Arthur Tress Still-life 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)
to
1
2
2
1
1
Overall Height
to
Overall Width
to
1
2
1
1
1
1
1
1
2
1
1
20
244
149
110
106
2
Artist: Arthur Tress
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 Still-life 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 Still-life Photography
Materials
Silver Gelatin
Related Items
Lillies in Glass Vase, Still LIfe
By Roman Loranc
Located in Carmel, CA
Hand printed by the artist.
Signed in pencil on verso.
Unique / Rare
Obtain from the artist.
Category
21st Century and Contemporary Arthur Tress Still-life Photography
Materials
Silver Gelatin
"Beauty at the Window" Black & White Photography Signed, Gelatin Silver Print
By Ana Maria Cortesão
Located in Coimbra, PT
Street Photography /2000. Portugal / Analog camera photo / B&W 35 mm film. 400 iso / Gelatin Silver Print
Signed, titled, negative date & print date on verso.
Ana Maria is visual ar...
Category
Early 2000s Contemporary Arthur Tress Still-life Photography
Materials
Black and White, Photographic Film, Silver Gelatin
"Beauty at the Window" Black & White Photography Signed, Gelatin Silver Print
By Ana Maria Cortesão
Located in Coimbra, PT
Street Photography /2000. Portugal / Analog camera photo / B&W 35 mm film. 400 iso / Gelatin Silver Print
Signed, titled, negative date & print date on verso.
Ana Maria is visual ar...
Category
Early 2000s Contemporary Arthur Tress Still-life Photography
Materials
Black and White, Silver Gelatin, Photographic Film
Hat Eiffel
By Ted Adams
Located in Hudson, NY
Listing is for UNFRAMED print. Inquire within for framing.
Edition of 25.
If the exhibition piece is sold or the customer orders a different print size, the photograph is prod...
Category
21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Arthur Tress Still-life Photography
Materials
Silver Gelatin
Scary Baby
By Ted Adams
Located in Hudson, NY
Listing is for UNFRAMED print. Inquire within for framing.
Edition of 25.
If the exhibition piece is sold or the customer orders a different print size, the photograph is produced upon purchase. Please allow two weeks for production.
Shipping time depends on method of shipping.
Price is subject to availability. The Robin Rice Gallery reserves the right to adjust this price depending on the current edition of the photograph.
Ted Adams’ first solo show at the Robin Rice Gallery juxtaposes surrealism with the documentary art form. What differentiates Mr. Adams’ work from traditional photojournalism is his keen eye for capturing the irony in the events that unfold before our eyes. It is the found objects in everyday life to which Adams is most attuned. He creates a subtle mood and visual mystery that conveys meaning not only from the image itself but also through imagining what exists just beyond the frame.
"I see photography as a way of cropping the world—selectively taking things out of context—which often results in stripping the meaning out of the original subject matter, or at least making the image open to interpretation. It’s the opposite of traditional photojournalism whose intention is to create ‘narrative’ and context rather than discard them."
While he has exhibited artistic photography in a variety of genres, in the past five years he turned his artistic eye inward to reflect a more autobiographical tone. While some people compare his work to that of Robert Frank, Adams finds himself more and more influenced by Larry Clark whose career was built on pictures drawn from his own life and drug-addled friends rather than a specific documentary mission.
The unique presentation of this collection of twenty-three silver gelatin prints enhances the voyeuristic sensibility of Mr. Adams’ work. Each photograph is jewel box in size, measuring 4" x 6" to invite the viewer in to make an intimate appraisal. The craftsmanship of the wide, dark wood frames hearkens back to late 19th-century Shaker design—yet the aesthetic is boldly contemporary, providing a strong backdrop to draw the viewer’s gaze directly to the subject matter.
This artisanship extends to the printing where Adams exhibits his skills in traditional darkroom processes. He shoots mostly with Leica and Nikon 35mm film cameras...
Category
21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Arthur Tress Still-life Photography
Materials
Silver Gelatin
"To Coastal Walk", Little Dartmouth, Dartmouth, Devon, UK, 2010
By Robin Rice
Located in Hudson, NY
Listing is for UNFRAMED print. Inquire within for framing.
Edition 1 of 20.
If the exhibition piece is sold or the customer orders a different print size, the photograph is p...
