Skip to main content

Contemporary Portrait Photography

CONTEMPORARY STYLE

Used to refer to a time rather than an aesthetic, Contemporary art generally describes pieces created after 1970 or being made by living artists anywhere in the world. This immediacy means it encompasses art responding to the present moment through diverse subjects, media and themes. Contemporary painting, sculpture, photography, performance, digital art, video and more frequently includes work that is attempting to reshape current ideas about what art can be, from Felix Gonzalez-Torres’s use of candy to memorialize a lover he lost to AIDS-related complications to Jenny Holzer’s ongoing “Truisms,” a Conceptual series that sees provocative messages printed on billboards, T-shirts, benches and other public places that exist outside of formal exhibitions and the conventional “white cube” of galleries.

Contemporary art has been pushing the boundaries of creative expression for years. Its disruption of the traditional concepts of art are often aiming to engage viewers in complex questions about identity, society and culture. In the latter part of the 20th century, contemporary movements included Land art, in which artists like Robert Smithson and Michael Heizer create large-scale, site-specific sculptures, installations and other works in soil and bodies of water; Sound art, with artists such as Christian Marclay and Susan Philipsz centering art on sonic experiences; and New Media art, in which mass media and digital culture inform the work of artists such as Nam June Paik and Rafaël Rozendaal.

The first decades of the 21st century have seen the growth of Contemporary African art, the revival of figurative painting, the emergence of street art and the rise of NFTs, unique digital artworks that are powered by blockchain technology.

Major Contemporary artists practicing now include Ai Weiwei, Cecily Brown, David Hockney, Yayoi Kusama, Jeff Koons, Takashi Murakami and Kara Walker.

Find a collection of Contemporary prints, photography, paintings, sculptures and other art on 1stDibs.

to
290
3,216
1,812
905
717
1,507
Overall Width
to
Overall Height
to
6
2,386
5,772
1
1
3
23
12
93
305
372
435
672
4,467
567
485
96
34
22
15
14
14
10
6
6
3
3,666
3,167
1,308
5,617
3,040
3,031
2,334
2,198
2,156
1,472
581
563
514
465
438
425
424
405
373
348
327
308
301
3,590
2,905
2,824
2,807
2,728
1,292
190
189
144
114
1,205
2,781
5,448
2,105
Style: Contemporary
Wild Sable Island Horse, Equestrian, Horizontal, Contemporary
Located in US
"Wild Heart" A dark horse with a brilliant blaze of white on his forehead gallops freely against the backdrop of the Atlantic Ocean. Representative of the unparalleled, untamed essence of Sable Island...
Category

2010s Contemporary Portrait Photography

Materials

Archival Pigment

Italy, World Class Racing Yacht, Vertical, Action, Museum Acquisition
Located in US
"Spilling Over" In this award-winning, abstract image, full of movement and action, the J-Class yacht Ranger sails on. The nautical print series Sail: Majesty at Sea is an intimat...
Category

2010s Contemporary Portrait Photography

Materials

Archival Pigment

Paul Newman/Sebring 12-Hour Race, Florida by Al Satterwhite, 1978
Located in Denton, TX
Paul Newman/Sebring 12-Hour Race, Florida by Al Satterwhite is listed as a 36 x 24 inch archival pigment print, available in an edition of 25. This photograph is signed, titled, dat...
Category

20th Century Contemporary Portrait Photography

Materials

Archival Pigment

Actor Girl II (29 Palms, CA)- including the book 'A Half Forgotten Dream'
Located in Morongo Valley, CA
Actor Girl II (Stage of Consciousness) - 2008 including Stefanie Schneider's new monograph "A Half Forgotten Dream" signed. 192 pages, hardcover, published by Snap Collective, 2024....
Category

Early 2000s Contemporary Portrait Photography

Materials

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

BEYONCE, DANGEROUSLY IN LOVE
Located in Austin, TX
Museum quality fine art print of Beyonce by photographer Markus Klinko. Shot in 2003 for the cover of the album, Dangerously In Love This print is available in the following sizes,...
Category

21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Portrait Photography

Materials

C Print

Mother's House
Located in Sante Fe, NM
In SHE TELLS ALL, Kaur engages questions of identity performance by exploring an ever-present and wildly diverse American identity: the modern American witch. Witches are contemporar...
Category

