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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
Untitled, Senegalese model
Located in Wilton Manors, FL
Victor Arimondi (1942-2001). Portrait of Senegalese Model, ca. 1975. Period print measures 8.5 x 11.5 inches; 17 x 20 inches frames. Artist studio stam...
Category

1970s Realist Black and White Photography

Materials

Photographic Paper

Portrait of Nude Man
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

Portrait of Nude Man
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

Late Afternoon Forest Light, Black White Landscape Limited Giiclée Print
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...
Category

2010s Realist Black and White Photography

Materials

Emulsion, C Print

Black White Shoreline of British Pebble Beach, Horizontal Seascape, Zen Waves
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

Emulsion, Lithograph, Monoprint, Paper

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

1920 s Gelatin Silver Print by Tina Modotti of a Mural Fresco by Diego Rivera
Located in Chicago, IL
Original gelatin silver print by Photographer Tina Modotti of a mural Fresco by Diego Rivera. Stamped “Photographs-Tina Modotti Mexico, D.F.” on reverse. Photograph size: 7 5/6 x...
Category

1920s Realist Black and White Photography

Materials

Silver Gelatin, Paper

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

Early Historical Colored Architectural Photograph of New Mexico Museum of Art
Located in Houston, TX
Early historical colored photograph of the New Mexico Museum of Art located in Santa Fe, NM. The work highlights the building's architecture which was create...
Category

Mid-20th Century Realist Black and White Photography

Materials

Photographic Paper

Kings Of Hollywood, Beverly Hill, Estate Edition, Portrait Photograph
Located in Los Angeles, CA
This mid-1950s portrait photograph, captured by society photographer Slim Aarons, features film stars (left to right) Clark Gable (1901 - 1960), Van Heflin (1910 - 1971), Gary Cooper...
Category

1950s Realist Black and White Photography

Materials

Lambda

York Minster Minster Cathedral, the Nave Looking East Interior Photograph
Located in Soquel, CA
York Minster Minster Cathedral, the Nave Looking East Interior Photograph Silver Gelatin photographic Print of York Minster Cathedral, the Nave Looking East by Edwin Smith (British ...
Category

1950s Realist Black and White Photography

Materials

Silver Gelatin, Photographic Paper

Subway 30, NYC 1980s, New York City, Kids, Photograph, Subway, Limited Edition
Located in Riverdale, NY
John Conn New York City Subway photographs. These limited edition fine art photographs were originally taken between 1975 and 1982. Each black and white photograph is signed and numbered. Edition of 15. 20x30 image printed on 24x36 archival paper. This is framed in a black frame to 28x38. In this series, Conn captured the graffiti and one of the most crime ridden periods in New York. According to one source “In the 1980s, over 250 felonies were committed every week in the system, making the New York subway the most dangerous mass transit system in the world.” One image captures an Irish...
Category

1970s Realist Black and White Photography

Materials

Ink, Archival Paper

Ship at the Dock - 1960 s San Francisco Maritime Black White Photograph
By Gene Wright
Located in Soquel, CA
A beautiful black and white photograph of the ship "Balclutha" in dock, with Coit Tower in the background by famed San Francisco photographer Gene Wright (American, 20th Century). Im...
Category

1960s Realist Black and White Photography

Materials

Photographic Paper

Ice Abstraction
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

Kings Of Hollywood, Beverly Hill, Estate Edition, Portrait Photograph
Located in Los Angeles, CA
This mid-1950s portrait photograph, captured by society photographer Slim Aarons, features film stars (left to right) Clark Gable (1901 - 1960), Van Heflin (1910 - 1971), Gary Cooper...
Category

1950s Realist Black and White Photography

Materials

Lambda

Arrival or Departure Photographic Series (After Hitchcock) by Betty Hahn
Located in Soquel, CA
Rare Photographic series of five photographs by Betty Hahn titled, "Arrival or Departure (After Hitchcock), 1987, a series of five gelatin silver photographs" 17" by 24 each". A copy...
Category

1980s Realist Black and White Photography

Materials

Photographic Paper, Silver Gelatin, Archival Paper

Kings Of Hollywood, Beverly Hill, Estate Edition, Portrait Photograph
Located in Los Angeles, CA
This mid-1950s portrait photograph, captured by society photographer Slim Aarons, features film stars (left to right) Clark Gable (1901 - 1960), Van Heflin (1910 - 1971), Gary Cooper...
Category