Category
21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Arthur Tress Still-life Photography
Materials
Silver Gelatin
"Beauty at the Window" Black & White Photography Signed, Gelatin Silver Print
By Ana Maria Cortesão
Located in Coimbra, PT
Street Photography /2000. Portugal / Analog camera photo / B&W 35 mm film. 400 iso / Gelatin Silver Print
Signed, titled, negative date & print date on verso.
Ana Maria is visual ar...
Category
Early 2000s Contemporary Arthur Tress Still-life Photography
Materials
Black and White, Photographic Film, Silver Gelatin
'Sun Beams into Grand Central Station' Limited Edition Photograph 30X40
Located in San Rafael, CA
Beams of sunlight streaming through the windows at Grand Central Station, New York City, circa 1930. (Photo by Hal Morey/Getty Images)
As an authorized Get...
Category
1930s Contemporary Arthur Tress Still-life Photography
Materials
Photographic Paper, Silver Gelatin
'Sun Beams into Grand Central Station' Limited Edition Photograph 20X30
Located in San Rafael, CA
Beams of sunlight streaming through the windows at Grand Central Station, New York City, circa 1930. (Photo by Hal Morey/Getty Images)
As an authorized Get...
Category
1930s Contemporary Arthur Tress Still-life Photography
Materials
Photographic Paper, Silver Gelatin
Beyond
By Ted Adams
Located in Hudson, NY
Listing is for UNFRAMED print. Inquire within for framing.
Edition of 20.
If the exhibition piece is sold or the customer orders a different print size, the photograph is produced upon purchase. Please allow two weeks for production.
Shipping time depends on method of shipping.
Price is subject to availability. The Robin Rice Gallery reserves the right to adjust this price depending on the current edition of the photograph.
Ted Adams’ first solo show at the Robin Rice Gallery juxtaposes surrealism with the documentary art form. What differentiates Mr. Adams’ work from traditional photojournalism is his keen eye for capturing the irony in the events that unfold before our eyes. It is the found objects in everyday life to which Adams is most attuned. He creates a subtle mood and visual mystery that conveys meaning not only from the image itself but also through imagining what exists just beyond the frame.
"I see photography as a way of cropping the world—selectively taking things out of context—which often results in stripping the meaning out of the original subject matter, or at least making the image open to interpretation. It’s the opposite of traditional photojournalism whose intention is to create ‘narrative’ and context rather than discard them."
While he has exhibited artistic photography in a variety of genres, in the past five years he turned his artistic eye inward to reflect a more autobiographical tone. While some people compare his work to that of Robert Frank, Adams finds himself more and more influenced by Larry Clark whose career was built on pictures drawn from his own life and drug-addled friends rather than a specific documentary mission.
The unique presentation of this collection of twenty-three silver gelatin prints enhances the voyeuristic sensibility of Mr. Adams’ work. Each photograph is jewel box in size, measuring 4" x 6" to invite the viewer in to make an intimate appraisal. The craftsmanship of the wide, dark wood frames hearkens back to late 19th-century Shaker design—yet the aesthetic is boldly contemporary, providing a strong backdrop to draw the viewer’s gaze directly to the subject matter.
This artisanship extends to the printing where Adams exhibits his skills in traditional darkroom processes. He shoots mostly with Leica and Nikon 35mm film cameras...
Category
21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Arthur Tress Still-life Photography
Materials
Silver Gelatin
Flutter, Contemporary black and white photo, butterflies, very rare, still life
By Osheen Harruthoonyan
Located in Kinderhook, NY
A pair of gold toned silver gelatin prints of butterflies. The prints are 5.5 x 6.5 inches each and framed as a diptych with 8 ply museum mattboard.
Framed dimension are 12.5x18 inc...
Category
2010s Contemporary Arthur Tress Still-life Photography
Materials
Photographic Paper, Silver Gelatin
'Sun Beams into Grand Central Station' Limited Edition Photograph 16 X 12
Located in San Rafael, CA
Beams of sunlight streaming through the windows at Grand Central Station, New York City, circa 1930. (Photo by Hal Morey/Getty Images)
As an authorized Get...
Category
1930s Contemporary Arthur Tress Still-life Photography
Materials
Photographic Paper, Silver Gelatin
Arthur Tress still-life photography for sale on 1stDibs.
Find a wide variety of authentic Arthur Tress still-life 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 still-life photography, so small editions measuring 11 inches across are available. Customers who are interested in this artist might also find the work of Ben Cope, James Pitts, and Keith Carter b.1948. Arthur Tress still-life 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 $1,280, while the average work can sell for $1,280.