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Portrait Photography For Sale
This Week's Listings Only
Fashion, Equestrian, Single Sable Island Horse Against White Background
Located in US
"On Guard" A lone Sable Island horse with a beautifully-unkempt mane stares back at the camera. The print series Discovering the Horses of Sable Island documents one of the last h...
Category

2010s Contemporary Portrait Photography

Materials

Archival Pigment

Elizabeth Taylor with Sunglasses for Giant - Oversize Limited Print
Located in London, GB
Elizabeth Taylor with Sunglasses for "Giant" 1955 by Frank Worth This iconic and elegant portrait captured by celebrity photographer Frank Worth features actress Elizabeth Taylor o...
Category

1950s Modern Portrait Photography

Materials

Archival Pigment

Gunter Sachs & Mirja Larsson - Vintage Photograph - 1960s
Located in Roma, IT
Gunter Sachs &  Mirja Larsson is a black and white vintage photo, realized in 1960s. The photo depicts the photographer, Gunter Sachs  with his second wife, Mirja Larsson. Good con...
Category

1960s Modern Portrait Photography

Materials

Photographic Paper

Historical Photo - Portrait of John V. L. Pruyn - Vintage Photo - 19th Century
Located in Roma, IT
Historical Photo - Portrait of John V. L. Pruyn is a  vintage photo, realized in the late 19th Century . The artwork is a well-balanced composition.
Category

19th Century Modern Portrait Photography

Materials

Photographic Paper

The American Actor Kevin Kline in "Cry Freedom" - Vintage Photograph - 1987
Located in Roma, IT
Vintage Photo. The American Actor Kevin Kline in "Cry Freedom", a 1987 drama film directed by Richard Attenborough.
Category

1980s Contemporary Portrait Photography

Materials

Photographic Paper

Naomi Campbell, Paul Rowland Vintage Portrait Silver Gelatin Print
Located in Surfside, FL
Paul Rowland- He is the one, that everybody knows about, Paul Rowland. A genius in the modeling industry, president of Ford Models New York, owner of Women Model Management & Supreme Management and photographer. Paul Rowland has more, than 20 years experiences in the industry. Paul Rowland was born in Arkansas in the USA. He left his home town and moved to New York City with the dream to become a painter. Not long after this he founded Women Management and Supreme Models. Paul Rowland founded Women Management in 1989. In his more than 15 years of professional experience, he has made transformation from model to founder of his own agency, and is credited for establishing a unique roster of talent known for personality and accessibility previously unseen in the business. He participated in the exhibition at Art Basel in 2008 In Fashion Photo features an exclusive collection of more than 250 contemporary works of photographic art by more than 35 of the world‟s leading icons in fashion photography. Representing more than 15 countries in five continents, some of the most globally esteemed names from the fashion photo world exhibited their work, including Slim Aarons, Miles Aldridge, Olivia Beasley, Michael Dweck, Arthur Elgort, Charles Frèger, Erwan Frotin, Alice Hawkins, Steve Hiett...
Category

1990s Post-Minimalist Portrait Photography

Materials

Silver Gelatin

Chignon Japonais, Paris
Located in München, BY
Edition of 7 Also available in 73 x 100 cm / 28.7 x 43.3 in, Edition of 3, price on request A beautiful naked woman and sculptor is sitting on a chair and embraces her sculpture. T...
Category

2010s Contemporary Portrait Photography

Materials

Archival Pigment

James Deann At A Car Rally - Oversize Limited Print
Located in London, GB
James Dean At A Car Rally 1955 (colorised) by Frank Worth paper size 40 x 60 inches / 101 x 152 cm edition of 6 only in this size Archival pigment print unframed Note other si...
Category

1950s Modern Portrait Photography

Materials

Archival Pigment

Sun Worship (Aarons Estate Edition)
Located in New York, NY
Bianca Volpato sunning herself at Capri in a lilac coloured bikini. Estate stamped and hand numbered edition of 150 with certificate of authenticity from the estate. Slim Aarons (...
Category

1950s Modern Portrait Photography

Materials

Lambda

New York City, Harlem, African American Children 1960s, Muscle Boy, Limited Ed
Located in New york, NY
Muscle Boy is an iconic image by Leonard Freed who was a pioneer in socially conscious photojournalism. In this photo a boy flexes his muscles for the camera perhaps making a state...
Category

1960s Contemporary Portrait Photography

Materials

Archival Ink, Photographic Film, Archival Paper, Digital, Digital Pigmen...

James Dean (1955) Silver Gelatin Fibre Print
Located in London, GB
James Dean (1955) Silver Gelatin Fibre Print (photo via A.F. Archive/Alamy Archives) 1955 James Dean (1931 - 1955) Additional Information: Unframed Paper Size: 16x20'' Printed...
Category

1950s Modern Portrait Photography

Materials

Black and White, Silver Gelatin

Steve McQueen "The Great Escape"
Located in Austin, TX
Steve McQueen, The King of Cool,was an American actor who, developed at the height of the Vietnam War-era counterculture, made him a top box-office draw of the 1960s and 1970s. In 19...
Category

1960s Contemporary Portrait Photography

Materials

Archival Ink, Archival Paper, Archival Pigment

Tiger Swallowtail (Saffron, Southwest, Warm, Iconic, ~25% OFF)
Located in Kansas City, MO
Shirley Harryman Tiger Swallowtail Archival Pigment Print Year: 2024 Visible Size: 12 x 12 inches Framed: 22.25 x 21.25 x 1.25 inches Signed: On Label COA provided *Black gallery f...
Category