1950s Realist Black and White Photography

Materials

Lambda

Portriat of Tom Petchlsig
Located in Wilton Manors, FL
Victor Arimondi (1942-2001). Portrait of Tom Petchlsig, ca. 1975. Period print measures 8 x 10 inches; 16 x 20 inches frames. Artist studio stamp on ve...
Category

1970s Realist Black and White Photography

Materials

Photographic Paper

Black and White Giclée Print of Sandy Shore with Foam, Coastal Black and White
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

Emulsion, Rag Paper

Large Silver Gelatin Photograph Russian USSR Soviet Parade Yuri Gagarin Photo
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

Olivelands Limoneira Ranch 1913 Antique Photograph Santa Paula CA
Located in Wilton Manors, FL
Schuyler U. Bunnell. Dormitory & Cottages, Olivelands Ranch, Santa Paula California, 1913. Period, antique photo. Paper measures 41.5 x 8 inches; 43.5 x 9....
Category

Early 20th Century Realist Black and White Photography

Materials

Photographic Paper

Decked In Finery, Slim Aarons Estate Edition
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

Eggs and Slicer
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

Cristo, Tlacochahuaya, Oaxaca
Located in San Francisco, CA
Artist: Paul Strand – American (1890-1976) Title: Cristo, Tlacochahuaya, Oaxaca Year: 1933, printed 1967, Da Capo Press, New York Medium: Photogravure hand-printed from the original plates on BFK Rives paper Publisher: Da Capo Press, 1967, New York Sight size: 10 ¼ x 7 7/8 in. (260 x 200 mm) Sheet size: 15 3/4 x 12 3/8 in. (402 x 313 mm) Framed size: 17 x 14 inches Edition:1000 Condition: Excellent This hand-pulled photogravure is from Paul Strand’s Mexican Portfolio, first published in 1933. This photogravure is from the 2nd edition, published in 1967. It is in excellent condition. It is enclosed in a simple metal frame and Plexiglas only for protection. A seminal work by a legendary figure in 20th century American photography, the photographs taken by the author on his travels through Mexico in 1932-33 show architecture, landscape, the indigenous people, and religious folk sculpture. Strand's work first made its appearance as "Photographs of Mexico" in a limited edition of 250 copies in 1940, with the printing of the steel-faced gravure plates by master platemaker Otto Wackernagel being supervised by Strand himself and executed by Charles Furth and the Photogravure and Color Company. The second edition used the original Wackernagel plates, printed by Albert Delong at the Andersen Lamb Company of Brooklyn. Strand was even more pleased with this version, stating "Delong has made these plates sing." The images are a celebration of the subjects' pride, dignity and endurance. Paul Strand (1890–1976) is considered one of the most significant photographers of the 20th century. His breakthrough work in the 1910s heralded photography’s importance as a modern art form. Early in his career he broke from the soft, impressionistic Pictorialist style to produce among the first abstract images made with a camera. His questioning attitude led him to radically change his work multiple times in his career, always with the highest ambitions for the quality of his photographic prints. In 1932, Carlos Chavez, the director of the fine arts department at the Secretariat of Public Education in Mexico, invited Strand to Mexico. At this time, the Mexican government was concerned with demonstrating a national culture that was reflective of a burgeoning, modern, twentieth-century Mexico. In light of this, Chavez invited Strand to document the new social and physical environment. Over the next two years, Strand travelled around Mexico photographing...
Category

1930s Realist Black and White Photography

Materials

Paper, Photogravure

Elizabeth Campbell Parks, New York, Estate Edition, Portrait Photograph
Located in Los Angeles, CA
This early 1970s portrait photograph, captured by society photographer Slim Aarons, features Elizabeth Campbell Parks and Leslie, her daughter with the photographer and filmmaker Gor...
Category

1970s Realist Black and White Photography

Materials

Lambda

"Beaver-Downed Cottonwood", Black White Landscape
Located in Soquel, CA
Beautiful black and white landscape photograph titled "Beaver-Downed Cottonwood, Stanislaus" by Jeff Nixon (American, 20th Century). "Titled Beaver-Downed Cottonwood, Stanislaus" lower left and on verso. Signed "Jeff Nixon" lower right. Unframed. 15"H x 12"W. Photograph: 9.5"H x 8"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...
Category

