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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
1920s Silver Gelatin Print by Tina Modotti of Diego Rivera Mural
Located in Chicago, IL
An original 1920s silver gelatin print by photographer Tina Modotti, showing a fresco in the Agricultural School-Chapingo, Mexico by artist Diego Rivera. Photo is stamped “Photographs-Tina Modotti Mexico, D.F.” on reverse. Photograph size: 6 7/8" x 9 5/8". Archivally matted to 16” x 20” Tina Modotti was born in Udine, Italy in 1896 and by the age of 14 she was supporting her entire family by working in a local silk factory. Modotti’s father emigrated to San Francisco, sending for his family in 1913. Modotti was hired in the sewing room at the I. Magnin department store, but her great beauty attracted the attention of her superiors who then employed her to model the store’s fashions. In 1915, Modotti attended San Francisco’s Pan-Pacific Exposition, where she got her first look at Modern art and photography. She also met her first husband at the Exposition, painter and poet Roubaix de l’Abrie Richey. At this time Modotti began acting in local Italian theatre and was discovered by a talent scout for the new silent film industry in Hollywood. She arrived in Los Angeles in 1918 and was cast in “The Tiger’s Coat” and “I Can Explain”. Through her Hollywood connections, Modotti met the married photographer Edward Weston, with whom she began an affair. Modotti was a favorite subject of Weston’s photographs, but moreover he taught her the art of photography. She actually ran Weston’s studio in exchange for photography lessons. Due to the on-going affair between Modotti and Weston, Modotti’s husband moved to Mexico where he died of smallpox. This tragedy and the death of her father made Modotti dissatisfied with Hollywood. Modotti and Weston arrived in Mexico in 1923 at a time when the country was in the midst of a social, political and cultural revolution. She photographed the Mexican...
Category

1920s Realist Black and White Photography

Materials

Silver Gelatin

Water Reflection, Seascape Black and White Giclée Print, Pacific Sunset 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 beautiful black and white high contrast photograph...
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2010s Realist Black and White Photography

Materials

Emulsion, Photographic Paper, C Print, Giclée

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...
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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

Ocean Force, Photography 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

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...
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20th Century 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

1920's Silver Gelatin Print By Tina Modotti of Diego Rivera Fresco.
Located in Chicago, IL
An original 1920s silver gelatin print by photographer Tina Modotti of the Diego Rivera mural "Lightning Striking Down the Destructive forces in Society Mother Nature, Harmony Betwe...
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1920s 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...
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Mid-20th Century Realist Black and White Photography

Materials

Silver Gelatin

Portrait of a Woman with Teapot, 1970s Pittsburgh Black & White Photograph
Located in Soquel, CA
Compelling 1970s black and white photograph of a contemplative woman leaning on a table into her crossed arms, beside a small teapot that casts a long sha...
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1970s Realist Black and White Photography

Materials

Photographic Paper, 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...
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1980s Realist Black and White Photography

Materials

Silver Gelatin

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...
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1970s Realist Black and White Photography

Materials

Photographic Paper, Silver Gelatin

Portrait of Imogen Cunningham - Black & White Photograph
Located in Soquel, CA
A stunning black and white photographic portrait of Imogen Cunningham (1883-1976) by California photographer, Robert Werling (b. 1946). Signed and dated by the artist on the mat, low...
Category

1970s Realist Black and White Photography

Materials

Photographic Paper, Silver Gelatin

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

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

Egrets in Flight: black & white photograph, silhouette of birds & trees in sky
Located in Bryn Mawr, PA
This black and white photograph of birds in flight against the sky is part of artist Ron Tarver's long-term, ongoing project, " Land, Sea, Air," that explores the wide-ranging syste...
Category

2010s Realist Black and White Photography

Materials

Archival Pigment

Double Dutch #11: Black girls playing jump rope games in Philadelphia urban city
Located in Bryn Mawr, PA
This black and white photograph depicts a Black girls' team in the urban city of Philadelphia practicing the art of Double-Dutch jump rope. This series of images provide a snapshot o...
Category