2010s Contemporary Portrait Photography

Materials

Archival Pigment

Michael Jackson
Located in München, BY
Edition 15, Lenticular In this image Michael Jackson is doing the moonwalk and is x-rayed. A man with x-ray vision, NICK VEASEY creates art that shows what it is really like inside...
Category

2010s Contemporary Portrait Photography

Materials

Lenticular

Light my Fire
Located in Morongo Valley, CA
'Light my Fire’, 2017, 20 x 20 cm, Edition 1/10, Digital C-Print based on a Polaroid, not mounted. Numbered and signed on the back by the artist. Artist...
Category

2010s Contemporary Portrait Photography

Materials

C Print, Color, Polaroid

Light my Fire
$360 Sale Price
20% Off
Portrait of a Young Women in Kenya, Black and White, Meditative
Located in US
"Fabric of Youth" A young Rendille woman named Adato watches over the deserted salt flats of the Chalbi Desert. She is a beacon of hope for the future of her tribe. This image is ...
Category

2010s Contemporary Portrait Photography

Materials

Archival Pigment

The Nine Lives of Cindy, porcelain plate & official COA in box Lt Edition of 100
Located in New York, NY
Cindy Sherman The Nine Lives of Cindy, 2019 Printed Bone Porcelain 12 1/2 in diameter Limited Edition of 100 Plate signed verso and also accompanied by plate signed documentation card/official Certificate of Authenticity In original box Produced exclusively for the National Portrait Gallery in the United Kingdom on the occasion of the 2019 Cindy Sherman exhibition which also traveled to the Vancouver Art Gallery. Acquired directly from the National Portrait Gallery before it sold out. Cindy Sherman Biography: Born in 1954 in Glen Ridge, New Jersey, Cindy Sherman lives and works in New York NY. Her ground-breaking photographs have interrogated themes around representation and identity in contemporary media for over four decades. Coming to prominence in the late 1970s with the Pictures Generation group alongside artists such as Sherrie Levine, Richard Prince and Louise Lawler, Sherman studied art at Buffalo State College in 1972 where she turned her attention to photography. In 1977, shortly after moving to New York, Sherman began her critically acclaimed Untitled Film Stills. A suite of 69 black and white portraits, Untitled Film Stills sees Sherman impersonate a myriad of stereotypical female characters and caricatures inspired by Hollywood pictures, film noir, and B movies. Using a range of costumes, props and backdrops to manipulate her own appearance and to create photographs resembling promotional film images, the series explores the tension between artifice and identity in consumer culture which has preoccupied the artist’s practice ever since. Sherman continued to channel and reconstruct familiar personas known to the collective psyche, often in unsettling ways. In 1981, the artist created her Centerfolds, a series of photographic double spreads inspired by men’s erotic magazines...
Category

2010s Contemporary Portrait Photography

Materials

Ceramic, Porcelain, Paper, Mixed Media, Screen

Ronald Reagan
Located in Kansas City, MO
Nick Vedros Ronald Reagan Archival Pigment Print on Epson Legacy Platine 100% Cotton Fibre, 314 gsm, Acid and Lignin free Year: 1976 Size: 13x10in Editi...
Category

2010s Contemporary Portrait Photography

Materials

Archival Ink, Archival Paper, Photographic Paper, Archival Pigment

Ronald Reagan
$790 Sale Price
34% Off
Marilyn Monroe, Black and White Portrait Photography of Hollywood Actor 1950s
Located in New york, NY
American photographer Burt Glinn photographed the Hollywood star in conversation with Mike Todd and film director John Huston for a “Stop Arthritis” event which took place in New Yor...
Category

1950s Contemporary Portrait Photography

Materials

Silver Gelatin, Photographic Film, Photographic Paper

Rare Vintage Color C Print Photograph African Maasai Warrior Chromogenic Photo
Located in Surfside, FL
Carol Beckwith, (American, b. 1945), Maasai Portrait Chromogenic print on paper, from Beckwith's book "Maasai" (1980), Hand signed in pencil, dated and titled with name of sitter ...
Category

1970s Contemporary Portrait Photography

Materials

Photographic Paper, C Print

Group of Elephants Underneath a Tree, Africa, Vertical, Wild Animals
Located in US
"The Gathering" A group of elephants wait out the hottest part of the day under a lone Acacia tortilis tree in this iconic photograph taken in Kenya. Exceptional Creatures is a li...
Category