1980s Realist Black and White Photography

Materials

Paper, Silver Gelatin

Home of Colonel William H. Terrill Roanoke Virginia Original Photograph
Located in Soquel, CA
Home of Colonel William H. Terrill Roanoke Virginia Original Photograph Home of the Colonel William Terrill (CSA) Roanoke Virginia, original period s...
Category

1870s Realist Black and White Photography

Materials

Photographic Paper, Ink, Silver Gelatin

Cuban Flag: black white photo of Havana, Cuba urban city landscape at night
Located in Bryn Mawr, PA
This black & white photograph of the urban night streets of Havana, Cuba featuring the Cuban flag is part of artist Ron Tarver's series, "Havana: A Place Out...
Category

Early 2000s Realist Black and White Photography

Materials

Silver Gelatin

"Yosemite" - Black White Landscape Photograph AP
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

Andy Warhol in his studio, 1987 (for the Palm Springs Art Museum)
Located in New York, NY
Michael Childers Andy Warhol in his studio, 1987, 2007 Photographic print Hand Signed on the lower right front in black felt tip marker Frame Included This is one of a series of port...
Category

Early 2000s Realist Black and White Photography

Materials

Photographic Paper

Large Silver Gelatin Russian Photograph Potsdam Conference Truman Photo WWII
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

Prado Visitors, Madrid, Estate Edition, Portrait Photograph
Located in Los Angeles, CA
This mid-1950s portrait photograph, captured by society photographer Slim Aarons, features visitors at the The Prado Museum (Museo Nacional del Prado) viewing Diego Velázquez's maste...
Category

1950s Realist Black and White Photography

Materials

Lambda

Last-minute Adjustments, Estate Edition, Portrait Photograph
Located in Los Angeles, CA
This mid-1950s portrait photograph, captured by society photographer Slim Aarons, features a young woman has last-minute adjustments made to her dress at a debutante ball. This is a...
Category

1950s Realist Black and White Photography

Materials

Lambda

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

Prado Visitors, Madrid, Estate Edition, Portrait Photograph
Located in Los Angeles, CA
This mid-1950s portrait photograph, captured by society photographer Slim Aarons, features visitors at the The Prado Museum (Museo Nacional del Prado) viewing Diego Velázquez's maste...
Category

1950s Realist Black and White Photography

Materials

Lambda

Untitled (Stacked Cups)
Located in San Francisco, CA
Artist: Jed Devine American (1944- ) Title: Untitled (Stacked Cups) Date: 1987 Medium: Platinum-palladium print on Japanese rice paper Image size: 9.5 x 7.5 inches (9.25 x 7.25 inches within mat) Sheet size: 12 x 9 inches Framed size: 20.25 x 16.25 inches Signature: signed lower right in pencil Edition: unknown This sublime photograph is by Jed Devine. It is signed in the lower right in pencil. There is a gallery label from the Fraenkel Gallery in San Francisco on the reverse of the framed work. It is framed in a simple metal frame. The photograph, mat and frame are in very good condition. Jed Devine was born in Mount Kisco, New York, in 1944 and raised in Pleasantville, a Westchester County suburb. Devine cites Walter Hahn, his junior high school art teacher, as having an instrumental role in his art career decision: “I don’t know how it happened that a serious artist like Walter Hahn was teaching art at Pleasantville Junior High, but I was most fortunate to have him as a mentor and I’ve always been grateful to him.” In 1967, Jed Devine graduated cum laude from Yale University with a BA in fine arts and began his career as a painter. In 1972, he returned to Yale to study design and photography and was awarded an MFA degree. He joined the Purchase College faculty in 1977. During his tenure at Purchase, several of his students went on to receive recognition as photographers, among them Adam Baer, Gregory Crewdson, Regina DeLuise, Andrea Modica, Deborah Mesa-Pelly, and Roger Newton. Jed Devine’s photography is represented in many major museum, corporate, university, and private collections, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; Victoria and Albert Museum; London; the International Center of Photography, New York; the San Francisco Museum of Art; the Art Institute of Chicago; the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; and the Museum of Modern Art, New York. Originally trained as a painter, Devine began taking photographs in 1972 and became fascinated by the effects of light on objects and surfaces, and the sensuality that was possible with the platinum-palladium process. This sensuality is on full display in Devine’s only book, Friendship, a collaboration with the writer Jim Dinsmore, whose 64 images “form an extended sequence that moves from innocence to decay and return. The images emphasize the beauty and primacy of light while capturing the visual drama and irony of the Maine landscape.” Devine also has a long-standing relationship with New York City, which is most evident in his portfolio of panoramic photographs celebrating New York bridges...
Category

