By Stephen Perloff,
Editor of The Photograph Collector Newsletter

Sotheby's three spring sales of Photographs in New York on April 7 and 8 totaled $17,302,050 on estimates of $9-14 million. Though Sotheby's press office claimed "with each sale far exceeding its individual high estimate," in fact, as the estimates do not include the premium, the total was very close to the high estimate--still impressive nonetheless.

The season was highlighted by two single-owner sales: "The Quillan Collection of Nineteenth and Twentieth Century Photographs", which brought $8,901,350 ($4.5–7 million), and "Edward Weston's Gifts to His Sister and Other Photographs", which achieved $1,530,375 ($900,000–1.4 million). A various-owners sale of photographs also performed strongly, realizing $6,870,325 ($3.6–5.6 million). Records were set across the three sales for a total of 25 artists at auction.

Sotheby's led off with an evening sale of "The Quillan Collection", the 69-print group of rare and unique images, assembled by Jill Quasha, a private photography dealer/consultant who specializes in building both public and private collections, on behalf of what ostensibly was the Quillan Company, an investment group. One lot, a photogram of a leaf originally attributed to Talbot here, was the subject of speculation that it could actually be an even earlier work, and was withdrawn for "further study" (more on that in a later issue).

Quasha amassed the collection essentially over two years, from 1988–90, acquiring work from 16 different dealers and a few auctions, and the collection was published as a catalogue in 1991. Yet like the elusive great white shark in Jaws, one got only a few glimpses of parts of it over the years as individual pictures were loaned to various exhibitions. But the collection as a whole had never been seen together until the exciting climax--that is, until the auction preview.

The room was packed and expectant as the sale began. The hard part for yours truly is where to draw the line on which lots to report on. I'll be slightly judicious. Peter MacGill lit up the field for Walker Evans's Candle Shop, New York City ($50,000–$70,000) at $133,000. The cover lot, Imogen Cunningham's Banana Plant, went to a phone bidder under the low estimate at $73,000.

A phone bidder, L0049, who would prove to be very active, grabbed Jaromír Funke's Kompozice (Composition) ($60,000–$90,000) at $193,000. Dealer Robert Koch was the underbidder. Next L0049 bested Howard Greenberg for Paul Outerbridge, Jr.'s Eggs and Bowl ($70,000–$100,000), paying $151,000 for this breakfast.

A lush platinum print by Paul Strand of his wife Rebecca ($600,000–$900,000), one of only two known prints, was reportedly a disappointment to Quasha as it sold below estimate for "only" $645,800, to Peter MacGill, this time consulting with a client on a cell phone. Still it was a record for the artist at auction and the second highest price of the sale. Howard Greenberg picked up Atget's French prostitute, Versailles, Maison Close, Petite Place ($80,000–$120,000) for $115,000, over the bid of Eliot Spitzer. (Oooh, just kidding!)

L0049 made peace with Curtis's Chief Joseph ($50,000–$80,000) for $169,000, an auction record. Jeffrey Fraenkel entered the bidding for August Sander's Werkstudenten, 1926 ($150,000–$250,000) at $290,000 but he finally yielded to a phone bidder at $493,000, the third highest price of the evening and an auction record. Collector Jack Hastings made a play for Henry Peach Robinson's She Never Told Her Love, but he too was outbid on the phones at $169,000, an auction record for Robinson.

Christian Schad's unique photogram, Renseignements ($200,000–$300,000), sold for $181,000. Art consultant Parker Stevenson took Hans Bellmer's La Poupée for $325,000, another auction record and fifth on the top ten. L0049 climbed the stairs for Tina Modotti's Stadio a Cittá del Messico (Stadium, Mexico City) ($150,000–$200,000) at $145,000.

Lot 19 was Edward Weston's Nude, 1925, of Miriam Lerner ($600,000–$900,000). The abstract form is similar to some of his cloud studies and this early print--one of three extant--represents a turning point in his career. After a protracted battle, Peter MacGill finally claimed the prize at $1,609,000 to a round of applause. It was the top lot of the sale and of course a new auction record for Weston.

Bill Brandt's Van Gogh's Room in the Asylum of St. Paul-de-Mausole (St. Rémy) ($50,000–$70,000), 1950, was one of the most personal choices in the collection and represents Quasha's ability to find significant pictures by artists other than their best known hits. Here her intuition paid off as L0049 paid an arm and a leg--if not an ear: $265,000. Yes, it was another auction record and number nine on the top ten.

