What's Black and White and should be hanging on my wall?

August 9, 2005 9:56 PM

I have a thing for black and white photographs of architecture and city scenes. Help me find more to hang in my house.

I have a couple favorites in poster size hanging in my living room. One is a Brassai, the other is a famous shot of Grand Central Station. Can you help me find similar photos in large poster size prints? I'm particularily interested in architectural and cityscape that feature strong light and shadow.

posted by cosmicbandito to Media & Arts (13 answers total)

His tones are more muted than the two you cite, but a lot of Josef Sudek's work is architectural, with sunlight slanting in.
posted by xo at 10:18 PM on August 9, 2005

if you want to collect an affordable and still pre-famous photographer, our own rorschach might be persuaded to sell you one of his gorgeous metro prints.
posted by judith at 10:25 PM on August 9, 2005

Poke around in the Cyburbia Gallery. You may also find pictures in the Forums. You gotta look around, but eventually you'll find threads with cool pictures. Here are some old Pittsburgh pictures from a site Cyburbia linked to.
posted by Doohickie at 10:48 PM on August 9, 2005

I am a big fan and collector of the work of Ken Konchel.
posted by bradlands at 11:12 PM on August 9, 2005

Would it be superfluous to mention Flickr?

(Searches such as this, this, or this...)
posted by Chunder at 1:53 AM on August 10, 2005

Edit: (damn!) Depending on the license used, the photographers will generally be happy to let you use the images for your own purposes, providing you credit them where applicable.
Some may only want to sell the image, but it's got to be worth a look... I'm sure that they won't be as expensive as a "real" professional photographer!
posted by Chunder at 1:56 AM on August 10, 2005

Barewalls has a good selection of B&W photography posters for sale; go here , click either the "Black and White" or the "Urban" link, and you'll have a huge assortment to scroll through.
posted by Kat Allison at 5:28 AM on August 10, 2005

Best answer: The New York Public Library has a great online collection and you can order prints online. Lots of Bernice Abbott and Lewis Wickes Hine.

See here: http://digitalgallery.nypl.org/nypldigital/explore/dgexplore.cfm?topic=cities.
posted by Framer at 5:46 AM on August 10, 2005

Best answer: I second Berenice Abbott.
posted by vega5960 at 9:01 AM on August 10, 2005

What I find difficult about buying online is that some photos look really bad at poster size, and it seems to be worse with black and white. Badly enlarged grain is just ugly. In particular, I've seen posters of that Grand Central Station scene that were hideous. They looked like third generation copies or something.
posted by smackfu at 10:28 AM on August 10, 2005

Response by poster: I [heart] Bernice Abbott. Thanks MeFi!
posted by cosmicbandito at 12:15 PM on August 10, 2005

I also recommend Douglas Levere. He has a book out called _Changing New York_. He went back and reshot some of Bernice Abbott's work.
posted by sacre_bleu at 3:35 PM on August 10, 2005

A direct link is: New York Changing
posted by sacre_bleu at 7:31 PM on August 10, 2005