2010s American Modern Portrait Photography

Materials

Archival Pigment

Mick Jagger and Keith Richards Candid with Newspaper
Located in Austin, TX
This candid capture features a young Mick Jagger and Keith Richards of The Rolling Stones, sitting with a newspaper circa 1967. The Rolling Stones were at the forefront of the Briti...
Category

1960s Contemporary Portrait Photography

Materials

Archival Ink, Archival Paper, Archival Pigment

Beaton, Pablo Picasso, Cecil Beaton, Electa Editrice Portfolios (after)
Located in Auburn Hills, MI
Héliogravure on vélin paper. Inscription: unsigned and unnumbered, as issued. Good condition. Notes: From the folio, Cecil Beaton, Electa Editrice Portfolios, 1981. Published and pri...
Category

1980s Modern Portrait Photography

Materials

Lithograph

Marilyn Monroe and Simone Signoret
Located in Austin, TX
Candid capture of star actress Marilyn Monroe with French actress Simone Signoret. Marilyn Monroe was an American actress and model. Known for playing comic "blonde bombshell" chara...
Category

1960s Contemporary Portrait Photography

Materials

Archival Ink, Archival Paper, Archival Pigment

Mick Jagger and Jerry Hall
Located in Austin, TX
American model Jerry Hall with singer Mick Jagger of the Rolling Stones, photographed for Norman Parkinson’s exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery, London, July 1981. NORMAN P...
Category

Late 20th Century Photorealist Portrait Photography

Materials

C Print

Jack Kerouac, Black and White Photograph of Beat Generation Author with Friend
Located in New york, NY
The black and white photograph from the 1950s captures beatnik hipster writer Jack Kerouac in dark glasses, wearing a beret and friend Barbara Ferrara. Beat Couple, 1959 by Burt Gl...
Category

1950s Contemporary Portrait Photography

Materials

Photographic Film, Photographic Paper, Silver Gelatin

Original Black and White Photograph of Johnny Weissmuller
Located in Soquel, CA
Original Black and White Photograph of Johnny Weissmuller Black and white photograph 1932, depicting Olympic swimmer Johnny Weissmuller (Hungary, 1904-1984) by George Hurrell (Ameri...
Category

1920s Photorealist Portrait Photography

Materials

Photographic Paper, Silver Gelatin

Bouteille à la mer, Paris
Located in München, BY
Edition of 7 Also available in 73 x 100 cm / 28.7 x 43.3 in, Edition of 3, price on request A beautiful naked woman with brown hair stands in a classic house in Paris in an erotic p...
Category

2010s Contemporary Portrait Photography

Materials

Archival Pigment

Tall Hat
Located in New York, NY
William Wegman is an American artist renowned for his iconic dog photographs featuring his Weimaraners, who he sees as "perfect fashion models", utilizing their elegant forms and abi...
Category

Early 2000s Contemporary Portrait Photography

Materials

Pigment

Memory Lane (Haley and the Birds) - 29 Palms, CA - based on a Polaroid Original
Located in Morongo Valley, CA
Memory Lane (Haley and the Birds) - 29 Palms, CA - 2013 78x76cm, Edition of 10, plus 2 Artist Proofs. Archival C-Print based on the Polaroid. Certificate and signature label. ...
Category

2010s Contemporary Portrait Photography

Materials

Archival Paper, Photographic Paper, C Print, Color, Polaroid

NASA, Portrait of Tranquility Base, Apollo 11, Large Format Vintage Photography
By Nasa
Located in New york, NY
A color photograph of Buzz Aldrin standing next to a seismograph with the "Eagle" and American flag in the background remains an historical and artistic document from 8 days in space...
Category

1960s Contemporary Portrait Photography

Materials

Photographic Film, Photographic Paper, C Print

Slim Aarons Official Estate Print - Capucine 1957
Located in London, GB
Capucine French actress Capucine fanning herself at a New Years Eve party held at Romanoffs in Beverly Hills. Photo by Slim Aarons. Printed 2022. Silver gelatin print Paper size ...
Category

1950s Modern Portrait Photography

Materials

Black and White, Silver Gelatin

David Bowie The Archer
Located in Austin, TX
This iconic image of David Bowie as The Thin White Duke was taken by renowned Rock photographer, John Rowlands, on February 26th, 1976, at Maple Leaf Gar...
Category

Late 20th Century Photorealist Portrait Photography

Materials

Archival Pigment

MAN RAY (1890-1976), FEMALE NUDE, 1930 Photogravure, FIRST EDITION
Located in Pembroke Pines, FL
Artist: Man Ray (American born, 1890 - 1976) Title: FEMALE NUDE Date Of Negative: 1930 Type Of Print: Authentic Vintage Sheet Fed Photogravure/Heliogravure. Date Of Print: 1934 1st E...
Category

