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Portrait Photography For Sale
Period: Late 20th Century
Period: 1940s
Period: Early 1900s
Zandra Rhodes
Located in New York, NY
Lucille Khornak (American) “Zandra Rhodes” Black & White Screen Print on Harmon Paper 16 x 20 inches Late 20th Century Edition of 50 Hand-Signed by the Artist Additional Sizes: 11...
Category

1980s Modern Portrait Photography

Materials

Photographic Film

Theo Schubert with Wife - Vintage Photograph - 1984
Located in Roma, IT
Theo Schubert with wife- Vintage Photo is a black-and-white photograph, realized in 1984. Good condition.
Category

1980s Contemporary Portrait Photography

Materials

Photographic Paper

John Kelly (I'm Lost to the World)
Located in New York, NY
This unique hand-painted photograph by Mark Beard is offered by CLAMP in New York City.
Category

1990s Contemporary Portrait Photography

Materials

Paint, Silver Gelatin

David Bowie With The Spiders - Limited Edition Mick Rock Estate Print
Located in London, GB
David Bowie With The Spiders - Limited Edition Mick Rock Estate Print David Bowie with the Spiders, 1973 (photo Mick Rock). All prints are numbered by the Estate. Edition size var...
Category

1970s Modern Portrait Photography

Materials

Archival Pigment

The Desperation of a Mother - Vintage Photograph - 1970s
Located in Roma, IT
The desperation of a mother is  a black and white vintage photo, realized  in 1970s.. The four photograms depict a dramatic moment of a Cuban mother, Mrs Sabrina Gomez, for the murd...
Category

1970s Modern Portrait Photography

Materials

Photographic Paper

Norman Parkinson 'Iman at King Peter's Bay in Tobago for Vogue, 1976'
Located in New York, NY
Somali-American fashion model and actress Iman at King Peter’s Bay, Tobago wearing a Krizia jumpsuit. British Vogue magazine, May 1976. Iman in Krizia jum...
Category

1970s Modern Portrait Photography

Materials

C Print

Tori Amos Vintage Print 12"x16" by Jake Chessum
Located in Austin, TX
Original hand-printed vintage 12x16” darkroom print from photographer Jake Chessum of Tori Amos. Printed by Jake in the 90's, at the time of the photo shoot. Jake recalls the sessio...
Category

1990s Photorealist Portrait Photography

Materials

Silver Gelatin

Jimi Hendrix "Blue Smoke", London, February, 1967 by Gered Mankowitz
Located in Austin, TX
Jimi Hendrix, London 1967 by Gered Mankowitz A portrait of Jimi looking serious while holding a cigarette in an embroidered jacket. "Shot during my first session with Jimi at my Stu...
Category

Late 20th Century Photorealist Portrait Photography

Materials

C Print

Hillview Motel (Stranger than Paradise) - analog, Polaroid
Located in Morongo Valley, CA
Hillview Motel (Stranger than Paradise) - triptych, 2003 Edition of 10, plus 2 Artist Proofs. 20x66cm installed, 20x20cm each. 3 archival C-Prints, based on the 3 original Polar...
Category

1990s Contemporary Portrait Photography

Materials

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

The GTO's 1968 Groupies, signed limited edition silver gelatin print
Located in Austin, TX
The GTO's by Baron Wolman, taken in San Francisco in 1968 as part of Baron's Groupies series, taken for Rolling Stone magazine. Limited edition number 6/150, signed and noted by Baron Wolman 11x14” hand printed silver gelatin print. The GTOs (Girls Together Outrageously) were an all-girl group from the Los Angeles area, specifically the Sunset Strip scene. Featuring Miss Pamela...
Category

Late 20th Century Photorealist Portrait Photography

Materials

Silver Gelatin

Zippy the Chimp at Bar Mitzvah
Located in New York, NY
Chromogenic print Signed, titled, dated, and inscribed in black ink, verso This photograph is offered by ClampArt, located in New York City. Jeff Mermelstein is an American photojournalist and street photographer known for his photographs of New York City street life, as well as September 11th...
Category

1980s Other Art Style Portrait Photography

Materials

C Print

Tom Waits, Mantello, 1992
Located in Austin, TX
Signed limited edition print of Tom Waits, taken in Paris 1992 by Guido Harari 16x20" giclee print Guido Harari has photographed many music legends in his prolific career in Italy. Lou Reed said about him: "I'm always happy when Guido takes my picture because I know it will be a musical picture...
Category