Robert Koch made a play for Lewis Carroll's Alexandra Kitchin ($80,000–$120,000), but it went to the phones for $133,000. An early print of Robert Frank's Mississippi River ($50,000–$70,000) attracted a lot of attention. Clemens Vedder of Berlin's Camera Work Gallery went to $100,000, Jack Hastings upped that to $110,000, but ultimately Jeffrey Fraenkel held off a phone bidder at $205,000.

L0049 roped Garry Winogrand's iconic Wyoming, the picture of a steer on the road as seen through a car windshield, for $37,000, not a top price in the sale, but still more than three times the high estimate. Howard Greenberg feared no evil--or other bidders--as he captured Roger Fenton's Valley of the Shadow of Death for $157,000, probably for a client, as he was consulting on his cell phone.

Next came an epic battle reminiscent of the final round of the first Rocky movie. Richard Avedon's Marilyn Monroe, from an edition of four in this size, was the prize. Each blow seemed to land in slow motion, as auctioneer Denise Bethel--for some reason--proceeded in increments of $10,000. As she paused for a moment amidst the escalating price she remarked, "I'm doing my deep breathing." So was everyone else. Unlike Apollo Creed, however, the upstart won here, as Robert Klein out-pointed Jeffrey Fraenkel at $457,000, number four in the sale and the sixth of seven record prices among the top ten.

By the way, we're not yet halfway through this sale.

A phone bidder danced off with Edward Steichen's Charlie Chaplin for $91,000, just under low estimate. Peter MacGill, again on the phone, almost tripled the high estimate for Cindy Sherman's Untitled Film Still #53, 1980, at $313,000, number six for the sale. Dealer Jeffrey Fraenkel, who represents the Arbus estate, walked down the aisle with Diane Arbus's A Flower Girl at a Wedding at $79,000, but this was one print that had little action and the price was just under low estimate.

L0049 matched the high estimate and set the last of the auction records among the top ten, paying $301,000 for Laszlo Moholy-Nagy's Photogram, 1920s (seventh place). A phone bidder drifted off with Gustave Le Gray's Cloud Study, Sète, for $109,000, under low estimate. Then L0049 got a bargain as a vintage print of André Kertész's Mondrian's Pipe and Glasses went for only $121,000, two-thirds of the low estimate.

Dorothea Lange's San Francisco Waterfront, 1933 ($50,000–$70,000), was another case like the Brandt where Quasha found a rare, early print that is not among Lange's best-known images but well represents her photographic ethos. The bidders agreed as it sold for $289,000 (eighth place) to the phone.

A vintage silver print of an Irving Penn New York Still Life, 1947, seemed a bit underestimated at $10,000-$15,000. It went to the phone for $61,000. Robert Koch bought Josef Sudek's pigment print Konvalinka (Lily of the Valley) over estimate at $58,600. Robert Klein got his second lot, Timothy O'Sullivan's Ancient Ruins in the Cañon de Chelle ($15,000–$25,000), for $91,000, an auction record for O'Sullivan. The same phone bidder who took the Lange, climbed to $265,000 (tied for ninth place), within estimate, for Carleton E. Watkins's Tasayac, Half Dome from Glacier Point, Yosemite.

L0049 topped the estimates for two more prints: Charles Marville's Paris: La Bièvre entre les rues Pascal et Cochin at $103,000 and Iller's half-plate daguerreotype, Vue du Palais de San Donato at $58,600. Both were auction records. L0049 ended up purchasing 15 lots for a total of $1,757,400--second in dollar value only to Peter MacGill. And the last major lot, Frantisek Drtikol's Composition, a pigment print nude, went to Robert Koch at $61,000.

The sale set records for 18 artists at auction, including--in addition to those noted above--Adam Clark Vroman, Louis de Clerq, Francis Bruguiére, Francis Frith and William Henry Jackson.

The evening was a success--a huge success, but not, as I almost wrote, an unqualified success. There were a few qualifications. Undoubtedly, the return over 18 to 20 years was quite good for numerous prints: very probably the Weston, certainly the Sherman, and no doubt many others.

But there were four prints bought at auction that we can track. Cunningham's Bananas sold at Sotheby's in April 1989 for $23,100. It hammered at $60,000 now. We'll give the benefit of the doubt here and say that there was no seller's premium for this sale. Thus the compound return was 5.25%--perhaps adequate for a retiree seeking a safe investment, but not indicative of the go-go economy of the late 1990s and early 2000s.