1920s Photorealist Portrait Photography

Materials

Photogravure

My own private Travel Diary - Bishop, CA - Autumn
Located in Morongo Valley, CA
My own private Travel Diary - Bishop, CA - Autumn - 2001, 20x29cm, Edition of 10, plus 2 Artist Proofs. Archival C-Print, based on a Polaroid Slide. Signature label and Certificate. Not mounted. LIFE’S A DREAM (The Personal World of Stefanie Schneider) by Mark Gisbourne Projection is a form of apparition that is characteristic of our human nature, for what we imagine almost invariably transcends the reality of what we live. And, an apparition, as the word suggests, is quite literally ‘an appearing’, for what we appear to imagine is largely shaped by the imagination of its appearance. If this sounds tautological then so be it. But the work of Stefanie Schneider is almost invariably about chance and apparition. And, it is through the means of photography, the most apparitional of image-based media, that her pictorial narratives or photo-novels are generated. Indeed, traditional photography (as distinct from new digital technology) is literally an ‘awaiting’ for an appearance to take place, in line with the imagined image as executed in the camera and later developed in the dark room. The fact that Schneider uses out-of-date Polaroid film stock to take her pictures only intensifies the sense of their apparitional contents when they are realised. The stability comes only at such time when the images are re-shot and developed in the studio, and thereby fixed or arrested temporarily in space and time. The unpredictable and at times unstable film she adopts for her works also creates a sense of chance within the outcome that can be imagined or potentially envisaged by the artist Schneider. But this chance manifestation is a loosely controlled, or, better called existential sense of chance, which becomes pre-disposed by the immediate circumstances of her life and the project she is undertaking at the time. Hence the choices she makes are largely open-ended choices, driven by a personal nature and disposition allowing for a second appearing of things whose eventual outcome remains undefined. And, it is the alliance of the chance-directed material apparition of Polaroid film, in turn explicitly allied to the experiences of her personal life circumstances, that provokes the potential to create Stefanie Schneider’s open-ended narratives. Therefore they are stories based on a degenerate set of conditions that are both material and human, with an inherent pessimism and a feeling for the sense of sublime ridicule being seemingly exposed. This in turn echoes and doubles the meaning of the verb ‘to expose’. To expose being embedded in the technical photographic process, just as much as it is in the narrative contents of Schneider’s photo-novel exposés. The former being the unstable point of departure, and the latter being the uncertain ends or meanings that are generated through the photographs doubled exposure. The large number of speculative theories of apparition, literally read as that which appears, and/or creative visions in filmmaking and photography are self-evident, and need not detain us here. But from the earliest inception of photography artists have been concerned with manipulated and/or chance effects, be they directed towards deceiving the viewer, or the alchemical investigations pursued by someone like Sigmar Polke. None of these are the real concern of the artist-photographer Stefanie Schneider, however, but rather she is more interested with what the chance-directed appearances in her photographs portend. For Schneider’s works are concerned with the opaque and porous contents of human relations and events, the material means are largely the mechanism to achieving and exposing the ‘ridiculous sublime’ that has come increasingly to dominate the contemporary affect(s) of our world. The uncertain conditions of today’s struggles as people attempt to relate to each other - and to themselves - are made manifest throughout her work. And, that she does this against the backdrop of the so-called ‘American Dream’, of a purportedly advanced culture that is Modern America, makes them all the more incisive and critical as acts of photographic exposure. From her earliest works of the late nineties one might be inclined to see her photographs as if they were a concerted attempt at an investigative or analytic serialisation, or, better still, a psychoanalytic dissection of the different and particular genres of American subculture. But this is to miss the point for the series though they have dates and subsequent publications remain in a certain sense unfinished. Schneider’s work has little or nothing to do with reportage as such, but with recording human culture in a state of fragmentation and slippage. And, if a photographer like Diane Arbus dealt specifically with the anomalous and peculiar that made up American suburban life, the work of Schneider touches upon the alienation of the commonplace. That is to say how the banal stereotypes of Western Americana have been emptied out, and claims as to any inherent meaning they formerly possessed has become strangely displaced. Her photographs constantly fathom the familiar, often closely connected to traditional American film genre, and make it completely unfamiliar. Of course Freud would have called this simply the unheimlich or uncanny. But here again Schneider almost never plays the role of the psychologist, or, for that matter, seeks to impart any specific meanings to the photographic contents of her images. The works possess an edited behavioural narrative (she has made choices), but there is never a sense of there being a clearly defined story. Indeed, the uncertainty of my reading here presented, acts as a caveat to the very condition that Schneider’s photographs provoke. Invariably the settings of her pictorial narratives are the South West of the United States, most often the desert and its periphery in Southern California. The desert is a not easily identifiable space, with the suburban boundaries where habitation meets the desert even more so. There are certain sub-themes common to Schneider’s work, not least that of journeying, on the road, a feeling of wandering and itinerancy, or simply aimlessness. Alongside this subsidiary structural characters continually appear, the gas station, the automobile, the motel, the highway, the revolver, logos and signage, the wasteland, the isolated train track and the trailer. If these form a loosely defined structure into which human characters and events are cast, then Schneider always remains the fulcrum and mechanism of their exposure. Sometimes using actresses, friends, her sister, colleagues or lovers, Schneider stands by to watch the chance events as they unfold. And, this is even the case when she is a participant in front of camera of her photo-novels. It is the ability to wait and throw things open to