Late 20th Century Photorealist Portrait Photography

Materials

Giclée

Jackie Kennedy
Located in Cologne, DE
Jacqueline Lee "Jackie" Kennedy Onassis (July 28, 1929 – May 19, 1994) was an American socialite, writer, and photographer who became First Lady of the United States as the wife of P...
Category

1970s Modern Portrait Photography

Materials

Black and White, Silver Gelatin

Norman Parkinson 'Jerry Hall in Jamaica, 1975'
Located in New York, NY
Jerry Hall at Montego Bay, Jamaica wearing Juvena makeup with fashion by Walter Albini and Saint Laurent Rive Gauche, 1975 Jerry Hall in Jamaica, 1975 C print Estate stamped and num...
Category

1970s Modern Portrait Photography

Materials

C Print

The Beatles on the set of HELP! by Robert Whitaker
Located in Austin, TX
The Beatles having fun at Cliveden House whilst taking a break from filming the 1965 comedy, Help! Taken by Robert Whitaker. All limited edition print...
Category

Late 20th Century Photorealist Portrait Photography

Materials

C Print

The English Actress Claire Bloom - Photography - Early 1970s
Located in Roma, IT
Vintage Photo. The English Actress Claire Bloom in an elegant pose.
Category

1970s Contemporary Portrait Photography

Materials

Photographic Paper

Pat Cleveland
Located in New York, NY
Listing includes framing with UV plexi, free shipping to the continental US and a 14-day return policy. Nine 4.5 x 3.25 inch unique vintage Kodak print of Pat Cleveland...
Category

1970s Portrait Photography

Materials

Photographic Paper, Polaroid

Monica Bellucci, N°2, South of France
Located in München, BY
Edition of 10 Portrait of the young Monica Bellucci. Fashion and fine art embrace each other in the photography of Jacques Olivar (b. 1941), where th...
Category

1990s Contemporary Portrait Photography

Materials

Archival Pigment

Max by the Pool - 29 Palms, California, Polaroid
Located in Morongo Valley, CA
Max by the Pool (29 Palms, CA) - 1999, 20x20cm, Edition of 10, archival C-Print based on a Polaroid. Signature label and Certificate. Artist inventory number: 614. Not mounted. Schneider harnesses the unpredictable chemical mutations of expired Polaroid film, where bursts of color erupt across the surface, destabilizing the photograph's traditional allegiance to reality. These vivid distortions draw her characters into ethereal, trance-like dreamscapes. Like fleeting sequences from a vintage road movie, Schneider’s images shimmer with a transitory quality, dissolving before any definitive conclusions can be drawn. Their ephemeral essence is conveyed through subtle gestures and enigmatic motives. Refusing to yield to the constraints of reality, Schneider’s work keeps alive a delicate interplay of dream, desire, fact, and fiction, blurring the boundaries between them with poetic ambiguity. Stefanie Schneider’s work echoes the heart of American art, channeling the cinematic nostalgia of Ed Ruscha’s roadscapes, the stark sensuality of Georgia O’Keeffe’s deserts, and the haunting solitude of Edward Hopper...
Category

1990s Contemporary Portrait Photography

Materials

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

Jimmy Page of Led Zeppelin 1970 signed limited edition
Located in London, GB
Led Zeppelin photographer Jorgen Angel Artist(s): Jimmy Page of Led Zeppelin Location: Copenhagen Date: 28th February 1970 Era: The 1970's printed this year Edition: hand signed Li...
Category

1970s Modern Portrait Photography

Materials

Archival Pigment

Frank Zappa by Lynn Goldsmith
Located in Austin, TX
Signed limited edition print of Frank Zappa taken in 1978 by Lynn Goldsmith Signed limited edition #2/20 - signed, numbered and titled by Lynn Goldsmith
Category

Late 20th Century Photorealist Portrait Photography

Materials

Archival Pigment

Radha and Max on Dirt Road (29 Palms, CA) - analog, Polaroid, Contemporary
Located in Morongo Valley, CA
Radha and Max on Dirt Road (29 Palms, CA) - 1999 Edition 8/10. 60x67cm including white frame. Analog C-Print, based on the Polaroid. Signature label and Certificate. Artist inv...
Category

1990s Contemporary Portrait Photography

Materials

Metal

Long Way Home III - analog, 128x125cm, not mounted, Polaroid, Contemporary
Located in Morongo Valley, CA
Long Way Home (Stranger than Paradise) - 1999 128x125cm, Edition of 10, analog C-Print based on the Polaroid, hand-printed by the artist on Fuji Crystal Archive Paper, Not mount...
Category

