Black and White Photographs

Artists Describing Their Art:

Paul Berriff - Bruno Paolo Benedetti - Bruno Paolo Benedetti, born in the year 1954, began to take pictures, studying perspective and photo techniques, in the year 1968. Since the begin he was concerned with black and white photography, observing the contrast s of the nature, the lights and interpreting the reality around him. When he was 25 he began to work in the dark room, enhancing his technique using filters, high contrast films for making his first pictures of surreal and abstract photography. At the same time he began journeying around Europe and the world: India, Nepal, Bhutan, Southern America, South Africa, Egypt, Comoros islands are some of the most visited places. The study of the religions, the mysticism in all of them, inspired his artistic production, especially his surreal photography, where cultural and religious archetypes are depicted. The abstract non objective photography is the other branch of his work. It starts from the observation of the nature in all its manifestations: water, lights, colors, shores, flowers, ice All the colors are not elaborated and strictly natural, highlighting hidden particulars and changing the images into fluid shapes, where each watcher can see new images created by his emotions and fantasy. In both styles of pictures the ...

Neil Howe - You might say I am a post-postmodernist, my art is eclectic, I borrow from contemporary electronic media and from the past to create new digital images. The images I create I call 'BODYSCAPES', that is, landscapes of the human body and it's social condition. These BODYSCAPES are created in the computer through a process where photographic images of the human body, either photographed by the artist or sourced and collaged from the public domain, are transformed into a simulated landscape that is richly varied in form and texture, in essence a virtual 3D matrix populated with simulated organic forms which in part are influenced by Bill Brandt's enigmatic figures in the landscape and Man Ray's experiments with light and form. These landscapes of the body, while synthetic, deliberately remind the viewer of forms and textures from the natural world but at the same time confound with unexpected surrealism prompting questions like, where is the light coming from? Is it a body part or a rock form? So BODYSCAPES are about landscapes in and of the body, this concerns both form and meaning encompassing social politics as well as politics of the body. In other words I ...

Obert Fittje - In addition to the mythology of our culture, we all have certain experiences, expressions and images that have deep personal significance and meaning. These form the foundation of our personal mythology. Some of us have richer and more elaborate personal mythologies than others. Recently I came to the realization that I was mainly painting the images of my own personal mythology. I am self taught as a painter and after painting for eleven years, I consider that to my advantage as the icons of my mythology are rarely something out there in the material world. My paintings lie somewhere between the presence and the absence of an identifiable image. It would have been a waste of time for me to have spent years learning the techniques to make my paintings look realistic because the subjects of my mythology are mostly imaginary. I do not go outside to nature to find the subjects of my paintings, but rather I paint inside using my imagination and the images of my personal mythology. As a retired professional psychologist, I have been trained in the use of projective tests such as the Rorschach Inkblots where the observer is presented with purposely-vague images. The ...

Manolis Tsantakis - The subject "Woman and Nature" which is the title of my photographs, It becomes an endless source of inspiration. Nature is perfect but also so fickle. The lighting and weather interchanges during a day could be unbelievable. Nature some times has a melancholic mood, but it could also elevate your senses. It offers tranquility and happiness, but also fear and insecurity. Woman, as a female gender by nature, matches perfectly with Nature, and it create within me, exactly the same feelings. It is a constant challenge for me, to tie together in perfect harmony these two live elements and create images of dreams and fantasy. ...

Susan Brannon - My photographs are simply about people: their passions, their struggles, and their lives. "I am interested in gathering the truth of events, the behind the scenes stories, rather than the mainstream headline news." The positive aspect of this work is the challenge to connect with the subject and the ability to tell the story through an image. When the connection occurs I feel that the image can humanize the subject or situation, and generate a better understanding with the viewer, the community and society. I do this by not just being a passive observer and outsider to an event, but instead working as an active and engaged participant in the lives and events I record. It is important to gain trust with the subject and environment in order to capture real rather than posed expressions or actions. I like using natural light while taking images because the shadows can be soft compared to artificial light, which can make the image somewhat harsh. I shoot raw, when developing I create a border around the image to show that the image has not been cropped or altered. The border is my signature and it provides a feeling of accomplishment to my personal ...

Corrie Ancone - Artist statement : "I don't care for the certainty of what's in front of my lens, but the creativity, the fantasy, the invention, that can gush from a thought before or thereafter. Between the certain and the uncertain there is a possible space, as in dreams and fables. Heavily influenced by mythology, nature and the techniques and working styles of the early European Dadaists, Impressionists and Baroque artists, my creativity stems from my lust for finding and exploring sympathies between the human body, the landscape and its textures. Oscillating between transparency and opacity, colours and images collide in my work, creating new visual and emotional images, often painterly and somewhat surreal, which affect perceptions of natural reality. This is sometimes described as 'synthetic realism'." Corrie Ancone ...