chance and to unpredictable circumstances, that marks the development of her work over the last eight years. It is the means by which random occurrences take on such a telling sense of pregnancy in her work. However, in terms of analogy the closest proximity to Schneider’s photographic work is that of film. For many of her titles derive directly from film, in photographic series like OK Corral (1999), Vegas (1999), Westworld (1999), Memorial Day (2001), Primary Colours (2001), Suburbia (2004), The Last Picture Show (2005), and in other examples. Her works also include particular images that are titled Zabriskie Point, a photograph of her sister in an orange wig. Indeed the tentative title for the present publication Stranger Than Paradise is taken from Jim Jarmusch’s film of the same title in 1984. Yet it would be dangerous to take this comparison too far, since her series 29 Palms (1999) presages the later title of a film that appeared only in 2002. What I am trying to say here is that film forms the nexus of American culture, and it is not so much that Schneider’s photographs make specific references to these films (though in some instances they do), but that in referencing them she accesses the same American culture that is being emptied out and scrutinised by her photo-novels. In short her pictorial narratives might be said to strip films of the stereotypical Hollywood tropes that many of them possess. Indeed, the films that have most inspired her are those that similarly deconstruct the same sentimental and increasingly tawdry ‘American Dream’ peddled by Hollywood. These include films like David Lynch’s Blue Velvet (1986), Wild at Heart (1990) The Lost Highway (1997), John Dahl’s The Last Seduction (1994) or films like Ridley Scott’s Thelma and Louise with all its girl-power Bonny and Clyde-type clichés. But they serve no more than as a backdrop, a type of generic tableau from which Schneider might take human and abstracted elements, for as commercial films they are not the product of mere chance and random occurrence. Notwithstanding this observation, it is also clear that the gender deconstructions that the characters in these films so often portray, namely the active role of women possessed of a free and autonomous sexuality (even victim turned vamp), frequently find resonances within the behavioural events taking place in Schneider’s photographs and DVD sequences; the same sense of sexual autonomy that Stefanie Schneider possesses and is personally committed to. In the series 29 Palms (first begun in 1999) the two women characters Radha and Max act out a scenario that is both infantile and adolescent. Wearing brightly coloured fake wigs of yellow and orange, a parody of the blonde and the redhead, they are seemingly trailer park white trash possessing a sentimental and kitsch taste in clothes totally inappropriate to the locality. The fact that Schneider makes no judgment about this is an interesting adjunct. Indeed, the photographic projection of the images is such that the girls incline themselves to believe that they are both beautiful and desirous. However, unlike the predatory role of women in say Richard Prince’s photographs, which are simply a projection of a male fantasy onto women, Radha and Max are self-contained in their vacuous if empty trailer and motel world of the swimming pool, nail polish, and childish water pistols. Within the photographic sequence Schneider includes herself, and acts as a punctum of disruption. Why is she standing in front of an Officers’ Wives Club? Why is Schneider not similarly attired? Is there a proximity to an army camp, are these would-be Lolita(s) Rahda and Max wives or American marine groupies, and where is the centre and focus of their identity? It is the ambiguity of personal involvement that is set up by Schneider which deliberately makes problematic any clear sense of narrative construction. The strangely virulent colours of the bleached-out girls stand in marked contrast to Schneider’s own anodyne sense of self-image. Is she identifying with the contents or directing the scenario? With this series, perhaps, more than any other, Schneider creates a feeling of a world that has some degree of symbolic order. For example the girls stand or squat by a dirt road, posing the question as to their sexual and personal status. Following the 29 Palms series, Schneider will trust herself increasingly by diminishing the sense of a staged environment. The events to come will tell you both everything and nothing, reveal and obfuscate, point towards and simultaneously away from any clearly definable meaning. If for example we compare 29 Palms to say Hitchhiker (2005), and where the sexual contents are made overtly explicit, we do not find the same sense of simulated identity. It is the itinerant coming together of two characters Daisy and Austen, who meet on the road and subsequently share a trailer together. Presented in a sequential DVD and still format, we become party to a would-be relationship of sorts. No information is given as to the background or social origins, or even any reasons as to why these two women should be attracted to each other. Is it acted out? Are they real life experiences? They are women who are sexually free in expressing themselves. But while the initial engagement with the subject is orchestrated by Schneider, and the edited outcome determined by the artist, beyond that we have little information with which to construct a story. The events are commonplace, edgy and uncertain, but the viewer is left to decide as to what they might mean as a narrative. The disaggregated emotions of the work are made evident, the game or role playing, the transitory fantasies palpable, and yet at the same time everything is insubstantial and might fall apart at any moment. The characters relate but they do not present a relationship in any meaningful sense. Or, if they do, it is one driven the coincidental juxtaposition of random emotions. Should there be an intended syntax it is one that has been stripped of the power to grammatically structure what is being experienced. And, this seems to be the central point of the work, the emptying out not only of a particular American way of life, but the suggestion that the grounds upon which it was once predicated are no longer possible. The photo-novel Hitchhiker is porous and the culture of the seventies which it might be said to homage is no longer sustainable. Not without coincidence, perhaps, the decade that was the last ubiquitous age of Polaroid film. In the numerous photographic series, some twenty or so, that occur between 29 Palms and Hitchhiker, Schneider has immersed herself and scrutinised many aspects of suburban, peripheral, and scrubland America. Her characters, including herself, are never at the centre of cultural affairs. Such eccentricities as they might possess are all derived from what could be called their adjacent status