Brigitte Enders

Born in Zurich, Switzerland, Brigitte Lustenberger studied at Zurich University and received her MA in Social and Photo History in 1996. In the following years, she established herself as a fine art photographer. She moved to New York and received her MFA in Fine Art Photography and Related Media at Parsons School of Design in 2007. The main issues in her works lie in her interest in the study of the gaze, the interplay between absence and presence in a photographic image and the fact that the reading of a photograph is most often triggered by a collective memory. She explores the media itself and its close connection to themes like decay, memory, death and transitoriness. Brigitte Lustenberger has shown nationally and internationally in both solo and group shows. She had solo shows at the Musée de l’Elysée in Lausanne. Switzerland, at Walter Keller’s Scalo Gallery in Zurich and New York, etc. Her works have been part of group shows in the Kunsthalle Bern, Kunsthalle Luzern, etc. She was awarded the Grand Prize at PDNedu, the Golden Light Award, Shots/Corbis Student Photographer of the Year, and others. She received fellowships for Cairo and Maloja and was awarded the prestigious swiss Landis Gyr Residency in 2013. In the same year, she was awarded for the second time (after 2002) the Photo Award of the Canton Bern. Brigitte Lustenberger creates a modern and yet baroque universe by following a baroque still-life tradition to evoke meaning by showing and choosing certain objects, facial expressions and gestures. The images are very much about the transitoriness of being and the constant human involvement in it - and its resulting changes of fates. The artist goes back literally to the meaning of the word portrait, which descends from the Latin word - protahere - which can be translated as - to pull out something, to bring something forward, to bring something to light. The black spaces from where the faces or the still-lifes appear, leave room for the viewer’s interpretation. Most of the lighting in the photographs is natural daylight coming in through a window.

Used to refer to a time rather than an aesthetic, Contemporary art generally describes pieces created after 1970 or being made by living artists anywhere in the world. This immediacy means it encompasses art responding to the present moment through diverse subjects, media and themes. Contemporary painting, sculpture, photography, performance, digital art, video and more frequently includes work that is attempting to reshape current ideas about what art can be, from Felix Gonzalez-Torres’s use of candy to memorialize a lover he lost to AIDS-related complications to Jenny Holzer’s ongoing “Truisms,” a Conceptual series that sees provocative messages printed on billboards, T-shirts, benches and other public places that exist outside of formal exhibitions and the conventional “white cube” of galleries.

Contemporary art has been pushing the boundaries of creative expression for years. Its disruption of the traditional concepts of art are often aiming to engage viewers in complex questions about identity, society and culture. In the latter part of the 20th century, contemporary movements included Land art, in which artists like Robert Smithson and Michael Heizer create large-scale, site-specific sculptures, installations and other works in soil and bodies of water; Sound art, with artists such as Christian Marclay and Susan Philipsz centering art on sonic experiences; and New Media art, in which mass media and digital culture inform the work of artists such as Nam June Paik and Rafaël Rozendaal.

The first decades of the 21st century have seen the growth of Contemporary African art, the revival of figurative painting, the emergence of street art and the rise of NFTs, unique digital artworks that are powered by blockchain technology.

Major Contemporary artists practicing now include Ai Weiwei, Cecily Brown, David Hockney, Yayoi Kusama, Jeff Koons, Takashi Murakami and Kara Walker.

Find a collection of Contemporary prints, photography, paintings, sculptures and other art on 1stDibs.

Color photography evokes emotion that can bring a viewer into the scene. It can transport one to faraway places or back into the past.

The first color photograph, taken in 1861, was more of an exercise in science than art. Photographer Thomas Sutton and physicist James Clerk Maxwell used three separate exposures of a tartan ribbon — filtered through red, green and blue — and composited them into a single image, resulting in the first multicolor representation of an object.

Before this innovation, photographs were often tinted by hand. By the 1890s, color photography processes were introduced based on that 1860s experiment. In the early 20th century, autochromes brought color photography to a commercial audience.

Now color photography is widely available, with these historic photographs documenting moments and scenes that are still vivid generations later. Photographers in the 20th and 21st centuries have offered new perspectives in the evolving field of modern color photography with gripping portraiture, snow-capped landscapes, stunning architecture and lots more.

In the voluminous collection of photography on 1stDibs, find vibrant full-color images by Slim Aarons, Helen Levitt, Gordon Parks, Stefanie Schneider, Steve McCurry and other artists. Bring visual interest to any corner of your home with color photography — introduce a salon-style gallery hang or another arrangement that best fits your space.