Arthur Tress Black and White Photography
American, b. 1940
Born in Brooklyn, New York, on November 24, 1940, Arthur Tress began his first camera work as a teenager in the surreal neighborhood of Coney Island where he spent hours exploring the decaying amusement parks. Later, during five years of world travel, mostly in Asia and Africa, he developed an interest in ethnographical photography that eventually led him to his first professional assignment as a U.S. government photographer recording the endangered folk cultures of Appalachia.
Seeing the destructive results of corporate resource extraction, Tress began to use his camera to raise environmental awareness about the economic and human costs of pollution. Focusing on New York City, he began to photograph the neglected fringes of the urban waterfront with a straight documentary approach. This gradually evolved into a more personal mode of “magic realism” combining improvised elements of actual life with stage fantasy that became his hallmark style of directorial fabrication. In the late 1960s Tress was inspired to do a series based upon children’s dreams that combined his interests in ritual ceremony, Jungian archetypes, and social allegory. Later bodies of work dealing with the hidden dramas of adult relationships and the reenactments of male homosexual desire evolved from this primarily theatrical approach.
Beginning in the early 1980s, Tress began shooting in color, creating room-sized painted sculptural installations out of found medical equipment in an abandoned hospital on New York’s Welfare Island. This led to a smaller scale exploration of narrative still life within a children’s toy theater and a portable nineteenth-century aquarium.
Around 2002, Tress returned to gelatin silver, exploring more formalist themes in the style of mid- century modernism, often combining a spontaneous shooting style with a constructivist’s sense of architectural composition and abstract shape. In addition to images of California skateboard parks, his recent work includes the round images of the series Planets and the diamond-shaped images of Pointers. Selected Arthur Tress Books and Publications
Open Space in the Inner City: Ecology and the Urban Environment. New York: New York State Council on the Arts, 1971. Arthur Tress: The Dream Collector. Text by John Minahan. Richmond: Westover, 1972, New York: Avon, 1974. Shadow. A Novel in Photographs. New York: Avon, 1975 Theater of the Mind. Text by Duane Michaels, Michel Tournier and A.D. Coleman. Dobbs Ferry: Morgan and Morgan, 1976. Reves. Text by Michel Tournier. Brussels: Complexe, 1979. Talisman. Edited by Marco Livingstone. Oxford: Museum of Modern Art, Oxford, 1986. The Teapot Opera. Photographs and text by Arthur Tress. Goro International, 1986, Abbeville, 1988. Male of the Species: Four Decades of Photography by Arthur Tress. Text by Michale Tournier. Fotofactory, 1999. Fish Tank Sonata. Bulfinch, 2000. Arthur Tress: Fantastic Voyage: Photographs 1956-2000. Bulfinch, 2001. Memories. Photographs by Arthur Tress, Poems by Guillaume Apollinaire. 21st,(Biography provided by Stone and Press Gallery)
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Artist: Arthur Tress
Boy in Burnt Out Furniture Store, Newark, New Jersey
By Arthur Tress
Located in Carmel, CA
Purchased directly from artist.
Hand printed silver gelatin photograph,.
Mint Condition
Signed and titled in pen on recto.
Category
1960s Arthur Tress Black and White Photography
Materials
Silver Gelatin
Claire De Lune, Breezy Point, New York
By Arthur Tress
Located in Carmel, CA
Mint Condition
Purchased directly from artist.
Loose Print
Titled in Pen Left Hand Side
Signed in Pen Right Hand Side
Category
Late 20th Century Arthur Tress Black and White Photography
Materials
Silver Gelatin
Groom with the White Arabian, CA
By Arthur Tress
Located in New York, NY
Groom and the White Arabian, CA
1996
Signed, titled, dated, and numbered in ink, recto
Gelatin silver print (Edition of 50)
14.75 x 14.75 inches (37.5 x 37.5 cm), image
This work...
Category
1990s Contemporary Arthur Tress Black and White Photography
Materials
Silver Gelatin
Stormy Weather, Palm Springs
By Arthur Tress
Located in New York, NY
Stormy Weather
Palm Springs, 1995
Signed, titled, dated, and numbered in black ink, recto
Gelatin silver print (Edition of 50)
20 x 16 inches (50.8 x...
Category
1990s Contemporary Arthur Tress Black and White Photography
Materials
Silver Gelatin
Making Leaves (a sexy still life where 2 rakes and some leaves turn up the heat)
By Arthur Tress
Located in New Orleans, LA
Tress uses a bed, the juxtaposition of two rakes and a scattering of fallen leaves to enter a sexy anthropomorphic world. Often men are called "rakes" to suggest amoral activity. In...
Category
1970s Contemporary Arthur Tress Black and White Photography
Materials
Silver Gelatin
Boy in Mickey Mouse Hat, Coney Island, New York
By Arthur Tress
Located in New York, NY
Vintage gelatin silver print
Signed and dated twice, verso
Also inscribed in black ink, verso
Various studio stamps and printing instructions, verso
This artwork is offered by Clam...
Category
1960s Other Art Style Arthur Tress Black and White Photography
Materials
Silver Gelatin
Flood Dream
By Arthur Tress
Located in New York, NY
Ocean City, New Jersey, 1971
Signed, titled, dated, and numbered, recto
Gelatin silver print (Edition of 50)
14 x 11 inches, sheet
10 x 10 inches, image
Contact gallery for price.
Literature:
John Minahan, The Dream Collector (Westover Publishing Company: Richmond, Virginia, 1972)
Michel Tournier...
Category
1970s Contemporary Arthur Tress Black and White Photography
Materials
Silver Gelatin
University Tutorial
By Arthur Tress
Located in New York, NY
Signed, titled, numbered, and dated, recto
Gelatin silver print (Edition of 50)
14 x 11 inches sheet
10 x 10 inches image
Contact gallery for price.
This work is offered by Clamp...
Category
1970s Contemporary Arthur Tress Black and White Photography
Materials
Silver Gelatin
The Burning Warehouse
By Arthur Tress
Located in New York, NY
Signed, titled, and numbered, recto
This work is offered by ClampArt in New York City.
Category
1970s Contemporary Arthur Tress Black and White Photography
Materials
Silver Gelatin
Platonic Friendship
By Arthur Tress
Located in New York, NY
Signed, titled, and inscribed “for Paul” in black ink, recto
Gelatin silver print
14 x 11 inches, sheet
7.5 x 7.5 inches, image
This artwork is offered by ClampArt, located in New Y...
Category
1990s Arthur Tress Black and White Photography
Materials
Silver Gelatin
The Last Portrait of My Father, NYC
By Arthur Tress
Located in New York, NY
Gelatin silver print (Edition of 50)
Signed, titled, dated, and numbered in black ink, recto
This artwork is offered by ClampArt, located in New York City.
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Category
1970s Other Art Style Arthur Tress Black and White Photography
Materials
Silver Gelatin
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Arthur Tress black and white photography for sale on 1stDibs.
Find a wide variety of authentic Arthur Tress black and white photography available for sale on 1stDibs. You can also browse by medium to find art by Arthur Tress in silver gelatin print and more. Much of the original work by this artist or collective was created during the 20th century and is mostly associated with the contemporary style. Not every interior allows for large Arthur Tress black and white photography, so small editions measuring 11 inches across are available. Customers who are interested in this artist might also find the work of Jeffrey Silverthorne, Barry Feinstein, and Edward Steichen. Arthur Tress black and white photography prices can differ depending upon medium, time period and other attributes. On 1stDibs, the price for these items starts at $1,280 and tops out at $24,400, while the average work can sell for $5,500.