1990s Contemporary Portrait Photography

Materials

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

Seaside Baptists (California Badlands) - analog, mounted, polaroid, contemporary
Located in Morongo Valley, CA
Seaside Baptists (California Badlands) - 2010 44 x 59cm, Edition 2/5. Analog C-Print, hand-printed by the artist. based on the Polaroid. Certificate and Signature label. Artist...
Category

1990s Outsider Art Portrait Photography

Materials

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

Dolly Parton in a Cadillac by Jim Herrington
Located in Austin, TX
Dolly Parton in Joelton, Tennessee, 1997. 17x22" Archival pigment print on baryta 315 gsm, acid-free, 100% cotton-fiber paper. Edition 75 Signed on recto by photographer Jim Herrin...
Category

Late 20th Century Photorealist Portrait Photography

Materials

Archival Pigment

Day Worker (American Depression) - Original Polaroid Unique Piece
Located in Morongo Valley, CA
Day Worker (American Depression) - 1999 Original Polaroid - Unique Piece 1/1. 10.7 x 8.7 cm. Artist inventory 20662.00. Signed on back. Stefanie Schneider’s work is a meditatio...
Category

1990s Contemporary Portrait Photography

Materials

Polaroid

Flower (29 Palms, CA) - Polaroid, 21st Century, Contemporary, Color
Located in Morongo Valley, CA
Flower (29 Palms, CA) - 1999 Archival C-Print, based on the Polaroid, Certificate and Signature label artist Inventory No. 197639, Not mounted. Stefanie Schneider’s work is a med...
Category

1990s Contemporary Portrait Photography

Materials

Archival Paper, C Print, Color, Polaroid

Iman Contact sheet, 21st Century, Contemporary, Celebrity, Photography
Located in München, BY
Edition 10 Also available in 40 x 50 cm / 16 x 20 inch, Edition 25 Black and white portrait of Supermodel Iman, wife of David Bowie. From personality portraits and advertising cam...
Category

1980s Contemporary Portrait Photography

Materials

Archival Pigment

The Clash by Janet Macoska, framed 20x24" signed limited edition print
Located in Austin, TX
Signed limited edition print of Bassist Paul Simonon and lead singer Joe Strummer of British punk rock band The Clash backstage at the Agora Theatre in Cleveland, Ohio on February 13, 1979, by Janet Macoska Framed, signed limited edition number 2/25 Frame measures 32" x 25" x 1" Recently framed with an 8ply mat, in new, perfect condition Since 1974, Janet Macoska has been capturing rock’s greatest on film. Among the publications who have used her photos are Rolling Stone, People, Vogue, American Photo, Creem, MOJO, NY Times and London Times. VH1, Bravo, A&E and the BBC regularly use Macoska’s vast archive in their “rockumentaries.” Her work is in the permanent collection of The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, The Smithsonian Museum of American History, The National Portrait Gallery in London and in Hard Rock Cafe restaurants, hotels and casinos all around the planet. David Bowie, Led Zeppelin, The Clash, DEVO, Heart, Hall and Oates...
Category

Late 20th Century Photorealist Portrait Photography

Materials

C Print

Paris, Jazz Music, Dee Dee Bridgewater and Daughter China Moses, 1980s
Located in New york, NY
In 1986 African-American musician Dee Dee Bridgewater left the United States and moved to Paris, France where she lived for the next fifteen years with her family, two daughters and ...
Category

1980s Contemporary Portrait Photography

Materials

Photographic Film, Archival Ink, Archival Paper, Rag Paper, Digital, Arc...

Iggy Pop at the Whisky 1970 by Ed Caraeff
Located in Austin, TX
Signed limited edition. print by Ed Caraeff of Iggy Pop taken during a Stooges show at Whisky a Go Go, Los Angeles, CA, US, May 1970 by celebrated photographer, Ed Caraeff Signed limited edition print number 2/50 This stunning print is also available in the following sizes with a limited edition of 50. 20" x 24" 30" x 40" 40" x 60" Ed Caraeff is a photographer and art director. He has worked with, photographed, designed or art directed hundreds of album covers. His photography archive includes Jimi Hendrix, Jim Morrison, Iggy Pop and The Stooges, Elton John, Carly Simon,Linda Ronstadt, Dolly Parton, Tom Waits, Tim Buckley, Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers, Neil Diamond...
Category

