The Male Nude, (New York: Taschen 1998, 2005 and 2015). The photographer's later work documented homeless individuals in San Francisco's Tenderloin neighborhood and the toll of the AIDS epidemic on the city. His photographs, featured in several posthumous exhibitions, also are in the collections of Sweden's museum of modern art, Moderna Museet, and San Francisco's GLBT Historical Society. Biography Arimondi was born Vittorio Maria Tevitti to his unwed mother, Alessandra Calligaris, in Bologna, Italy on November 8, 1942. His mother struggled financially, which left an impression on her only child. In 1948, she temporarily left him at a children's boarding school and orphanage in Italy to move to Sweden for a job. There she met and married Bruno Arimondi, who adopted her son. The family returned to Naples, Italy in 1952 where Victor graduated from high school.[1] In 1960, Arimondi returned to Sweden to study at the University College of Arts, Crafts and Design in Stockholm, although he did not graduate. Meanwhile, he worked at several blue collar jobs, including as a mailman, before he gave up on traditional full-time work to pursue what he considered more essential— a life of creative expression. He created costume-like clothing for himself and friends and at age 19 became a fashion model. Even as a teenager, the Italian born photographer who spent his 20s and 30s primarily based in Sweden, noted that he preferred fantasy to the trials of real life.[1] That conflict, and his passion for beauty as well as his sexual energy, were major factors in his life and his work.[2] From 1965 through 1972 Arimondi worked as model in London, Milan, Germany, New York and Stockholm, appearing in catalogs and fashion magazines including Vogue , Harper's Bazaar and Esquire and on the runway in several Valentino fashion shows. In 1972 he decided to try working on the other side of the lens as a photographer to better express his creativity.[2] Arimondi moved to New York in 1979 and continued to build his photography portfolio. Portrait of Bearded Man, New York City, 1979 Two years later, in 1981, he moved to San Francisco where he lived and worked for twenty years until his death of AIDS at age 58 on July 24, 2001. The year he moved to San Francisco, Arimondi opened a photo gallery in the Haight-Ashbury neighborhood for a short time. When he struggled financially, he gave up on trying to earn a living through commercial fashion photography and closed the gallery.[3] Arimondi returned to modeling for the financial benefits, though he did so on less of an international scale than in his early years. He continued to create photographic portraits of the denizens of the San Francisco gay and arts cultures, to shoot male nudes and publish his work in magazines, and he began to compose and photograph evocative still lifes using his own photographic images. Many of them touched on the death of dozens of his former photography models from AIDS. Arimondi was in the midst of a new photography project that brought together his background as a fashion photographer and his more recent social documentary work when he died several months after he learned he was HIV-positive.[4] The project featured his former colleague, haute couture cover model Ivy Nicholson,[5] who he found living homeless in San Francisco. Several of the haunting portraits he took of her were later included in a noted group exhibit at SF Camerawork. Art Arimondi's early photography in the 1970s in Stockholm included portraits of the stars of Sweden's fashion, theater and dance worlds. His first two photography exhibits were in Stockholm and met with mixed reviews. But as he matured as a photographer and tapped into his fashion world contacts, Arimondi landed a number of commercial fashion jobs, including shooting for the Italian designer Salvatore Ferragamo S.p.A.'s I.Magnin department store ad that ran in Vogue. Marlboro Man Nude, New York City,1980. He also shot other artists and models for his own portfolio, including Grace Jones, the Norwegian actress, Liv Ullmann, and the American writer, Norman Mailer. Arimondi's aesthetic vision was focused on fantasy and drama, and he prided himself on pushing limits.[6] Although less well-known than his San Francisco contemporary...

Category

1970s Realist Black and White Photography

Materials

Photographic Paper

Realist black and white photography for sale on 1stDibs.

Find a wide variety of authentic Realist black and white photography available for sale on 1stDibs. Works in this style were very popular during the 21st Century and Contemporary, but contemporary artists have continued to produce works inspired by this movement. If you’re looking to add black and white photography created in this style to introduce contrast in an otherwise neutral space in your home, the works available on 1stDibs include elements of blue, red and other colors. Many Pop art paintings were created by popular artists on 1stDibs, including Pico Garcez, Slim Aarons, Ron Tarver, and Kind of Cyan. Frequently made by artists working with Paper, and Silver Gelatin Print and other materials, all of these pieces for sale are unique and have attracted attention over the years. Not every interior allows for large Realist black and white photography, so small editions measuring 3.94 inches across are also available. Prices for black and white photography made by famous or emerging artists can differ depending on medium, time period and other attributes. On 1stDibs, the price for these items starts at $159 and tops out at $65,000, while the average work sells for $1,700.