to the dominant culture of America. In fact her works are often sated with references to the sentimental sub-strata that underpin so much of American daily life. It is the same whether it is flower gardens and household accoutrements of her photo-series Suburbia (2004), or the transitional and environmental conditions depicted in The Last Picture Show (2005). The artist’s use of sentimental song titles, often adapted to accompany individual images within a series by Schneider, show her awareness of America’s close relationship between popular film and music. For example the song ‘Leaving on a Jet Plane’, becomes Leaving in a Jet Plane as part of The Last Picture Show series, while the literalism of the plane in the sky is shown in one element of this diptych, but juxtaposed to a blonde-wigged figure first seen in 29 Palms. This indicates that every potential narrative element is open to continual reallocation in what amounts to a story without end. And, the interchangeable nature of the images, like a dream, is the state of both a pictorial and affective flux that is the underlying theme pervading Schneider’s photo-narratives. For dream is a site of yearning or longing, either to be with or without, a human pursuit of a restless but uncertain alternative to our daily reality. The scenarios that Schneider sets up nonetheless have to be initiated by the artist. And, this might be best understood by looking at her three recent DVD sequenced photo-novels, Reneé’s Dream and Sidewinder (2005). We have already considered the other called Hitchhiker. In the case of Sidewinder the scenario was created by internet where she met J.D. Rudometkin, an ex-theologian, who agreed to her idea to live with her for five weeks in the scrubland dessert environment of Southern California. The dynamics and unfolding of their relationship, both sexually and emotionally, became the primary subject matter of this series of photographs. The relative isolation and their close proximity, the interactive tensions, conflicts and submissions, are thus recorded to reveal the day-to-day evolution of their relationship. That a time limit was set on this relation-based experiment was not the least important aspect of the project. The text and music accompanying the DVD were written by the American Rudometkin, who speaks poetically of “Torn Stevie. Scars from the weapon to her toes an accidental act of God her father said. On Vaness at California.” The mix of hip reverie and fantasy-based language of his text, echoes the chaotic unfolding of their daily life in this period, and is evident in the almost sun-bleached Polaroid images like Whisky Dance, where the two abandon themselves to the frenetic circumstances of the moment. Thus Sidewinder, a euphemism for both a missile and a rattlesnake, hints at the libidinal and emotional dangers that were risked by Schneider and Rudometkin. Perhaps, more than any other of her photo-novels it was the most spontaneous and immediate, since Schneider’s direct participation mitigated against and narrowed down the space between her life and the art work. The explicit and open character of their relationship at this time (though they have remained friends), opens up the question as the biographical role Schneider plays in all her work. She both makes and directs the work while simultaneously dwelling within the artistic processes as they unfold. Hence she is both author and character, conceiving the frame within which things will take place, and yet subject to the same unpredictable outcomes that emerge in the process. In Reneé’s Dream, issues of role reversal take place as the cowgirl on her horse undermines the male stereotype of Richard Prince’s ‘Marlboro Country’. This photo-work along with several others by Schneider, continue to undermine the focus of the male gaze, for her women are increasingly autonomous and subversive. They challenge the male role of sexual predator, often taking the lead and undermining masculine role play, trading on male fears that their desires can be so easily attained. That she does this by working through archetypal male conventions of American culture, is not the least of the accomplishments in her work. What we are confronted with frequently is of an idyll turned sour, the filmic clichés that Hollywood and American television dramas have promoted for fifty years. The citing of this in the Romantic West, where so many of the male clichés were generated, only adds to the diminishing sense of substance once attributed to these iconic American fabrications. And, that she is able to do this through photographic images rather than film, undercuts the dominance espoused by time-based film. Film feigns to be seamless though we know it is not. Film operates with a story board and setting in which scenes are elaborately arranged and pre-planned. Schneider has thus been able to generate a genre of fragmentary events, the assemblage of a story without a storyboard. But these post-narratological stories require another component, and that component is the viewer who must bring their own interpretation as to what is taking place. If this can be considered the upside of her work, the downside is that she never positions herself by giving a personal opinion as to the events that are taking place in her photographs. But, perhaps, this is nothing more than her use of the operation of chance dictates. I began this essay by speaking about the apparitional contents of Stefanie Schneider’s pictorial narratives, and meant at that time the literal and chance-directed ‘appearing’ qualities of her photographs. Perhaps, at this moment we should also think of the metaphoric contents of the word apparition. There is certainly a spectre-like quality also, a ghostly uncertainty about many of the human experiences found in her subject matter. Is it that the subculture of the American Dream, or the way of life Schneider has chosen to record, has in turn become also the phantom of it former self? Are these empty and fragmented scenarios a mirror of what has become of contemporary America? There is certainly some affection for their contents on the part of the artist, but it is somehow tainted with pessimism and the impossibility of sustainable human relations, with the dissolute and commercial distractions of America today. Whether this is the way it is, or, at least, the way it is perceived by Schneider is hard to assess. There is a bleak lassitude about so many of her characters. But then again the artist has so inured herself into this context over a long protracted period that the boundaries between the events and happenings photographed, and the personal life of Stefanie Schneider, have become similarly opaque. Is it the diagnosis of a condition, or just a recording of a phenomenon? Only the viewer can decide this question. For the status of Schneider’s certain sense of uncertainty is, perhaps, the only truth we may ever know.