Late 20th Century Photorealist Portrait Photography

Materials

Archival Pigment

Bette Midler, Concord Pavilion
Located in New York, NY
Tamara F Bette Midler, Concord Pavilion late 1970s/early 1980s Signed, titled, dated, and numbered in pencil, verso Digital C-print 14 x 11 inches (Ed...
Category

1970s Contemporary Portrait Photography

Materials

C Print

Dolly Parton
Located in Austin, TX
Dolly Parton taken in 1999 by acclaimed photographer, Timothy White Signed limited edition, 11x14" image in 16x20" paper, edition number 25/25
Category

Late 20th Century Portrait Photography

Materials

Giclée

Francesca Woodman, Providence, Rhode Island
Located in New York, NY
Francesca Woodman, Providence, Rhode Island (1976) photographed by George Lange. 11 x 14" archival pigment print 17 x 21 x 2" frame with UV plexgia...
Category

1970s Portrait Photography

Materials

Photographic Paper, Archival Pigment

East River Drive
Located in Austin, TX
East River Drive by Norman Parkinson. Robin Miller and Pippa Diggle photographed on the South Street Viaduct beneath Manhattan Bridge for Go Magazine, 1960 ...
Category

Late 20th Century Photorealist Portrait Photography

Materials

C Print

Untitled, Senegalese model
Located in Wilton Manors, FL
Victor Arimondi (1942-2001). Portrait of Senegalese Model, ca. 1975. Period print measures 8.5 x 11.5 inches; 17 x 20 inches frames. Artist studio stam...
Category

1970s Realist Portrait Photography

Materials

Photographic Paper

Young Actress Meryl Streep 16x20" Exhibition Print, Signed
Located in Senoia, GA
16 x 20" vintage silver gelatin photograph of Actress Meryl Streep photographed January 7, 1979 just before the release of her first film ‘The Deer Hunter...
Category

1970s Pop Art Portrait Photography

Materials

Silver Gelatin

Eric Clapton (Framed) hand signed lifetime print
Located in London, GB
Eric Clapton photographed in Surrey, 1993. TITLE: Eric Clapton PHOTO: Terry O’Neill SIGNED LIMITED LIFETIME EDITION 20/50
 PAPER: SILVER GELATIN FIBRE PRINT FULLY FRAMED: 26.8 x 27....
Category

1990s Portrait Photography

Materials

Photographic Paper, Silver Gelatin

Mick Jagger and Jerry Hall nude contact sheet
Located in Austin, TX
Contact sheet print featuring American model Jerry Hall with singer Mick Jagger of the Rolling Stones, photographed for Norman Parkinson’s exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery...
Category

Late 20th Century Photorealist Portrait Photography

Materials

C Print

Fabrizio Bentivoglio by Angelo Frontoni - Vintage Photograph - 1987
Located in Roma, IT
Fabrizio Bentivoglio t by Angelo Frontoni is a lot of two photographic prints on baryta paper. Photographer's ink stamp on back, high quality prints. ...
Category

1980s Contemporary Portrait Photography

Materials

Photographic Paper

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

Moscow, Russia, Black and White Photography, Russian Ballerina Maya Plisetskaya
Located in New york, NY
Drawn to street photography, Roberta Fineberg visited Moscow for extended periods in 1989-1990, witnessing Russian President Mikhail Gorbachev's politics of "Glasnost/Perestroika" ("Openness"). The celebrated Soviet dancer Maya Plisetskaya...
Category

1980s Contemporary Portrait Photography

Materials

Photographic Paper, Silver Gelatin, Photographic Film

Mick and Bianca in Paris
By Michael Norcia
Located in Austin, TX
Mick Jagger and Bianca Perez posed candid in doorway during a visit to Paris, September 1971. Mick Jagger is an English singer, songwriter, actor, and film producer who has achiev...
Category

1970s Contemporary Portrait Photography

Materials

Archival Ink, Archival Paper, Digital, Archival Pigment

David Bowie Scary Monsters Clown full contact sheet large format print by Duffy
Located in Austin, TX
Museum quality fine art, limited edition contact sheet print of David Bowie in the Scary Monsters Clown costume from the official Duffy Archive. Taken from the original 1980 negativ...
Category

Late 20th Century Conceptual Portrait Photography

Materials

Archival Pigment

Muhammad Ali, 21st Century, Contemporary, Celebrity, Photography
Located in München, BY
Edition 25 Also available in 101 x 127 cm / 40 x 50 inch, Edition 10 Black and white portrait of Box legend Muhammad Ali. From personality portraits and advertising campaigns to m...
Category

