Skip to main content

Ellen von Unwerth Photography

German, b. 1954

Ellen von Unwerth is a director and photographer whose bold and erotic images of women have left an indelible mark on the visual landscape of the fashion world.

Born in Frankfurt, Germany, von Unwerth was a model in Paris for nearly a decade before turning to photography. Her 1989 images of Claudia Schiffer for a Guess jeans campaign, echoing the playfully feminine style of 1950s pinups, earned both Schiffer and von Unwerth wide attention. Over the years, her work has been featured regularly in magazines like Interview, Vanity Fair, Vogue, I-D and The Face, appearing on covers and in both editorial and commercial contexts. In 1991, she won first prize at the International Festival of Fashion Photography.

Von Unwerth’s 1995 photoshoot of Drew Barrymore for Playboy magazine is among her most popular work and, coupled with an array of album covers for such artists as Janet Jackson and Britney Spears, gave her standing as a celebrity photographer beyond the borders of the fashion world. Von Unwerth’s pictures have a distinctive look and feel, with saturated colors and dense compositions, while also, in certain cases, paying homage to great photographers of the 20th century.

The 2015 Tree of Love, Bavaria, in which a nude model reclines inside the heart-shaped hollow of an enormous decaying trunk, recalls Edward Weston’s sensuous use of the body’s geometry in his compositions. And the dramatically lit Tic Tac Toe from 2010, showing a scantily clad woman posing on a city street at night, evokes Helmut Newton’s atmospheric photograph of a model wearing Yves St. Laurent’s Le Smoking jacket, shot for French Vogue in 1975.

Von Unwerth has published several books of her photographs, including Revenge, in 2003, and Fräulein, in 2009. Those volumes have been joined by one showcasing the photos of her series “Heimat,” in which she playfully combines visual tropes of traditional Bavarian life with her signature eroticism and wit. She is represented by several dealers, including the Staley-Wise Gallery, in New York, and Galerie Trabant, in Kitzbühel, Austria.

Find original Ellen von Unwerth photography on 1stDibs.

2
2
2
Overall Height
to
Overall Width
to
2
2
2
2
2
2
2
58
214
53
286
774
434
216
143
2
2
Period: 1980s
Artist: Ellen von Unwerth
Kate Moss, Kino Paris, Celebrity, black and white photography
By Ellen von Unwerth
Located in Munich, DE
Price range: 9,000 - 36,000 € Limited Edition of 7 More sizes: 40x50cm/15.7x19.6 in: Edition of 15 50x60cm/19.6x23.6 in: Edition of 15 120x180cm/47x70.8 in: Edition of 3 Ellen von ...
Category

1980s Contemporary Ellen von Unwerth Photography

Materials

Archival Pigment

Claudia Schiffer, Marrakech, Celebrity, black and white photography, nude
By Ellen von Unwerth
Located in Munich, DE
Price range: 9,000 - 72,000 € Limited Edition of 7 More sizes: 40x50cm/15.7x19.6 in: Edition of 15 50x60cm/19.6x23.6 in: Edition of 15 120x180cm/47x70.8 in: Edition of 3 Ellen von ...
Category

1980s Contemporary Ellen von Unwerth Photography

Materials

Archival Pigment

Related Items
Sophie- Signed limited edition nude print, Black white photo, Sexy, Contemporary
By Ian Sanderson
Located in Barcelona, Barcelona
Sophie - Signed limited edition archival pigment print, 1995 - Edition of 10 A classical approach, sensual not sexual This image was captured on film. The negative was scanned...
Category

1990s Contemporary Ellen von Unwerth Photography

Materials

Archival Paper, Black and White, Archival Pigment, Photographic Film, Pi...