A large-format gravure of Stieglitz's The Steerage sold at Swann in October 1989 for $7,260. Here it hammered for $26,000, a slightly better 7.1% return. The Moholy-Nagy Photogram was the first print in the collection. In the interview in the back of the catalogue it's listed as being acquired in 1989, but it is listed correctly on the catalogue page as being acquired at Sotheby's in November 1988--for $49,500. It hammered here for $250,000, a more palatable 8.7% return, but still far below many mutual funds in this era. And lastly, Steichen's Charlie Chaplin was bought at Sotheby's in October 1989 for $52,800 and hammered here for $75,000, a meager 1.96% return.

The New York Times reported that it cost about $2 million to acquire the collection. If that figure is true--and it is reasonable--the compound return for the entire collection was just under 7.2%. Even if you added in the low estimate for the few lots that passed (another $80,000), it would change that rate by less than one-tenth of a point. And even if the Leaf sold for $1 million (value implied by Sotheby's price on request notation), the return would still be less than 8%. True, the $2 million figure could be somewhat high, but this is much less than the photography market as a whole grew during this period, and it shows that buying closer to the top of the market does not necessarily carry with it the best long-term monetary rewards.

There is one other issue that was on many people's minds, but that Sotheby's--and Quasha--tried to downplay, if not avoid altogether: that is, what exactly was this Quillan Company? When the collection was put together and the original book/catalogue was published, there was no internet. But by the time of the auction interested parties could easily google "Quillan Company" and find that there seemed to be no such entity. Questions arose as to what this "company" actually was. Did it manufacture something, provide a service, or might it just be a consortium of collectors (this latter choice not an unusual enterprise these days)? When I spoke to Quasha on the phone and asked her straightforwardly about the nature of Quillan, she was uncharacteristically defensive, saying that it was a consortium of collectors, that she was just the agent and had no ownership interest, but also that my question was "ridiculous."

Unfortunately, this lack of transparency led to speculation, rumor, and hard feelings. Several people asked me to investigate what the Quillan Company was. Others deciphered the name Quillan as a portmanteau of the names Quasha, Jill, and her brother Alan: QU(asha)(j)ILL(al)AN. More than a few decided that Alan must be the sole or primary owner, or that Quillan was really jointly owned by Jill and her brother.

Certainly Alan Quasha is a problematic figure to many. He is the controversial financier who bailed out George W. Bush's failing oil company in 1986, folding it into his own company, Harken Energy. His reputed ties to U.S. and foreign intelligence communities, his labyrinthine business dealings, and his reported support of both Hillary Clinton and Mitt Romney in the recent election primary campaigns have been grist for the political press. There is much more, but you can do your own research on Alan Quasha and Harken Energy. And it did not help that the Quillan Company was registered in the British Virgin Islands.

There were those who found some of the high prices suspect and questioned if some of the phone bidders were legitimate collectors, or bidders with more political intentions. And surprisingly, several people were harshly bitter because Quillan was presented as having the façade of a real company.

While I understand how people can get angry at the perception that they were misled, in Jill Quasha's defense I will say that no dealer I talked to reported that she had ever asked for a discount or special consideration in putting together the collection, including Edwynn Houk, who sold her 14 prints, more than any other dealer.

(Copyright ©2008 by The Photo Review. My thanks to Steve Perloff and The Photograph Collector Newsletter for giving me permission to use this information. The Photograph Collector, which is a wonderful newsletter that I can heartily recommend, is published monthly and is available by subscription for $149.95 (overseas airmail is $169.95). You can phone 1-215-891-0214 and charge your subscription or send a check or money order to: The Photograph Collector, 140 East Richardson Ave, Langhorne, PA 19047.)

 

By Stephen Perloff,
Editor of The Photograph Collector Newsletter

Sotheby's continued on April 8 with a sale of Edward Weston's Gifts to His Sister and Other Photographs--more than 40 photographs by Edward Weston and nine photographs by his son Brett, all of which had remained with descendants of the Weston family since their making--which achieved $1,530,375 on an estimate of $900,000–$1.4 million. While the best pieces did well and the buy-in rate was only 6%, almost as many lots sold for below their low estimates as above their high estimates (15 to 17).