1980s Realist Black and White Photography

Materials

Archival Pigment

Kings of Hollywood (New Year's at Romanoff's) Estate Edition Photograph
Located in Los Angeles, CA
Film stars (left to right) Clark Gable (1901 - 1960), Van Heflin (1910 - 1971), Gary Cooper (1901 - 1961) and James Stewart (1908 - 1997) enjoy a joke at a New Year's party held at R...
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1950s Realist Black and White Photography

Materials

Lambda

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, Rag Paper

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...
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1870s Realist Black and White Photography

Materials

Photographic Paper, Ink, Silver Gelatin

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

Ferris Wheel from the Tuileries
Located in Wilton Manors, FL
Lynn Saville. Ferris Wheel from the Tuileries, 1999. Photographic print. Edition 5/25. Image measures 12.5 x 18 inches. Sheet is larger. Measures 21.5 x 27 framed. Signed, titled and...
Category

1990s Realist Black and White Photography

Materials

Photographic Paper

Gardenia: black & white framed photograph, flower w/ vines & leaves in landscape
Located in Bryn Mawr, PA
"Gardenia" is a black & white framed archival pigment print (photograph) of a flower w/ vines & leaves in landscape from artist Jenny Lynn's "Little Rituals" series. It is framed in ...
Category

Early 2000s Realist Black and White Photography

Materials

Photographic Paper, Archival Pigment

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

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 East Side in the early 1960's. This work is hand signed ...
Category

1970s Realist Black and White Photography

Materials

Silver Gelatin

"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

Pyramid & Palms: black & white framed photograph, monument in landscape w/ trees
Located in Bryn Mawr, PA
"Pyramid & Palms" is a black & white framed silver gelatin print (photograph) of a stone monument in landscape w/ trees from artist Jenny Lynn's "Little Rit...
Category

Early 2000s Realist Black and White Photography

Materials

Photographic Paper, Silver Gelatin

Avro Lancaster Bomber with 8000lb cookie bomb original press photograph 1943
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". Lan...
Category

1940s Realist Black and White Photography

Materials

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

"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

1920s Silver Gelatin Print by Tina Modotti of a Drawing by Clemente Orozco
Located in Chicago, IL
An original 1920s silver gelatin print by photographer Tina Modotti, showing a drawing of soldiers and families by Clemente Orozco. Photo is stamped “Photographs-Tina Modotti Mexico...
Category

1920s Realist Black and White Photography

Materials

Silver Gelatin

Double Dutch #37: Black girls playing jump rope games in Philadelphia urban city
Located in Bryn Mawr, PA
This black and white photograph depicts a Black girls' team in the urban city of Philadelphia practicing the art of Double-Dutch jump rope. This series of images provide a snapshot o...
Category

1980s Realist Black and White Photography

Materials

Archival Pigment

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

Kneeling Boy: black & white photo of Havana, Cuba w/ tree in arched doorway
Located in Bryn Mawr, PA
This black & white photograph of a child and a tree growing in an open courtyard of Havana, Cuba as seen through an arched doorway is part of artist Ron...
Category