2010s Contemporary Portrait Photography

Materials

Archival Pigment

Brainpower II, III and I. Triptych. From The Horses Series
Located in Miami Beach, FL
Brainpower I, Untitled I, and Untitled II (Triptych) 2018 by Juan Lamarca From the Horse Series Fine Art Cotton Paper Overall size: Image size: 16.5 in H x 36 in W Frame size: 17.7 ...
Category

2010s Contemporary Portrait Photography

Materials

Black and White, Archival Pigment

Untitled 20259 - silver gelatin print - male bodybuilder figure
Located in Burlingame, CA
John Casado - Untitled 20259, Unique silver gelatin print. image = 14 5/8 x 22 or 37 x 55.9 centimeters / ppr 20 x 24 horizontal Each photographic print from John Casado is sold as ...
Category

21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Portrait Photography

Materials

Silver Gelatin

Portrait of a Raven
Located in Sante Fe, NM
When the trembling heart stops beating, what remains is a tiny beautiful corpse. I make a portrait to commemorate that life and to express my sorrow and regret. It’s my gesture towar...
Category

2010s Contemporary Portrait Photography

Materials

Archival Pigment

Equestrian Portrait of a World Class Horse with a Braided Mane, Square
Located in US
"Nautilus II" A braided mane adds to the perfection of this horse in this classic, detailed equestrian portrait. The print series Equus: Light & Form focuses on the details of so...
Category

2010s Contemporary Portrait Photography

Materials

Archival Pigment

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

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

Chewbacca - Affenpinscher (Puppy, Dog, Portrait, Staged)
Located in Kansas City, MO
Lord Fauntleroy Chewbacca - Affenpinscher (Puppy, Dog, Portrait, Staged, Iconic, Funny, Whimsical, Heartwarming) 2023 Archival Pigment Print on Hahnem...
Category

2010s Contemporary Portrait Photography

Materials

Archival Paper, Archival Pigment

Untitled (Olancha) - Stranger than Paradise - analog C-Print based on a Polaroid
Located in Morongo Valley, CA
Untitled (Olancha) - 2006, 38x37cm. Edition of 5, plus 2 Artist Proofs. Analog C-Print, hand-printed by the artist, based on a Polaroid. Signature label and Certificate. Artist...
Category

Early 2000s Contemporary Portrait Photography

Materials

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

Lilies - Contemporary, Woman, Polaroid
Located in Morongo Valley, CA
Lilies - 2022 50x50cm. Edition of 10 plus 2 Artist Proofs. Archival Print based on an original Polaroid on Hahnemuhle photo rag paper. Signature label and certificate. Not moun...
Category

2010s Contemporary Portrait Photography

Materials

Archival Ink, Archival Paper, Color, Archival Pigment, Polaroid

Sarah
Located in New York, NY
Archival pigment print, painted frame (Edition of 4 + 1 AP) Signed and numbered, verso This photograph is offered by ClampArt, located in New York City. Price includes mounting and ...
Category

2010s Contemporary Portrait Photography

Materials

Archival Pigment

Africa, Nomad Princesses, Tribal Women Ethiopia, Printed on Japanese Paper
Located in New york, NY
Nomad Princesses, 1996 by Jean-Michel (JM) Voge, is a contemporary color photograph 19" x 13" of two bare-breasted women with painted faces, enlarged ears, and tribal jewelry from th...
Category

1990s Contemporary Portrait Photography

Materials

Archival Ink, Archival Paper, Rag Paper, Digital, Archival Pigment, Digi...

Hanna
Located in New York, NY
Archival pigment print, painted frame (Edition of 4 + 1 AP) Signed and numbered, verso This photograph is offered by ClampArt, located in New York City. Price includes mounting and ...
Category

2010s Contemporary Portrait Photography

Materials

Archival Pigment

Frozen (16 pieces) Contemporary, Landscape, USA, Polaroid, Figurative, Ice, Snow
Located in Morongo Valley, CA
Frozen (Stranger than Paradise) - 2001 Edition of 5 16 pieces, 48 x 47 cm each, 2.20 x 2.20 cm installed. Analog C-Prints, hand-printed by the artist, based on 16 Polaroids. Signat...
Category