1980s Realist Black and White Photography

Materials

Paper, Platinum

The Observer, Portrait of Jackson Nash by Graham Nash
Located in Soquel, CA
Gorgeous archival digital photograph, limited edition giclee by Graham Nash (American, b. 1942) of a Nash's first born son Jackson, age five, looking into an aquarium in his San Francisco house...
Category

1980s Realist Black and White Photography

Materials

Archival Ink, Laid Paper

Last-minute Adjustments, Estate Edition, Portrait Photograph
Located in Los Angeles, CA
This mid-1950s portrait photograph, captured by society photographer Slim Aarons, features a young woman has last-minute adjustments made to her dress at a debutante ball. This is a...
Category

1950s Realist Black and White Photography

Materials

Lambda

Lord Wellington, Central Park, NY, 1969
Located in East Hampton, NY
Lord Wellington, Central Park, NY, 1969 11x14" (Edition: 1 of 10) Silver Gelation Iconic Photography About the Artist: My intent is to create a mythic...
Category

1960s Realist Black and White Photography

Materials

Silver Gelatin

Last-minute Adjustments, Estate Edition, Portrait Photograph
Located in Los Angeles, CA
This mid-1950s portrait photograph, captured by society photographer Slim Aarons, features a young woman has last-minute adjustments made to her dress at a debutante ball. This is a...
Category

1950s Realist Black and White Photography

Materials

Lambda

Waipio Valley, Hawaii
Located in San Francisco, CA
Artist: Geir Jordahl – American (1957- ) Title: Waipio Valley, Hawaii Year: 1987 Medium: Silver Gelatin photograph using infrared film Sight size: 8.25 x ...
Category

1980s Realist Black and White Photography

Materials

Silver Gelatin

Large Silver Gelatin Russian Photograph Potsdam Conference Winston Churchill
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

Gorbals Boys Bert Hardy Limited Edition Silver Gelatin Fibre Print
Located in London, GB
'Gorbals Boys' (1948) by Bert Hardy Limited Edition 44/300 Silver Gelatin Fibre Print Paper size 10 x 12 inches Printed later Two boys in the Gorbals area of Glasgow. The Gorbal...
Category

Mid-20th Century Realist Black and White Photography

Materials

Silver Gelatin

Untitled (Lower West Side)
Located in Buffalo, NY
An original gelatin silver print by American social documentary photographer Milton Rogovin depicting a resident of Buffalo's West Side in the early 1970's. This work is hand signed ...
Category

1970s Realist Black and White Photography

Materials

Silver Gelatin

Prehistoric Rain Forest, Oregon
Located in San Francisco, CA
Artist: Geir Jordahl – American (1957- ) Title: Prehistoric Rain Forest, Oregon Year: 1988 Medium: Silver Gelatin photograph using infrared film Sight size: 8 x 19.75 inches. Framed size: 16.25 x 26.25 inches Signature: Signed on the mount Edition: 50. This one: 2/50. (Fewer than 50 were actually printed) Condition: Very good Frame: Framed in original metal frame. Frame in fair condition This photograph depicts a lush area in Oregon with many ferns and trees as well as a painted dinosaur head...
Category

1980s Realist Black and White Photography

Materials

Silver Gelatin

Edward Weston s Desk, Black and White Photograph, Wild Cat Hill
Located in Soquel, CA
Black and white photograph of Edward Weston's desk, by Kim Weston (American, b. 1953). This photograph was taken in the former home of Edward Weston, Kim We...
Category

Early 2000s Realist Black and White Photography

Materials

Photographic Paper, Silver Gelatin, Black and White

"Susan - Waiting 78" - Figurative Black White Photograph, 13/25
Located in Soquel, CA
Black and white photograph done as a fine art digital limited edition print or "giclee" (Nash Editions) by singer, songwriter, musician, artist, activist, pioneer of digital imaging ...
Category

