Black and White Photography, Fine Art, Gregory Crewdson, PDN
In Article, Black and White Photography, Photographer on September 3, 2010 at 7:05 am
Gregory Crewdson from “Sanctuary”
Known for his grand cinematic (and expensive) posed color tableaux, Gregory Crewdson has set his approach on its head by taking a cinema studio in Italy and shooting it in Black and White for his book, Sanctuary.
These new images are black and white, lit mostly with available light, and empty of human subjects. Made over the course of a month in summer 2009 on the back lot of the historic Cinecittà movie studio in Rome, they show film sets in various states of disrepair and decay-entire worlds built for the screen, then abandoned until the next production crew comes to remake the space.
The decision to shoot in black and white was based on a desire to reference photographers like Atget, and also because, paradoxically, the sets felt “more real” in black and white. “In color they feel more artificial,” Crewdson says. “There’s also something almost immediately elegiac about black and white.”
For more on this new book: PDN Online
Black and White Photography, Dennis Hopper, Fine Art, MOCA, Wall Street Journal
In Art Museum, Black and White Photography, Exhibits, Photographer on September 1, 2010 at 7:37 am
Dennis Hopper, Double Standard
Curated by Julian Schnable, a posthumous retrospective of art by Dennis Hopper is now on display at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles.
Critics are not fond of many of the paintings and sculptures but are dazzled by the black and white photos Hopper is known for …
Writes Richard Woodward in the Wall Street Journal:
At the heart of the show are Hopper’s black-and-white photographs from the first half of the ’60s. He prided himself on his eye-and rightfully so. Training it by a study of Cartier-Bresson‘s elegant snapshots, he looked at other masters as well. An abiding love for ready-made abstraction, torn posters and peeling paint links him to Aaron Siskind, while the many images of commercial signs recall Walker Evans. The title of the show, “Double Standard,” refers to the name of a 1961 image of a Standard Oil gas station taken by Hopper from his convertible along Route 66. Composed at a stop light, it depicts the monotony, comfort and endless vistas of the American road.
Through September 26 …
For more on the review: WSJ
For more on the exhibit: MOCA
Black and White Photography, Charles Grogg, Fine Art, Joseph Bellows Gallery, photo collector
In Black and White Photography, Exhibits, Gallery, Photo Print Collector, Photographer on August 31, 2010 at 7:19 am
Charles Grogg – From Reconstructions series
Still lifes have always been an interesting subject matter and because of the time allowed and optimal conditions employed, the work can be striking.
Such is the case with the work of photographer Charles Grogg. With expertise as a commercial still life photographer, he brings a full toolkit to his personal images.
Charles Grogg photographs botanicals and other natural imagery isolated from their natural environments. Taken out of their environmental context and in many cases enlarged on paper beyond their usual size, the botanicals offer themselves up for further study and investigation, allowing the delicacy, grace, and inherent sensual details of the flowers and specimens to become forefront.
This is delicate work, utilizing luscious platinum palladium printing, that has layers of substance ready to be peeled back by the viewer.
Now through September 30.
For more see: Joseph Bellows
