Christian Witkin

Christian Witkin, was born in Manchester, England, in 1966 to an American father and Dutch mother. He lived in Amsterdam until 1984 when at age 17 he moved to America to pursue his education at Syracuse University and graduated with a B.A. in fine arts and photography. In 1987, after interning for the summer, Witkin made the decision to move to New York City and assist full time, working for such noted photographers as Peter Lindbergh, Bruce Weber and Annie Leibovitz. After assisting for four years, in 1993, Witkin launched his independent career receiving instant recognition as an important and fresh voice in the photographic community and the art world. His work immediately began to bring him critical and editorial acclaim. Major campaigns and awards followed. With a noted artistic father and uncle, Witkin grew up exposed to the cutting edge of visual expression, allowing for his visual development as an artist to begin at an early age. His continuing desire to deconstruct his world to its most basic parts has much to do with his research for the truth. He strips things down of all artifice until what is before you is the pure essence of the subject.

Find a broad range of photography on 1stDibs today.

The first permanent image created by a camera — which materialized during the 1820s — is attributed to Joseph Nicéphore Niépce. The French inventor was on to something for sure. Kodak introduced roll film in the 1880s, allowing photography to become more democratic, although cameras wouldn’t be universally accessible until several decades later. 

Digital photographic techniques, software, smartphone cameras and social-networking platforms such as Instagram have made it even easier in the modern era for budding photographers to capture the world around them as well as disseminate their images far and wide. 

What might leading figures of visual art such as Andy Warhol have done with these tools at their disposal?

Today, when we aren’t looking at the digital photos that inundate us on our phones, we look to the past to celebrate the photographers who have broken rules as well as records — provocative and prolific artists like Horst P. Horst, Lillian Bassman and Helmut Newton, who altered the face of fashion and portrait photography; visionary documentary photographers such as Gordon Parks, whose best-known work was guided by social justice; and pioneers of street photography such as Henri Cartier-Bresson, who shot for revolutionary travel magazines like Holiday with the likes of globetrotting society lensman Slim Aarons.

Find photographers you may not know in Introspective and The Study — where you’ll read about Berenice Abbott, who positioned herself atop skyscrapers for the perfect shot, or “conceptual artist-adventurer” Charles Lindsay, whose work combines scientific rigor with artistic expression, or Massimo Listri, known for his epic interiors of opulent Old World libraries. Photographer Jeannette Montgomery Barron was given a Kodak camera as a child. Later, she shot on Polaroid film before buying her first 35mm camera in her teens. Barron's stunning portraits of Jean-Michel Basquiat, Warhol and other artists chronicle a crucial chapter of New York’s cultural history.

Throughout the past two centuries, photographers have used their medium to create expressive work that has resonated for generations. Shop a voluminous collection of this powerful fine photography on 1stDibs. Search by photographer to find the perfect piece for your living room wall, or spend some time with the work organized under various categories, such as landscape photography, nude photography and more.