Mark and Meghan
By Mark & Kristen Sink
Located in Hudson, NY
Listing is for UNFRAMED print. Inquire within for framing. Edition of 1. If the exhibition piece is sold or the customer orders a different print size, the photograph is produced upon purchase. Please allow two weeks for production. Shipping time depends on method of shipping. Price is subject to availability. The Robin Rice Gallery reserves the right to adjust this price depending on the current edition of the photograph. ABOUT: For the last two years Mark and Kristen have collaborated using one of the earliest photographic methods, collodion wet plate to create ambrotypes on glass and tintypes on aluminum. They use a 1860 style view camera to create one-of-a-kind images, which become windows into an intimate, romantic, and beautiful world of faces, still lives, nudes, and landscapes. In this demanding process, the collodion coated tin or glass plates are immersed in a silver nitrate solution, and then they must be exposed in the camera and developed while still wet. Serendipitous flaws and beautiful imperfections are an inevitable part of this imprecise hands-on process. This show includes a combination of 24 tintypes and ambrotypes, which are 8x10 and smaller in size. Their intimate sizes ask the viewers to look closer and spend more time with these photographs to fully appreciate their power. — A welcome antidote to today's nonstop, ¬instantaneous imagery. Paradoxically, this intersection of past and present gives these pieces an unmistakably contemporary feel. The two collaborators deliberately play up the ambiguity of time. The nudes (some recalling E.J. Bellocq's alluring portraits of New Orleans prostitutes in 1912) are suffused with freshness and sensuality, even eroticism at times, with nearly all of them coming off as refined rather than crass. Fredrick Scott...
Category

21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Ellen von Unwerth Photography

Materials

Archival Pigment

Sacha..-Signed limited edition fine art nude print, Black and white photo, Model
By Ian Sanderson
Located in Barcelona, Barcelona
An original signed archival pigment print on Hahnemühle Photo Rag® Baryta 315 gsm paper by Scottish artist Ian Sanderson (1951- 2020) titled ‘Sacha and Pearl ‘ who was captured on f...
Category

1980s Contemporary Ellen von Unwerth Photography

Materials

Photographic Film, Archival Paper, Photographic Paper, Black and White, ...

Kaitlin and Tomato
By Mark & Kristen Sink
Located in Hudson, NY
Listing is for UNFRAMED print. Inquire within for framing. Edition of 1. If the exhibition piece is sold or the customer orders a different print size, the photograph is produced upon purchase. Please allow two weeks for production. Shipping time depends on method of shipping. Price is subject to availability. The Robin Rice Gallery reserves the right to adjust this price depending on the current edition of the photograph. ABOUT: For the last two years Mark and Kristen have collaborated using one of the earliest photographic methods, collodion wet plate to create ambrotypes on glass and tintypes on aluminum. They use a 1860 style view camera to create one-of-a-kind images, which become windows into an intimate, romantic, and beautiful world of faces, still lives, nudes, and landscapes. In this demanding process, the collodion coated tin or glass plates are immersed in a silver nitrate solution, and then they must be exposed in the camera and developed while still wet. Serendipitous flaws and beautiful imperfections are an inevitable part of this imprecise hands-on process. This show includes a combination of 24 tintypes and ambrotypes, which are 8x10 and smaller in size. Their intimate sizes ask the viewers to look closer and spend more time with these photographs to fully appreciate their power. — A welcome antidote to today's nonstop, ¬instantaneous imagery. Paradoxically, this intersection of past and present gives these pieces an unmistakably contemporary feel. The two collaborators deliberately play up the ambiguity of time. The nudes (some recalling E.J. Bellocq's alluring portraits of New Orleans prostitutes in 1912) are suffused with freshness and sensuality, even eroticism at times, with nearly all of them coming off as refined rather than crass. Fredrick Scott Archer developed the collodion process in 1851. Artists such as Julia Margaret Cameron, Lewis Carroll, William Henry Jackson and Civil War photographer Mathew Brady used the process, due to its cost and versatility advantages. In addition Sink and Hatgi’s work can also be seen revived in contemporary artists work...
Category

21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Ellen von Unwerth Photography

