Theme

Black and White

Monochrome work from six artists, where the colour is taken away so that form, light and contrast have to carry the picture. Martin Osner's Classic Black and White, Koos van der Lende's forests and rivers, Antti Viitala's Creatures and Greg du Toit's wildlife. Every print is signed, and the work hangs in Hout Bay.

The story

Take the colour away and the form has to carry it.

Martin Osner's Classic Black and White series is his tribute to Ansel Adams, whom he regards as his mentor. It runs along the Cape, Castle Rock, Misty Cliffs, Moonlight Bay, Orange Kloof, the road to Gamkaskloof, each one made for the tonal range rather than the view.

Ethereal Reverie is the other side of his monochrome work, photographed in the Drakensberg on infra-red film, which turns foliage pale and the water dark and gives the trees that lit from within look. Seven works, each a limited edition of twenty.

Koos van der Lende brings the forests. The Water Pear Tree collection was made on the Lufupa River, where he set reflector boards to throw the morning light back into the trees so each one stands lit as if on a stage, then toned the series like a photograph from the early 1900s. His panoramics are made on slide film and printed without digital alteration, in editions of twenty five across all sizes together.

Antti Viitala's Creatures are eleven studies that strip an animal back to shape and shadow, and Greg du Toit works in black and white when the light does the drawing, in The Great Migration, Zebra Forest and The White Wolf. Martin Osner's City Life and On the Move pictures bring the street into the same room, and Samantha Lee Osner and the emerging artists add the quieter studies.

What you receive

Archival pigment prints on fine art paper, signed by the artist. The Signature Collection works are limited editions, numbered, with a certificate of authenticity; the Portfolio Collection works are open editions, signed. Delivery is free and insured, anywhere in the world.

Seeing the work

Black and white is the hardest thing to judge on a screen, because a screen adds its own contrast. The collection hangs at Osner Gallery in Hout Bay, Cape Town, where you can see the tones in daylight, and the gallery will frame a print for you if you would like it ready to hang.