1 Kerry Brougher (ed.), Art and Film Since 1945: Hall of Mirrors, ex. cat., The Museum of Contemporary Art (New York, 1996) 2 Im Reich der Phantome: Fotographie des Unsichtbaren, ex. cat., Städtisches Museum Abteiberg Mönchengladbach/Kunsthalle Krems/FotomuseumWinterthur, (Ostfildern-Ruit, 1997) 3 Photoworks: When Pictures Vanish – Sigmar Polke, Museum of Contemporary Art (Zürich-Berlin-New York, 1995) 4 Slavoj Žižek, The Art of the Ridiculous Sublime: On David Lynch’s Lost Highway, Walter Chapin Simpson Center for the Humanities, University of Washington, Seattle, Occasional Papers, no. 1, 2000. 5 Diane Arbus, eds. Doon Arbus, and Marvin Israel...
Category

1990s Contemporary Portrait Photography

Materials

Archival Paper, Photographic Paper, C Print, Color, Polaroid

Reflection (Suburbia) - Contemporary, Polaroid, Photography
Located in Morongo Valley, CA
Reflection (Suburbia) - 2004 20x20cm, Edition of 10, Archival C-Print based on a Polaroid, Not mounted, Certificate and signature label. Artist Inventory No. 2765. This project...
Category

Early 2000s Contemporary Portrait Photography

Materials

Archival Paper, Photographic Paper, C Print, Color, Polaroid

Radha Shooting II (Long Way Home) - Polaroid, Pop-art, Contemporary, analog
Located in Morongo Valley, CA
Radha Shooting II (Long Way Home) - 1999 published in 'Stranger than Paradise' 128x126cm Sold out edition of 5, Artist proof 2/2, Analog C-Print, hand-printed by the artist, based...
Category

Early 2000s Contemporary Portrait Photography

Materials

Metal

Japan, Girls Playing on Konkonchiki Game, original photograph
Located in Middletown, NY
Hand-tinted albumen print, 7 7/8 x 10 1/4 inches (200 x 260 mm), numbered B 1085 and captioned in negative at lower right. Tiny in-negative defects creating white spots. Unmounted;...
Category

Late 19th Century Realist Portrait Photography

Materials

Watercolor, Photographic Paper

Blue Boy
Located in New York, NY
Digital C-print Signed, dated, and numbered, verso 15 x 15 inches, image (Edition of 25) 22 x 22 inches, image (Edition of 15) 31 x 31 inches, image (Edition of 15) This artwork is offered by ClampArt, located in New York City. A stylistic precursor of such artists as Pierre et Gilles and David LaChapelle, James Bidgood revolutionized gay male...
Category

1960s Other Art Style Portrait Photography

Materials

C Print

Beaton, Buster Keaton, Cecil Beaton, Electa Editrice Portfolios (after)
Located in Auburn Hills, MI
Héliogravure on vélin paper. Inscription: unsigned and unnumbered, as issued. Good condition. Notes: From the folio, Cecil Beaton, Electa Editrice Portfolios, 1981. Published and pri...
Category

1980s Modern Portrait Photography

Materials

Lithograph

Slash
Located in München, BY
Edition 15, Lenticular This image shows the guitarist Slash of the famous Rock band Guns 'n Roses. A man with x-ray vision, NICK VEASEY creates art that shows what it is really lik...
Category

2010s Contemporary Portrait Photography

Materials

Lenticular

"Cornette Nude & Hand (Couleur)" by Cécile Plaisance, 27 x 22 in, 2023
Located in Paris, France
Drawing her inspiration from the grand masters of photography – Avedon, Lindbergh, Newton or Toscani, amongst others – Cécile Plaisance uses lenticular printing to allow the viewer t...
Category

2010s Contemporary Portrait Photography

Materials

Lenticular

Martin Luther King Motorcade
Located in New York, NY
Ted Williams Martin Luther King Motorcade, 1964 Silver gelatin print 16 x 20 inches Estate stamped and numbered edition with certificate of authenticity Dr. Martin Luther King waves to the crowds as he drives in a motorcade on the way to make a speech at the ‘Illinois Rally for Civil Rights’ at Soldier Field in Chicago, IL, US, June 21, 1964. Ted Williams (1925-2009) first heard jazz on the radio as a youngster in the 1930s in Wichita, Kansas. The sounds of Earl Hines, Duke Ellington and Cab...
Category

1960s Modern Portrait Photography

Materials

Silver Gelatin

Sunbathing in Capri, 1974 - Limited Edition Estate Stamped Digital C-Type Print
Located in Brighton, GB
Please note that as of 1st March 2025, the Slim Aarons Estate Stamped Collection aligned its pricing across the entire collection. Please bear in mind that all prints are produced t...
Category

20th Century American Modern Portrait Photography

Materials

Photographic Paper, Color, C Print, Digital

Renée's Dream - The Boys (Days of Heaven) - Landscape, Horse, Boys
Located in Morongo Valley, CA
Renée's Dream - The Boys (Days of Heaven). Part of the 29 Palms, CA project. - 2006 40x50cm, Edition of 10, plus 2 Artist Proofs, archival C-Print, based on the Polaroid. Signatur...
Category

21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Portrait Photography

Materials

Archival Paper, Photographic Paper, C Print, Color, Polaroid

Portrait
Located in Wilton Manors, FL
Portrait, ca. 1975. Period print measuring 8.75 x 11.25 inches. Unframed. Studio stamp on verso. Mounting and framing services available. 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 Portrait Photography

