The World in Black and White: Fine Art Photography

This lecture looks at the origins and development of black and white photography as an art form and its main practitioners. Beginning with the pioneers such as Alfred Stieglitz who helped make photography an accepted art form in America in the 1920s. This paved the way for masters of landscape photography such as Ansel Adams whose 60 year career captured the breathtaking power of America’s natural beauty.  

This lecture  by Art historian Catherine Wallace also includes the great photographers of people and architecture such as the French master, Henri Cartier – Bresson who, with his fellow photo-journalists Robert Capa, David Seymour, William Vandivert, George Rodger founded the co-operative picture agency Magnum Photos in 1947. The French surrealist photographer Man Ray influenced many European and American photographers. He was famous for creating rayographs, and along with Lee Miller experimented with other darkroom techniques such as solarization.  

Lee Miller went on to become an important fine art photographer in her own right and was both a war and fashion photographer for Vogue magazine.

Despite the innovation and now wide spread use of colour photography, many contemporary photographers still use this monochromatic medium to make powerful images. This lecture looks at some of these contemporary artists.

Talk by Catherine Wallace

Image: Ansel Adams (1902-1984) Valley View, Yosemite National Park, California, 1936 Gelatin silver print

Age Guidance: 18+

The World in Black and White: Fine Art Photography

Thursday 26th November 2.30pm

Tickets: £13.00

A £1 Poly Fund payment is added to each ticket sold. A 50p booking fee is also applied per ticket for online and telephone transactions.