1980s Realist Black and White Photography

Materials

Archival Ink, Rag Paper

Vintage Silver Gelatin Print Rabbi, Jerusalem Alley Israeli Judaica Micha Bar-Am
Located in Surfside, FL
Rare vintage signed and dated silver gelatin black & white unframed photograph. (printed circa 19730-1981) signed and numbered in ink on recto. Hand developed by or under the personal direction of Micha Bar Am at the studio of acclaimed printer Thomas Consilvio in Beverly Hills, California. In 1981, the negatives were retired and donated by Bar-Am to the permanent archives of the Tel-Aviv Museum, Israel. This one has the feel of a Roman Vishniac photo. Micha Bar-Am (Hebrew: מיכה בר-עם) (born 1930 in Berlin, Germany) is an Israeli journalistic photographer. His images cover every aspect of life in Israel in the past sixty years. Since 1968 he has been a correspondent with Magnum, the photographic cooperative. From 1968 to 1992, he was the New York Times photographic correspondent from Israel. He has published several books of photography, beginning in 1957. His work is held in numerous international museums and institutes throughout the world. Born in Berlin to a Jewish family, Bar-Am moved with his parents in 1936 to then British Mandate of Palestine. He attended local schools. He was drafted in 1948 and served during Israel's War of Independence, when he was part of the Palmach Unit. Afterward, he worked several jobs, including as a locksmith and a mounted guard, before becoming a photographer. In 1949 he co-founded the kibbutz Malkia in Galilee. Later he became a member of Kibbutz Gesher HaZiv. Photography career In the early 1940s, Bar-Am started taking pictures of life on a kibbutz; he used borrowed cameras until he bought a Leica. After his military service, he began photographing more seriously. After publishing his first book, Across Sinai (1957), Bar-Am gained work as a photographic reporter and in the editorial staff of the Israeli Army magazine, Ba-Mahaneh, from 1957 to 1967. In 1961 he covered the Adolf Eichmann trial. In 1967 he covered the Six-Day War, during which time he met Cornell Capa. Many of his war images brought him renown. Since 1968, he has been a correspondent for Magnum Photos. In 1974 he helped Capa found the International Center of Photography in New York City. In 1968, Bar-Am also became the photographic correspondent from Israel for the New York Times, a position he held until 1992. From 1977-92, he was head of the department of photography at the Tel Aviv Museum of Art. He says that he has adopted Robert Capa saying, "If your photographs aren't good enough, you weren't close enough," Awards 2000--Israel Prize for photography. 1993—Enrique Kavlin Prize, Israel Museum, Jerusalem, Israel 1985-86--Nieman Fellow, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA 1985—IBM Fellowship, Aspen, Colorado, USA 1985—Golden Flamingo Award for Photographic Poster, Arles, France 1985--Fulbright Grant Books Southward: Micha Bar-Am, Photographs, Israel: The Negev Museum of Art, 2013 Insight: Micha Bar-Am's Israel, London: Koenig Books / Israel: Open Museums, 2011 Israel: A Photobiography, USA: Simon & Schuster, 1998 The Last War, Israel: Keter Publishers, 1996 Painting With Light: The Photographic Aspect in the Work of E.M. Lilian, Israel: Tel Aviv Museum of Art/Dvir Publishing, 1991 Jewish Sites in Lebanon, USA: Moreshet Eretz-Yisrael/Ariel, 1984 The Jordan, Israel: Masada Ltd., 1981 Portrait of Israel, USA: New York Times/American Heritage Press, 1970 Across Sinai, Israel: Hakibbutz Hameuchad, 1957 Collections Israel Museum, Jerusalem, Israel Tel Aviv Museum of Art, Tel Aviv, Israel Haifa Museum, Haifa, Israel The Museum of the Jewish People at Beit Hatfutsot, Tel Aviv, Israel The Museum of Photography at Tel Hai, Tel Hai Kibbutz, Israel International Center of Photography, New York, USA The Museum of Modern Art, New York, USA Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, USA International Museum of Photography at George Eastman House, Rochester, USA Skirball Museum, Los Angeles, USA Minneapolis Institute of Arts, Minneapolis, USA Henry Buhl Collection, New York, USA Ludwig Museum, Cologne, Germany Folkwang Museum, Essen, Germany Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris, France Musée d'Art et d'Histoire du Judaïsme, Paris, France Collection FNAC, Paris, France Fundacion “La Caixa”, Barcelona, Spain National Maritime Museum, London, UK Magnum Photos: Photographic Collection, Harry Ransom Center, University of Texas at Austin, USA This photo is signed. It is from the height of the war. Leonard Freed, Micha Bar Am, Henri Cartier-Bresson, David Rubinger...
Category