Materials

Photographic Paper

Caine Punching, 1967 - Monochrome Print, Getty Archive Portrait of Michael Caine
Located in Brighton, GB
Taken from the world’s largest photographic archive, (Hulton Archive and Getty Images), the Getty Images Gallery collection features an extraordinary time capsule of the last century...
Category

20th Century Modern Portrait Photography

Materials

Black and White, Photographic Paper

Coming To An End
Located in Philadelphia, PA
This piece is an original artwork by Jason Chen titled "Coming To An End". It is made of archival pigment prints from the artist's photography that he then cuts into strips and weaves together by hand. The piece measures 28”h x 38”w and ships framed in the pictured 31”h x 41”w frame. In 2012, Jason Chen shifted his long-running focus on dry plate tintypes to a new process: photo weaving. Chen began using two separate images of the same person, then wove them together in a process exploring time, movement, process, and mutation. He has exhibited works in the series one by one over the years, but in Fragments, his 2015 solo exhibition at Paradigm Gallery, a full collection of these works were on display together for the first time. Bio // Jason Chen is originally from Guangzhou, China. He received his BFA in Animation from the University of Arts in 2008. Jason is a Philadelphia-based photographer specializing in Fashion, Editorial, and Alternative Process Photography...
Category

21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Portrait Photography

Materials

Photographic Paper

I see you (50x50cm) - 21st Century, Women, Nude, Contemporary
Located in Morongo Valley, CA
I see you, 2016, Edition 1/7 plus 2 Artist Proofs Based on the Polaroid Digital C-print, not mounted. Signed on the back and with certificate. Artist inventory PL2017-114 This p...
Category

2010s Contemporary Portrait Photography

Materials

Archival Paper, Photographic Paper, C Print, Color, Polaroid

Sammy Davis Jr. Smoking
Located in Austin, TX
Incredible 1960 close up of The Rat Pack's Sammy Davis Jr. side portrait smoking a cigarette. One of the best images we have released in years. One of Sammy Davis, Jr.s enduring leg...
Category

1960s Contemporary Portrait Photography

Materials

Archival Ink, Archival Paper, Archival Pigment

"Cornette Couleur" by Cécile Plaisance, 27 x 22 in, 2024
Located in Paris, France
Drawing her inspiration from the grand masters of photography – Avedon, Lindbergh, Newton, or Toscani, amongst others – Cécile Plaisance uses lenticular printing to allow the viewer ...
Category

2010s Feminist Portrait Photography

Materials

Lenticular

David Bowie 1973 by Lynn Goldsmith
Located in Austin, TX
Fine art print of David Bowie by acclaimed photographer. Lynn Goldsmith. Taken in 1973 during the Spiders from Mars tour, and now available for the first time in black and white. Ly...
Category

Late 20th Century Photorealist Portrait Photography

Materials

C Print

14 November, III
Located in New York, NY
Archival pigment print Signed and numbered on label, verso 12 x 18 inches (Edition of 10) 24 x 35.5 inches (Edition of 8) From the series, "Him" This artwork is offered by ClampAr...
Category

2010s Contemporary Portrait Photography

Materials

Archival Pigment

Where Are We Heading? (Olivia Wilde)
Located in Morongo Valley, CA
Tao Ruspoli (born November 7, 1975) is an Italian-American filmmaker, photographer, and musician. Background Tao is the second son of Prince Alessandro Ruspoli, 9th Prince of Cervet...
Category

2010s Contemporary Portrait Photography

Materials

Archival Ink, Archival Paper, Color, Archival Pigment

Radha Pink - 130x130cm LAST EDITION - Contemporary, 20th Century, Polaroid
Located in Morongo Valley, CA
'Radha Pink' (29 Palms, CA) - 1999 130x128cm, sold out Edition of 5, Artist Proof 2/2 (last), analog C-Print, hand-printed by the artist on Fuji Crystal Archive Paper, based on a...
Category

1990s Contemporary Portrait Photography

Materials

Archival Paper, Photographic Paper, C Print, Color, Polaroid

New York Picnic (1959) Limited Estate Stamped
Located in London, GB
New York Picnic (1959) Limited Estate Stamped (Photo By Slim Aarons) A chauffeur unpacks a picnic hamper from a Rolls Royce, against the New York skyline. 1952 Additional Info...
Category

1950s Modern Portrait Photography

Materials

Color, C Print

Long Way Home, triptych
Located in Morongo Valley, CA
Long Way Home (Stranger than Paradise) - 1999 3 x 38x36cm, Edition of 30, Archival C-Prints, based on the 3 Polaroids Certificate and Signature label artist Inventory Nr. 250.51 ...
Category

1990s Contemporary Portrait Photography

Materials

C Print, Color, Polaroid

New York Python, Coney Island, Brooklyn, Year of the Snake Photograph
Located in New york, NY
New York Python, Coney Island, 1991 by Roberta Fineberg is a 14” x 11” gelatin silver print - offered in 2025 to celebrate the Year of the Snake…. In the words of the artist: "I sho...
Category

1990s Contemporary Portrait Photography

Materials

Photographic Film, Photographic Paper, Silver Gelatin

Slim Aarons, Annette Glatzel in Ibiza (Estate Edition)
Located in New York, NY
Abaco Holiday, 1986 Chromogenic Lambda Print Estate edition of 150 College student Jan Woods relaxes in a hammock at the Abaco Inn on Elbow Cay, one of ...
Category