1990s Contemporary Portrait Photography

Materials

Archival Pigment

Nest
Located in Sante Fe, NM
Staging Pictures: Early Polaroids focuses on Stivers' working Polaroid prints, shot with a Hasselblad Polaroid back for instant proofing of lighting and composition of his subjects. ...
Category

1980s Contemporary Portrait Photography

Materials

Archival Pigment

Lucille Ball: Glamour in Fur
By Ray Jones
Located in Austin, TX
Stunning and glamorous image of Lucille Ball in fur.Lucille Ball was an American actress, comedian, model, film-studio executive, and producer. She was the star of the self-produced ...
Category

1940s Contemporary Portrait Photography

Materials

Archival Ink, Archival Paper, Archival Pigment

Arnold Schwarzenegger Flexing
By Arthur Gordon
Located in Austin, TX
A Vintage 1976 image depicting a young Arnold Schwarzenegger, the champion bodybuilder who was Mr. Olympia a staggering seven times. Schwarzenegger would become the biggest action mo...
Category

1970s Contemporary Portrait Photography

Materials

Archival Ink, Archival Paper, Digital, Archival Pigment

Geroge Harrison on Stage, Black and White Photography, 25, 5 x 20, 6 cm
Located in Cologne, DE
The Beatles were an English rock band formed in Liverpool in 1960. With a line-up comprising John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr, they are regarded as the mo...
Category

1970s Modern Portrait Photography

Materials

Silver Gelatin, Black and White

Stan Laurel - Vintage Autographed Photograph - 1940s
Located in Roma, IT
Stan Laurel - Vintage Autographed Photograph  is a vintage photo, realized in the 1940s. Hand-signed by the actor Stan Laurel and his friend and colleague Oliver Hardy the most famo...
Category

1970s Modern Portrait Photography

Materials

Photographic Paper

Michael Stipe - Signed Limited Edition Oversized Print (1996)
Located in London, GB
Michael Stipe - Signed Limited Edition Oversized Print NME Cover Shoot July 23 1996 Los Angeles (photo Kevin Westenberg) NB All prints are signed ...
Category

1990s Modern Portrait Photography

Materials

Black and White, Archival Pigment

David Bowie - Scary Monsters Remastered Color Contact Sheet by Duffy
Located in Austin, TX
David Bowie - Scary Monsters Remastered Color Contact Sheet Taken from the original negatives, these official Duffy Archive prints are open edition, authenticated with the official ...
Category

Late 20th Century Photorealist Portrait Photography

Materials

C Print

John Wayne in Car
Located in Austin, TX
Black and white portrait of actor John Wayne on the set of a movie, driving a car, circa 1947. John Wayne, nicknamed "the Duke", was an American actor who became a popular icon thro...
Category

1940s Contemporary Portrait Photography

Materials

Archival Ink, Archival Paper, Archival Pigment

David Bowie and William Burroughs, framed signed print by Terry O'Neill
Located in Austin, TX
Ready to ship immediately. Free domestic US shipping. David Bowie and William Burroughs in Los Angeles, February 1974, signed Terry O'Neill, 8x10" print, custom framed with non-glar...
Category

Late 20th Century Photorealist Portrait Photography

Materials

Giclée

Arnold Schwarzenegger: Ballet Bodybuilder
By Michael Norcia
Located in Austin, TX
Actor and bodybuilder Arnold Schwarzenegger Practicing ballet with a trainer, circa 1976. Arnold Schwarzenegger is an Austrian-American actor, producer, businessman, retired bodyb...
Category

1970s Contemporary Portrait Photography

Materials

Archival Ink, Archival Paper, Digital, Archival Pigment

Marbles Championship, New York City, Estate Edition, Portrait Photograph
Located in Los Angeles, CA
This late 1940s portrait photograph, captured by society photographer Slim Aarons, features a group of boys competing in a marble championship in Central Park, New York City. This i...
Category

1940s Realist Portrait Photography

Materials

Lambda

Rolling Stones Mick Jagger contact sheet by Brian Aris
Located in Austin, TX
Signed limited edition contact sheet print of The Rolling Stones singer Mick Jagger by Brian Aris, taken from a session at Brian’s London studio Signed limited edition 20x24" print,...
Category

Late 20th Century Contemporary Portrait Photography

Materials

C Print

Marbles Championship, New York City, Estate Edition, Portrait Photograph
Located in Los Angeles, CA
This late 1940s portrait photograph, captured by society photographer Slim Aarons, features a group of boys competing in a marble championship in Central Park, New York City. This i...
Category

1940s Realist Portrait Photography

Materials

Lambda

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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