Early 2000s Contemporary Portrait Photography

Materials

Metal

Bath Time Story
Located in Morongo Valley, CA
Bath Time Story - 2017, Edition of 7 plus 2 Artist Proofs. Archival C-Print, based on the original Polaroid, not mounted. Signature label and certificate. Artist inventory PL201...
Category

2010s Contemporary Portrait Photography

Materials

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

World Class Racing Yachts in Italy, Nautical, Horizontal, Iconic
Located in US
"Rainbow Trailed" The J-Class boats Rainbow and Velsheda sail at near impossible angles as the sailors freely dangle their feet over the edge of the deck. This award-winning image is in the permanent collection of the Mariners' Museum, Newport News...
Category

2010s Contemporary Portrait Photography

Materials

Archival Pigment

Heath Ledger, Casanova, Venice 2004, 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 actor Heath Ledger in young age. From personality portra...
Category

Early 2000s Contemporary Portrait Photography

Materials

Archival Pigment

Contemporary Japanese Photography, Ginzan Spa by Issei Suda, Signed Ed 28/100
By Issei Suda
Located in New york, NY
The photograph "Ginzan Spa, Yamagata, August 1976 from Fushikaden," is by Japanese photographer Issei Suda. The print is hand-signed by the photographer on ...
Category

1970s Contemporary Portrait Photography

Materials

Archival Ink, Archival Paper, Rag Paper, Digital, Archival Pigment, Digi...

Easy Rider
Located in New York, NY
2009, pigment print photograph, 14 x 11 inches, Edition of 12 signed and numbered by the artist on the reverse William Wegman is a renowned photographer famous for his unique and ar...
Category

Early 2000s Contemporary Portrait Photography

Materials

Pigment

Untitled # 1 1 - 2008 - Expressionist Full Face Black and White Portrait of Man
Located in New York, NY
This is a 39" x 39" black and white archival giclée print on archival exhibition paper. It is part of a limited edition of 6 plus 2 AP. Signed and numbered in the back. It is an exp...
Category

Early 2000s Contemporary Portrait Photography

Materials

Archival Paper, Giclée

JACKIE AND CAROLINE, HYANNIS PORT, MASSACHUSETTS, SUMMER 1961
Located in Aventura, FL
Jacques Lowe stamp and various inscriptions on print verso. Sheet size 11 x 13.9 inches. Image size approx 9 x 13 inches. Frame size approx 18.5 x 22.5 inches. Certificate of authen...
Category

1960s Contemporary Portrait Photography

Materials

Paper, Silver Gelatin

Druridge Bay, England, 1998
Located in Sante Fe, NM
Pentti Sammallahti is a benchmark figure in contemporary Finnish photography. His works depict nature eroded and broken down by civilization, but he does not put man and the environm...
Category

1990s Contemporary Portrait Photography

Materials

Silver Gelatin

Woman, Dog, Bed
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

Silver Gelatin

Running Wild Horse on Sable Island, Black and White Photography, Equestrian
Located in US
"The Chase" In this award-winning, best-selling image, a wild stallion runs on the beach on Sable Island without a care in the world. The print series Discovering the Horses of Sab...
Category

2010s Contemporary Portrait Photography

Materials

Archival Pigment

David Bowie portrait by Brian Aris, framed signed limited edition print
Located in Austin, TX
Signed limited edition 12x16" print of David Bowie by Brian Aris, taken in Brian’s London studio in 1991. Brian Aris limited edition prints, signed and nu...
Category

Late 20th Century Contemporary Portrait Photography

Materials

Giclée

Francis Ford Coppola, Contemporary, Celebrity, Photography, Portrait
Located in München, BY
Combined Edition 25 Also available in 50 x 60 cm/ 20 x 24 inch and as combined Edition 10 in 76 x 101 cm / 30 x 40 inch 101 x 127 cm / 40 x 50 inch Portrait of American retired fil...
Category

2010s Contemporary Portrait Photography

Materials

Archival Pigment

Crystal Ball - Contemporary, Nude, Women, Polaroid, 21st Century
Located in Morongo Valley, CA
Crystal Ball - 2020 - 20x20cm, Edition of 7 plus 2 Artist Proofs, digital C-Print based on a Polaroid. Signed on the back and with certificate. Artist inventory PL2020-1001. Not...
Category