1960s Modern Portrait Photography

Materials

Lambda

Carlton Hotel, 1958 - Limited Edition Estate Stamped Digital C-Type Photograph
Located in Brighton, GB
Please note that as of 1st March 2025, the Slim Aarons Estate Stamped Collection aligned its pricing across the entire collection. Please bear in mind that all prints are produced t...
Category

20th Century American Modern Portrait Photography

Materials

Photographic Paper, Color, C Print, Digital

Rapture (29 Palms, CA) - Polaroid, Contemporary, Color
Located in Morongo Valley, CA
Rapture (29 Palms, CA) - 2022 48x46cm, Edition of 10, plus 2 Artist Proofs. Archival Print, based on the Polaroid. Artist inventory Number 218829. Signature label and Certificate...
Category

1990s Contemporary Portrait Photography

Materials

Photographic Paper, C Print, Color, Polaroid, Archival Paper

"The Glimmer Twins - Mick Jagger" Photography 20x15 in by Charlie Auringer
Located in Culver City, CA
"The Glimmer Twins - Mick Jagger" Photography 20x15 in by Charlie Auringer Year: 1978 Edition of 50 Medium: Silver gelatin limited edition photographic print on paper Signed and num...
Category

20th Century Contemporary Portrait Photography

Materials

Silver Gelatin

Elizabeth Taylor On The Set Of Giant - Oversize Limited Print
Located in London, GB
Elizabeth Taylor with Sunglasses for "Giant" 1955 by Frank Worth This iconic and elegant portrait captured by celebrity photographer Frank Worth features actress Elizabeth Taylor o...
Category

1950s Modern Portrait Photography

Materials

Archival Pigment

Marilyn Monroe . New baby on the bed . The last sitting
Located in Saint Ouen, FR
Marilyn Monroe by Bert Stern (1964) new baby on the bed circa 2009 hand double signed and dated by Bert Stern COA hand signed by bert stern edition of 72 perfect condition
Category

1980s Photorealist Portrait Photography

Materials

Photographic Paper

Kennedys, Hyannis Port, Jackie, Magazine Cover, 1959
Located in New York, NY
Kennedy, nb_100 -- Published on the cover of the Ladies Home Journal in 1961, this photo was actually taken in Hyannis Port in 1959 before JFK became president. THE 24” x 36” SIZE OF...
Category

1950s Modern Portrait Photography

Materials

Giclée

New York, Brooklyn, African American Lifestyle 1960s, Fashion Show
Located in New york, NY
Fashion Show, Brooklyn, New York, USA 1963 by Leonard Freed is a 19" x 13" signed and numbered archival pigment print in an edition of 10. Signed by the estate, Freed's widow Brigitte Freed, on back of photograph. Available: 3/10. Provenance: Freed Estate *** Artist’s Bio: Leonard Freed (1929-2006) was an American photographer from Brooklyn, New York. His "Black in White America" series made him known as a documentarian, a social documentary photographer. Freed worked as a freelance photographer from 1961 onwards and as a Magnum photographer Freed traveled widely abroad and, in the US, photographing African Americans (1964-65), events in Israel (1967-68, 1973), and the New York City police department...
Category

1960s Contemporary Portrait Photography

Materials

Archival Pigment

Portrait Photography for Sale on 1stDibs

Portrait photography can be a powerful part of your wall decor. Find a provocative and compelling portrait that speaks to you and you might find that the photograph will speak to your guests too.

Prior to the development of photography, which eventually replaced portrait paintings as a quicker and more efficient way of capturing a person’s essence, the subject of a portrait had to sit for hours until the painter had finished. In 1839, chemist and Philadelphia-based photographer Robert Cornelius didn’t have to wait very long for his portrait. In a matter of minutes, he captured what many believe to be the first portrait photograph. This shot was also the first self-portrait (or what we now call a “selfie”), and fine photography quickly became an art form.

Landscape photography, nude photography and portrait photography are very popular in today's modern interiors. A portrait can reveal a lot about the person in it. It can also add a narrative touch to your decor. You’ll often find that photographs of loved ones work well as decorative touches. A portrait of a family member or dear friend can help turn a house into a home, warming any space by evoking fond memories.

While family portraits can stir emotion, portraits of celebrities and important historical figures can also add a rich dynamic to your space. Portraits of famous musicians or intriguing actors hung in your dining room or home bar shot by Gered Mankowitz or Annie Leibovitz might inspire deep conversation over meals or drinks. Douglas Kirkland is also famous for his celebrity portraits. His photojournalism made him much sought after by Hollywood studios to document the filming of movies. In Kirkland’s powerful depiction of Hollywood stars, he excellently captures the glamour of their lives.

Other artists like Elliott Erwitt stand out by turning portraiture into a playful art form. Before graduating from high school in Hollywood, Erwitt had already begun to teach himself to take pictures, inspired by the work of Henri Cartier-Bresson. In image after image, Erwitt captured what photographers call “the moment” with rapier wit and penetrating humanity.

Portrait photography can be incredibly expressive, setting the tone and mood for a room. And there are different ways of incorporating portrait photography into your interior decor. If you’re thinking about adding color photography to a bedroom or living room, the colors of the portraits can become part of the room’s palette, while portraits shot in black and white won’t disrupt an existing color scheme.

On 1stDibs, find a vast selection of portrait photography from different eras, including 1950s portraits, 1960s portrait photography and more.

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