Category: Black & White

Soulful Stargazing: Photography by Nadia Maria

Nadia Maria is a photographer based in Bauru, Sao Paulo, who creates dark, figurative images that capture stories of emotional pain, awakening, and transformation. Featured here is a series of her images depicting nude men and women enmeshed in constellation-like patterns, looking skyward, or curled up and charted out like geometric equations. Contrasting light with […]

Portraits of Fear by Magdalena Pacewicz

“I still feel fear, but I like to smile,” writes Magdalena Pacewicz, describing the ambivalent subjects of her ghostly overlay photography. Based in Wroclaw, Poland, Pacewicz mixes digital technology with traditional media to create black-and-white portraits, melting together facial features with ghoulish eyes and lipless mouths. Seeking to dive deep into the human psyche, Pacewicz […]

Erotic Line Work Tattoos by Silly Jane

Note: Contains nudity. Silly Jane is a travelling tattoo artist who holds a residency at BSA Tattoo in Aix-en-Provence, France. Inspired by Japanese-style art and taboo illustrations, she inks dark and sensual pieces with flawless line work. Her pensive female subjects embody an endless dreamworld, merging with water and other natural imagery. Visit Silly Jane’s […]

Women, Witchcraft and the Woods: Photography by Rik Garrett

Note: Contains nudity. Using old camera equipment and the nineteenth-century wet plate collodion process, American photographer Rik Garrett created “Earth Magic,” a series exploring the historical, literary, and personal connections between femininity, nature, and the occult. Alone and in groups, the women pose nude, observing arcane rites and channeling a feral beauty. The collection unveils […]

Surreal Graphite Drawings Meditate on the Nature of Pain

Note: Contains slight nudity. Artist Alejandro Garcia Restrepo takes a cinematic approach to his graphite drawings. The dramatic still images feel like scenes from a silent film, full of tension and a desire to know what is next. Characters don strange attire and are found in desperate situations. The overarching theme of these images is […]

Death and Fantasy: Paintings by Takato Yamamoto

Note: Contains nudity. Takato Yamamoto paints gothic scenes that resemble erotic nightmares. He calls his work “Heisei Estheticism,” drawing on the tradition of Japanese woodblock prints and infusing them with images (often violent and sexualized) inspired by modern manga. Recurring motifs include sullen-faced women bound in ropes, rotting corpses festooned with vines, and bloodied vampires […]

Update: Thomas Cian’s Graphite and Watercolor Portraits

The young dreadlock-haired Thomas Cian continues to impress fans with his latest works of art. Many admirers have taken guesses about his technique—i.e. if the graphite was placed first or the wash. The best answer is shown visually at Behance; pencil and water-soluble graphite are used to produce monochromatic portraits of friends and family—see one […]

Diane Arbus’s Photography: Freaks, Transvestites, and Nudists

Note: Contains nudity. From the very start of her photography career, Diane Arbus was drawn to the seamy side of humanity. It became her mission to capture unsavory characters, social outcasts, the kind of people the rest of us turn away from—yet at the same time can’t help but stare at. People with strange physical […]

Smoke, Tentacles, and Myth: Photography by Valeria Chorozidi

Valeria Chorozidi is a fine art photographer from Greece who is ever-drawn to the darkness of things. Until recently, she shot mostly self-portraits inspired by ideas that came to her late at night. While she also now works with other models, self-portraiture continues to serve as an important creative outlet for her personal and aesthetic […]

Eyes Wide Open: The Detailed Pencil Drawings of Flavio Apel

His greatest passion, drawing, started as a hobby. Flavio Apel, born in Italy and also half German, is currently one of the artists permanently displayed at the Gallery Rasch in the palace and park-filled city of Kassel in Germany. His hyperrealistic eye drawings have captured the attention of offline and online viewers, as they are […]