2010s Contemporary Portrait Photography

Materials

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

J-Class Racing Yacht Shamrock and Sailor in Europe, Iconic, Classic, Nautical
Located in US
"Shamrock Rising" With a lone sailor standing on deck, the famed racing yacht Shamrock looks extraordinary. The nautical print series Sail: Majesty at Sea is an intimate look at t...
Category

2010s Contemporary Portrait Photography

Materials

Archival Pigment

Bent Sound - underwater portrait of Njomza Vitia - archival pigment print 43x62"
Located in Beverly Hills, CA
"Bent Sound" - An ethereal underwater fine art photograph that captures the intersection of music and movement through a portrait of singer Njomza Vitia. This submerged portrait tran...
Category

2010s Contemporary Portrait Photography

Materials

Archival Pigment

She Knows
Located in Morongo Valley, CA
'She Knows' 2016, Edition 1/7 plus 2 Artist Proofs Based on a Polaroid, digital C-Print, not mounted. Signed on the back and with certificate. Artist inventory PL2016-214 Kirsten Th...
Category

2010s Contemporary Portrait Photography

Materials

C Print, Color, Polaroid

Robert Kennedy and Ethel Kennedy, Campaigning in Indiana USA, Photography 1960s
Located in New york, NY
Robert Kennedy (RFK) and his wife Ethel Kennedy, campaigning in a small town in Indiana USA in 1968 is a color photograph, 16” x 24,” an archival pigment...
Category

1960s Contemporary Portrait Photography

Materials

Archival Paper, Rag Paper, Photographic Film, Archival Pigment

Tales of Bitter Doom - complete series, 25 pieces
Located in Morongo Valley, CA
'Tales of Bitter Doom' complete series, 25 pieces Edition of 7, 30x30cm each, complete 150x150cm plus spaces, 2018 digital C-Prints, based on a Polaroids mounted on Dibond - gloss ...
Category

2010s Contemporary Portrait Photography

Materials

C Print, Color, Polaroid, Archival Paper

Witch at Window
Located in Sante Fe, NM
In SHE TELLS ALL, Kaur engages questions of identity performance by exploring an ever-present and wildly diverse American identity: the modern American witch. Witches are contemporar...
Category

2010s Contemporary Portrait Photography

Materials

Archival Pigment

Reinventing oneself, II - Polaroid, Contemporary, Color, 21st Century
Located in Morongo Valley, CA
Reinventing oneself, II - 2019, 50x50cm, Edition of 7 plus 2 Artist Proofs. Archival C-Print based on the original Polaroid. Signature label with certificate. Artist inventory ...
Category

2010s Contemporary Portrait Photography

Materials

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

Frank Sinatra - Relaxing on Tour - Estate Stamped
Located in Chicago, IL
Relaxing on Tour – Frank Sinatra circa April 1962 at a stop on his 30 stop World Tour for Children. They stopped in Honolulu, HI on the way to the first concerts in Japan. This was f...
Category

21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Portrait Photography

Materials

Archival Ink, Rag Paper, Giclée

Madre Flower
Located in Sante Fe, NM
In SHE TELLS ALL, Kaur engages questions of identity performance by exploring an ever-present and wildly diverse American identity: the modern American witch. Witches are contemporar...
Category

2010s Contemporary Portrait Photography

Materials

Archival Pigment

Stefanie Schneider Polaroid sized Minis - 'Prom Night' - signed, loose
Located in Morongo Valley, CA
Stefanie Schneider's Mini Prom Night (Till Death do us Part) - 2005 signed in front, not mounted. Digital Color Photographs based on a Polaroid. Polaroi...
Category

Early 2000s Contemporary Portrait Photography

Materials

Archival Paper, C Print, Color, Lambda, Polaroid

Wedding - Vintage Photograph - 1923
Located in Roma, IT
The Wedding is a booklet with black and white vintage photo, realized in November 14th. 1923, about the wedding of Mrs Christaine de Lichtervelde with Mr. Roger Gillis. Good conditi...
Category

1920s Contemporary Portrait Photography

Materials

Photographic Paper

Shaken Not Stirred
Located in PARIS, FR
X-ray lenticular artwork Lenticular is a ribbed lens that refracts light from different angles. When sequential images are split behind the lenticular lens the image looks like it m...
Category