Early 2000s Realist Black and White Photography

Materials

Silver Gelatin

Arrival or Departure Photographic Series (After Hitchcock)
Located in Soquel, CA
A 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 of the book included "Betty Hahn by Steve Yates. Gelatin silver photographic prints on paper mounted on foam board. Each has a sticker "BHC" with the letter indicating the print sequence "A-E". Following excerpt from the book "Betty Hahn "Photography Or Maybe Not" by Steve Yates, from the essay by Dana Asbury: "Instead of crime fiction and forensic photograph, the first filmic sequences have a moody raking light of film noir in the forties, and she titles Arrival or Departure (After Hitchcock) (plate 117). This series of 5 photographs (1987) shows the back of a man, unidentified, at a deserted train station, in late afternoon light. The rest is ambiguous. Is he coming or going? Is he moving away from him? Is there significance to the first close-up shot of a black duffel bag stuffed under his arm? It was of course Hitchcock's particular genius to explore the ominousness of everyday situations, and to show us that looking to long at anything makes it look suspicious. This series pays homage to Hitchcock's use of the tracking shot that conveys his terrifying message behind "Teddy Bear", that there is serious threat in ordinary objects. This series also fits in with the mood of "Appearance, Ehrlichman Surveillance", and many of the crime series-solitary male figure in an urban setting. There is a tough edge to these works." Unsigned, gallery receipt of purchase copy included with notation on verso . 5 framed images. Each image, 16.5"H x 23.5"L. The following biography is by Fumiko Koizumi at: The Visual Studies Workshop in association with the State University of New York at Brockport Betty Hahn was born Elizabeth Jean Okon on October 11, 1940 in Chicago, Illinois. In 1967, Betty Hahn moved to Rochester to pursue a job at Kodak or Xerox. While in Rochester, she participated in Nathan Lyons's Visual Studies Workshop from 1967 to 1968. Lyons lectured on "vernacular" and "snap shot" photography to workshop students, reinforcing Betty's interest in this "folk" tradition. During her time at the VSW she met Tom Barrow, Roger Mertin, and Alice Wells, and reconnected with Robert Fichter. She was encouraged by how their work was challenging the rules of what was common in fine-print photography. At age 10, her aunt Marcella Brown gave Betty her first camera, a Brownie #2. At this same time the Okon family moved to Indianapolis, Indiana. After graduating from Scecina Memorial Catholic High School in Indianapolis, she entered Indiana University in Bloomington, Indiana. She earned a four-year scholarship and studied fine arts. While she was experimenting with photographic image making her initial artistic experiences involved painting and drawing. She did not take photography seriously as a medium for her artistic expression during her undergraduate work. At age 23, Hahn graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree and continued at Indiana University for graduate studies in the department of photography. At the suggestion of Henry Holmes Smith...
Category

1980s Realist Black and White Photography

Materials

Silver Gelatin, Photographic Paper

Lighthouse with Beach Cruiser - Black & White Landscape Photograph
Located in Soquel, CA
"Lighthouse & Bicycle", black and white photograph on Fujicolor professional paper of the Santa Cruz Yacht Harbor Breakwater Lighthouse by Richard Francis Singer (American, 20th Cent...
Category

2010s Realist Black and White Photography

Materials

Photographic Paper

New Year at Romanoff's, Clark Gable, Van Heflin, Gary Cooper, James Stewart
Located in Los Angeles, CA
Film stars (left to right) Clark Gable (1901 - 1960), Van Heflin (1910 - 1971), Gary Cooper (1901 - 1961) and James Stewart (1908 - 1997) enjoy a joke at a New Year's party held at Romanoff's in Beverly Hills. New Year at Romanoff's Printed Later Slim Aarons Estate Edition 16 x 20 inches Numbered and stamped by the Slim Aarons Estate. Certificate of Authenticity included. Purchaser will get the next number in the edition Over the course of a career lasting half a century, Slim Aarons (1916-2006) portrayed high society, aristocracy, authors, artists, business icons, the celebrated and their milieu. In doing so, he captured a golden age of wealth, privilege, beauty and leisure that occurred alongside—but quite separate from—the cultural and political backdrop of the second half of the Twentieth Century. The Slim Aarons Estate has released the limited Estate edition as a Digital Fiber print, a digital version of traditional darkroom process. Hybrid paper is responsive to digital laser technology. Digital Fiber provides true black and white printing, without colour cast. Slide show includes a close-up of the Slim Aarons estate's stamp. Collector will get the next number in the edition * We are pleased to offer the entire archive of the Slim Aarons Estate, offering the official Slim Aarons Estate Edition (only offered in this edition of 150). Please contact us for additional photographs from Slim Aarons * Founded by Michael Romanoff (born Hershel Geguzin, 1890-1971), Romanoff's was a popular restaurant with Hollywood stars during the 1940s and 1950s, including director Alfred Hitchcock. This image has a popular companion piece, Kings of Hollywood. Internal: Vintage Slim Aarons, Vintage Hollywood, Vintage Glamour, 1950s, Beverly Hills, Clark Gable, Van Heflin, Gary Cooper, James Stewart, Vintage Hollywood Glamour...
Category

21st Century and Contemporary Realist Black and White Photography

Materials

Lambda

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

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

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

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

1920s Silver Gelatin Print by Tina Modotti of a Diego Rivera Fresco
Located in Chicago, IL
An original 1920s silver gelatin print by photographer Tina Modotti, showing a Diego Rivera fresco in the Secretariat of Education in Mexico City, Mexico. Photo is stamped “Photogra...
Category