1970s Realist Black and White Photography

Materials

Silver Gelatin

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

Photography - Boy on the donkey at mountains. 1979. 30x40 cm
Located in Riga, LV
Photography by Dmitry Zyubritsky Boy on the donkey at mountains. 1979. Size 30x40 cm
Category

1970s Realist Black and White Photography

Materials

Photographic Paper

Elizabeth Campbell Parks, New York, Slim Aarons Estate Edition, Portrait Phot
Located in Los Angeles, CA
This early 1970s portrait photograph, captured by society photographer Slim Aarons, features Elizabeth Campbell Parks and Leslie, her daughter with the photographer and filmmaker Gor...
Category

1970s Realist Black and White Photography

Materials

Lambda

The Observer, Jackson Nash Portrait by Graham Nash
Located in Soquel, CA
Gorgeous archival digital photograph, limited edition giclee by Graham Nash (American, b. 1942) of a Nash's first born son Jackson, age five, looking into an aquarium in his San Francisco house...
Category

1980s Realist Black and White Photography

Materials

Archival Ink, Laid Paper

"Susan - Waiting 78" - Figurative Black White Photograph, 4/25
Located in Soquel, CA
Wonderfully evocative archival digital photograph, limited edition giclee by Graham Nash (American, b. 1942) of his then pregnant wife Susan titled "Susan Waiting '78". #4/25. Titled, signed and dated '89. Stamp and signed on verso. Condition: Excellent; some bleed through of stamp ink below left bottom margin from stamp on verso. Unframed. Image size: 15.50"H x 22.50"W. Size including border: 22.25"H x 24.50"W. While best known as a founding member of the rock band Crosby, Stills, Nash, and (sometimes) Young, Nash also developed a parallel career as a photographer, collector, and pioneer of digital imaging. Nash's photographs include revealing portraits of family and friends, images of life on the road, still lifes and landscapes, street photographs, bad credit people, and a unique series of self-portraits which often shows him reflected in windows and mirrors. His photography establishes Nash as a masterful visual artist with a keen eye for moments and scenes not immediately available to the common eye. In 2006, fifty years of Graham Nash's photographic images were shown in his first solo museum exhibition, Eye to Eye: Photographs by Graham Nash, at San Diego's Museum of Photographic Arts. MoPA Director Arthur Ollman...
Category

1980s Realist Black and White Photography

Materials

Archival Ink, Rag Paper

Indian Baskets - Set of 3 photographs
By Nancy Maynard
Located in Soquel, CA
Indian Baskets - Set of 3 photographs A set of three beautiful sepia tone photographs of Indian baskets by Nancy Maynard (American, 20th Century)...
Category

1960s Realist Black and White Photography

Materials

Paper, Silver Gelatin

No Surrender, Belfast, Estate Edition, Portrait Photograph
Located in Los Angeles, CA
This early 1960s portrait photograph, captured by society photographer Slim Aarons, features children playing 'Ring a Ring o' Roses' on a street marked with graffiti reading 'No Surr...
Category

1960s Realist Black and White Photography

Materials

Lambda

No Surrender, Belfast, Estate Edition, Portrait Photograph
Located in Los Angeles, CA
This early 1960s portrait photograph, captured by society photographer Slim Aarons, features children playing 'Ring a Ring o' Roses' on a street marked with graffiti reading 'No Surr...
Category

1960s Realist Black and White Photography

Materials

Lambda

Avro Lancaster Bomber at dispersal point 1943 original 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". An Avro Lancaster...
Category

1940s Realist Black and White Photography

Materials

Silver Gelatin

Avro Lancaster Bomber LL683 original 1943 photograph Hercules Power Egg MkII
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 "...
Category

1940s Realist Black and White Photography

Materials

Silver Gelatin

Sepia-Toned Architectural Photograph of San Xavier Mission in Tucson, Arizona
Located in Houston, TX
Sepia-toned architectural photograph of San Zavier Mission, a historic Spanish Catholic mission located near Tucson, Arizona, on the Tohono O'odham Nation San Xavier Indian Reservati...
Category

Mid-20th Century Realist Black and White Photography

Materials

Photographic Paper, Silver Gelatin

Large Silver Gelatin Photograph Russian USSR Soviet Parade Yuri Gagarin Photo
Located in Surfside, FL
Yuri Gagarin Meeting Workers at Foundry Stankolit, depicting the famous Russian cosmonaut (Moscow, 1961) Gelatin silver print, matte 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

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.