2010s Contemporary Portrait Photography

Materials

C Print, Lenticular

Powerful Portrait of a Young African Woman in Tribal Jewelry, Best-seller, Kenya
Located in US
"The Gaze" An iconic, fashion-inspired portrait of a young Rendille woman highlighting the bold and beautiful traditions of her remote tribal culture. The print series Desert Song:...
Category

2010s Contemporary Portrait Photography

Materials

Archival Pigment

Dust III, Kenya, Elephant, animal, wildlife, color photography, africa
Located in München, BY
Edition 15 More sizes on request For several days I went out with these baby elephants of the David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust to the bush in Tsavo East, Kenya. Together with their ke...
Category

2010s Contemporary Portrait Photography

Materials

Archival Pigment

Ways of a Wild Heart #47 - Polaroid, Women, Color
Located in Morongo Valley, CA
Ways of a Wild Heart #47 - 2014 Giclee archival pigment print on archival Hahnemühle Pearl paper. 320 gsm · 100% Cotton · natural white · pearl-finish. Based on a Polaroid. Hand ...
Category

2010s Contemporary Portrait Photography

Materials

Archival Paper, Color, Archival Pigment, Polaroid

Sophie # 5, hand painted mixed media portrait photography on paper, framed
Located in Dallas, TX
This beutiful unique edition is framed on a custom black box frame, all archival materials. Rosie Emerson, born in 1981, is a contemporary artist working almost exclusively on representing the female form. Emerson’s figures draw reference from archetypes old and new, from Artemis to the modern day super model, each solitary figure, an allegory of her own fantasy. Interested in surface, the interplay between photography and painting. Emerson’s works are playful constructs; Photography is used, not as a device for capturing reality but for creating romanticised optical illusions. Inspired by her love of theatre, performance, shrines and rituals, she uses lighting, costume, set and prop making, alongside printmaking and painting to create other worldly one off pieces. Her photography is inspired by both the drama of the baroque, and ethereal qualities of Pre Raphaelite works. Other important influences include late medieval and renaissance paintings, Japanese prints, and magical realist literature. Emerson’s screen...
Category

2010s Contemporary Portrait Photography

Materials

Paper, Charcoal, Acrylic, Graphite

Eve Arnold - Two young models check their make-up, 1950, Printed After
Located in Greenwich, CT
Two young models check their make-up backstage at a local fashion show at the Abyssinian Church in Harlem, New York City in 1950. All available sizes and editions: 24" x 20", Editio...
Category

1950s Contemporary Portrait Photography

Materials

Cotton, Paper

Men with Black Sand. Sepia Limited Edition Photograph
Located in Miami Beach, FL
Channeling the energy of “water-signs” in astrology, he captures these mysterious men thru a romantic lens. The embrace of the shadows and the light mixed with the gaze of their bodi...
Category

2010s Contemporary Portrait Photography

Materials

Archival Pigment

Bruno Mars, Portrait. Portrait Intervened by the artists.
Located in Miami Beach, FL
This artwork was created by the artistic duo Hunter & Gatti (2010–2023). These works are part of the archive managed and exhibited by Cristian Hunter. The artist's technique consists...
Category

2010s Contemporary Portrait Photography

Materials

Glass, Photographic Paper, Black and White, Archival Pigment

Portrait of a White Horse, Black and White Photography, Ethereal, Fashion
Located in US
"Ethere" This best-selling, award-winning image is an intimate portrait of an iconic all-white horse native to the Camargue region in the South of France. The award-winning print ...
Category

2010s Contemporary Portrait Photography

Materials

Archival Pigment

Contemporary portrait photography for sale on 1stDibs.

Find a wide variety of authentic Contemporary portrait photography available for sale on 1stDibs. Works in this style were very popular during the 21st Century and Contemporary, but contemporary artists have continued to produce works inspired by this movement. If you’re looking to add portrait photography created in this style to introduce contrast in an otherwise neutral space in your home, the works available on 1stDibs include elements of blue, orange, purple, red and other colors. Many Pop art paintings were created by popular artists on 1stDibs, including Stefanie Schneider, Tyler Shields, Urizen Freaza, and Clare Marie Bailey. Frequently made by artists working with Paper, and Photographic Paper and other materials, all of these pieces for sale are unique and have attracted attention over the years. Not every interior allows for large Contemporary portrait photography, so small editions measuring 1.58 inches across are also available.

Recently Viewed

View All