1920s Realist Black and White Photography

Materials

Silver Gelatin

Hand & Foot: black & white photograph w/ glove, leopard print & tree bark, feet
Located in Bryn Mawr, PA
"Hand & Foot" is a black & white framed silver gelatin print (photograph) studio still life with glove, leopard print fur, and tree bark textures from artist Jenny Lynn...
Category

Early 2000s Realist Black and White Photography

Materials

Photographic Paper, Silver Gelatin

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

1920's Silver Gelatin Print by Tina Modotti of Diego Rivera Fresco
Located in Chicago, IL
An original 1920s silver gelatin print by photographer Tina Modotti, that shows a fresco in the Secretariat of Education Buiilding, Mexico City that illustrates a popular ballad. Ph...
Category

1920s Realist Black and White Photography

Materials

Silver Gelatin

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

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

Kings of Hollywood (Clark Gable, Gary Cooper, James Stewart, Van Heflin
Located in Los Angeles, CA
This iconic photograph is finally available again, for the first time in over a year. In this classic black and white photograph, film stars (left to right) Clark Gable (1901 - 1960), Van Heflin (1910 - 1971), Gary Cooper (1901 - 1961) and James Stewart (1908 - 1997) enjoy a joke at a New Year's party held at Romanoff's in Beverly Hills. Kings of Hollywood / New Year's at Romanoff's Slim Aarons Estate Edition 16 x 20 inches Numbered and stamped by the Slim Aarons Estate. Certificate of Authenticity included. Purchaser will get the next number in the edition Over the course of a career lasting half a century, Slim Aarons (1916-2006) portrayed high society, aristocracy, authors, artists, business icons, the celebrated and their milieu. In doing so, he captured a golden age of wealth, privilege, beauty and leisure that occurred alongside—but quite separate from—the cultural and political backdrop of the second half of the Twentieth Century. The Slim Aarons Estate has released the limited Estate edition as a Lambda print, which is a modern c-type prints. They have chosen Lambda prints for their sharpness, clarity, colour saturation and quality, compared to archival inkjet prints. Lambda printing gives true continuous tone. Slide show includes a close-up of the Slim Aarons estate's stamp. Collector will get the next number in the edition * We are pleased to offer the entire archive of the Slim Aarons Estate, offering the official Slim Aarons Estate Edition (only offered in this edition of 150). Please contact us for additional photographs from Slim Aarons * Founded by Michael Romanoff (born Hershel Geguzin, 1890-1971), Romanoff's was a popular restaurant with Hollywood stars during the 1940s and 1950s, including director Alfred Hitchcock. Internal: Vintage Slim Aarons, Vintage Hollywood, Vintage Glamour, 1950s, Beverly Hills, Clark Gable, Van Heflin, Gary Cooper, James Stewart, Vintage Hollywood Glamour...
Category

1950s Realist Black and White Photography

Materials

Lambda

Mary Nash Portrait, 12/25
Located in Soquel, CA
Gorgeous archival digital photograph, limited edition giclee by Graham Nash (American, b. 1942) of an abstracted photogpah of his mother Mary Nash. #12/25. Titled, signed and dated '89. Stamp and signed on verso. Condition: Excellent. Unframed. Image size: 22"50"H x 15.25"W. Size including border: 24.33"H x 22.50"W. The original photo is in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Museum. Graham said about this photo, "This is a photo I took of my mother Mary when I was 11, in 1953. She was 33. It was the first image I took where I realized that it's possible that I see differently than most people. Normally my mother would be making the bed, or cooking breakfast — mother stuff. I'd never seen my mother in this contemplative mood. I'd never seen her either looking into her future or wondering if her life had been what she wanted or thinking about her past. I don't know. I only know that that's an incredible moment in my mother's existence." 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, Laid Paper

1920s Silver Gelatin Print by Tina Modotti of Clemente Orozco Fresco
Located in Chicago, IL
An original 1920s silver gelatin print by photographer Tina Modotti, showing a detail of an image of St. Francis in a fresco in a prep school in Mexico City by Clemente Orozco. Ph...
Category

1920s 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.

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