Materials

Archival Pigment

Bride - underwater black & white nude photograph - archival pigment print 44x35"
By Alex Sher
Located in Beverly Hills, CA
Underwater black and white (sepia) photograph of a young woman in tule scarf - with distorted reflection of her body in the water surface. Original gallery quality archival pigment ...
Category

2010s Contemporary Ellen von Unwerth Photography

Materials

Archival Paper, Archival Pigment

Raquel - Signed limited edition sexy model print, Black white photo, Oversize
By Ian Sanderson
Located in Barcelona, Barcelona
Raquel - Signed limited edition archival pigment print, 1983 - Edition of 5 This image was captured on film. The negative was scanned creating a digital file which was then prin...
Category

1980s Contemporary Ellen von Unwerth Photography

Materials

Photographic Film, Archival Paper, Black and White, Pigment, Archival Pi...

Amanda Sitting
By Mark & Kristen Sink
Located in Hudson, NY
Listing is for UNFRAMED print. Inquire within for framing. Edition of 1. If the exhibition piece is sold or the customer orders a different print size, the photograph is produced ...
Category

21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Ellen von Unwerth Photography

Materials

Archival Pigment

John 02
By Lynda Churilla
Located in Hudson, NY
Listing is for UNFRAMED print. Inquire within for framing. Edition of 10. CURRENT EXHIBITION - runs through October 30th, 2016. Any framed photographs purchased during the show wi...
Category

2010s Contemporary Ellen von Unwerth Photography

Materials

Archival Pigment

Brooke Lynne on Stove
By Mark & Kristen Sink
Located in Hudson, NY
Listing is for UNFRAMED print. Inquire within for framing. Edition of 1. If the exhibition piece is sold or the customer orders a different print size, the photograph is produced ...
Category

21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Ellen von Unwerth Photography

Materials

Archival Pigment

Karina -Signed limited edition nude print, Black white, Contemporary, Sexy woman
By Ian Sanderson
Located in Barcelona, Barcelona
Karina - Limited edition archival pigment print, Edition of 10 Signed + numbered by artist with certificate of authenticity, unframed This is an Archival Pigment print on fiber bas...
Category

Early 2000s Contemporary Ellen von Unwerth Photography

Materials

Archival Paper, Black and White, Archival Pigment, Giclée, Pigment, Phot...

Sophie- Signed limited edition contemporary print, Black white, Nude woman
By Ian Sanderson
Located in Barcelona, Barcelona
Sophie - Signed limited edition archival pigment print - Edition of 10 A classical approach, sensual not sexual This image was captured on film in 1995. The negative was scanned ...
Category

1990s Contemporary Ellen von Unwerth Photography

Materials

Archival Paper, Black and White, Archival Pigment, Photographic Film, Pi...

Craig- Signed limited edition nude print, Black white Contemporary, Man in bed
By Ian Sanderson
Located in Barcelona, Barcelona
Craig - Signed limited edition archival pigment print, 1998 - Edition of 5 This image was captured on film. The negative was scanned creating a digital file which was then print...
Category

1990s Contemporary Ellen von Unwerth Photography

Materials

Archival Paper, Archival Pigment, Photographic Film, Black and White, Pi...

Ellen Von Unwerth photography for sale on 1stDibs.

Find a wide variety of authentic Ellen von Unwerth photography available for sale on 1stDibs. If you’re browsing the collection of photography to introduce a pop of color in a neutral corner of your living room or bedroom, you can find work that includes elements of orange, red, blue and other colors. You can also browse by medium to find art by Ellen von Unwerth in pigment print, archival pigment print, silver gelatin print and more. Much of the original work by this artist or collective was created during the 21st century and contemporary and is mostly associated with the contemporary style. Not every interior allows for large Ellen von Unwerth photography, so small editions measuring 12 inches across are available. Customers who are interested in this artist might also find the work of Frank Schott, Joachim Schmeisser, and Guido Argentini.

Recently Viewed

View All