Documentary and reportage, self-portrait, street photography, studio work, analogue and digital collages – the breadth of talent on display in the LensCulture Black and White Awards is dizzying. The annual prize celebrates images, stories and ideas that resonate because they are rendered in black and white. Those involved come from 22 countries, using a wealth of personal experiences to create art that brings these unique perspectives to life. Here, we bring you five exception images from this years’ finalists.
Astrid Vernhoef is known for works that recontextualise normality, considering our relationship with the environment. Human / Nature is a continuation of her Inscape series, in which she places herself in desolate landscapes. Her character wants to connect with the surroundings but can feel out of place. Here, she uses an even more minimal visual language and an increasingly geometric approach to composition, contrasting the human presence and the natural surroundings. The protagonist slips more and more into anonymity, sometimes leaving not much more than a human shape.
How do we think about beauty in a world of artificial intelligence? Norberto Pezzotta believes the answer lies in authenticity. It is not just what appears externally, but is influenced by our personal experiences, memories and cultural influences. Yet technology produces a homogenised, uniform aesthetic based on algorithms fed by limited and partial data. In his work, the artist uses AI to generate images that, once printed, are used in a studio alongside real models. The result is a reflection of an inclusive and diverse vision of beauty that is inclusive and representative of human variety.
Curling clouds of mist catch the sunlight, framing figures hidden by shadow. Isabel Pinto’s photograph is a masterclass in light and dark, creating a mystery and beauty in the everyday scenes she documents. Her series was shot on the set of her brother’s film, a fact that fits into the trajectory of Pinto’s life. She originally studied anthropology, but when she started travelling with Portuguese rock bands she turned her hand to lens-based work. The artist offers us a glimpse behind the curtain of music and film, slowly the fast-paced industry down and distilling it into exquisite moments of calm.
Zhang Wei re-examines historical events, movie stills, ancient paintings and classic documentary photographs and transforms them into chaotic, pseudo-historical montages. He uses digital collage to blur the lines between reality and illusion. The result is a parallel world to our own, where images are somehow familiar and yet eerily distorted. Puppet Archive is a continuation of this career-long exploration, placing animatronic and doll-like figures into surreal scenes to create a fiction. The series was named the overall winner of the prize, and acts as testament to artistic innovation.
In her series When We Close Our Eyes and Ask: What is Love?, Luiza Kons (b. 1993) describes her photographs as capturing “a chaotic universe bound by strangeness, mistakes, imperfection. In a journey to invent life on our own terms”. The Brazilian artist uses photography as a tool to reflect human relationships and connections, discussing ideas of gender and belonging. Her work is not bound by linear storytelling or to a single style of imagery, instead the unself-conscious pictures capture what it really means to exist in the moment, they’re unchoreographed, intimate and authentic.
Words: Emma Jacob
Image Credits:
Human//Nature #17 © Astrid Verhoef.
Human//Nature #23 © Astrid Verhoef.
The Doll © Norberto Pezzotta.
O Último Verão 4. Set photography for the movie O Último Verão by João Nuno Pinto © Isabel Pinto.
Puppet Archive–Machinery Expo 2019. The commissioner in charge of procurement was attracted by a second-hand robot called “Promotion Genius” at the Spring Science and Technology Fair. © Wei Zhang.
From the series, When We Close Our Eyes and Ask: What is Love? © Luiza Kons.