The top lot was Nude on the Sand, Oceano, which sold for $325,000 ($120,000–$180,000) to a phone bidder. Other top prices were achieved for Dunes, Oceano, which went for $181,000 ($120,000–$180,000), to another phone, and Bananas, which was picked by a European collector on the phone for $85,000 ($80,000–$120,000). A number of rarely-seen Edward Weston photographs from his Guggenheim fellowships and his Leaves of Grass project were offered, setting new benchmarks for this work, including $44,200 for Grand Cañon of the Colorado ($20,000–$30,000), $55,000 for a study of Connecticut Barns ($20,000–$30,000), and $37,000 for Gulf Oil, Port Arthur ($12,000–$18,000), which was bought by San Francisco dealer Michael Shapiro. Brett Weston's Dune, Oceano, was also among the top lots, bringing $44,200 ($20,000–$30,000). Edward Weston's Dunes at Oceano, 1936 ($25,000–$35,000) just topped that at $46,600, going to Connecticut dealer William Schaeffer.

A phone bidder outprayed Paul Hertzmann for Edward Weston's Church, Motherlode (Church Door, Hornitos), circa 1940 ($40,000–$60,000) at $61,000. N. Coast (Wrecked Car, Crescent Beach), 1938 ($20,000–$30,000) clattered to $49,000.

Mark Zaplin, of the Zaplin Lampert Gallery of Santa Fe, bidding on the phone, paid $37,000 ($20,000–$30,000) for Taos Pueblo, circa 1933. And an anonymous phone bidder equaled that for Death Valley, 1937 ($15,000–$25,000).

There was a wide range of other successful bidders in the room, including dealers and collectors Mack Lee, Paul Hertzmann, Scott Nichols, Richard Moore, Michael Mattis, Kenneth Wynn, Jack Hastings and Zelda Cheatle.

(Copyright ©2008 by The Photo Review. My thanks to Steve Perloff and The Photograph Collector Newsletter for giving me permission to use this information. The Photograph Collector, which is a wonderful newsletter that I can heartily recommend, is published monthly and is available by subscription for $149.95 (overseas airmail is $169.95). You can phone 1-215-891-0214 and charge your subscription or send a check or money order to: The Photograph Collector, 140 East Richardson Ave, Langhorne, PA 19047.)

 

By Stephen Perloff,
Editor of The Photograph Collector Newsletter

The various-owners sale opened with a run of mostly Ansel Adams prints. James Alinder shoveled up Adams's Oak Tree Snow Storm for $79,000, well over high estimate. An oversized Moonrise went to phone bidder L0132 for $157,000, just over high estimate and tying for eighth place in the sale. Clearing Winter Storm ($30,000–$50,000) went to another phone for $85,000. New York dealer Robert Mann scaled Monolith, the Face of Half Dome at $53,800, again over the high estimate. Another phone bidder bested Alinder for Bridal Veil Fall at $67,000, more than double the high estimate. Maroon Bells rang at $79,000. A vintage print of Thundercloud, Lake Tahoe, resounded at $61,000 (again, double the high estimate), and a vintage print of Clearing Winter Storm ($40,000–$60,000) swept through at $97,000. And the last notable Adams lot, Half Dome and Moon ($30,000–$50,000) went for $91,000 to the same phone bidder who bought Moonrise.

A phone bidder topped New Orleans gallerist Joshua Mann Paillet for a large-format gravure of Alfred Stieglitz's Steerage that was signed and inscribed ($70,000–$100,000), paying $91,000. Karl Struss's Metropolitan Tower—Twilight from 1909 ($30,000–$50,000) brought $313,000 from L0132 over Robert Klein, the third highest price of the sale and setting a new record for the artist at auction. Howard Greenberg solved Edward Steichen's Harmonica Riddle, a rich and rare multiple-process print, for $115,000, just under the low estimate. Then L0132 was back again for Clarence White's Telegraph Poles, wiring $103,000.

Pierre Apraxine, consulting on his cell phone, captured a half-plate daguerreotype, Albert Southworth & Josiah Hawes's Portrait of Samuel Appleton, circa 1850, for $409,000, the second highest price of the sale, more than four times its top estimate of $90,000, and setting a new record for the artists as well as for an American daguerreotype at auction. But the new record was set only because of Sotheby's new higher premiums. Edwynn Houk came up short as a phone bidder paid $79,000 for a signed vintage print of Walker Evans's Alabama Tenant Farmer (Bud Fields), yet again more than double the high estimate.

Beginning the afternoon session, Michael Shapiro went shopping for a client for Edward Weston's Leeks, 1927 ($80,000–$120,000), paying $229,000, number five on the top ten. Weston's Dunes, Oceano, 1936 ($150,000–$250,000), brought $169,000, seventh place. L0132 flew off with Pierre Dubreuil's Titan du Ceil (Aviator) ($50,000–$70,000) for $97,000. In sixth place was Man Ray's Champs Délicieux ($200,000–$300,000) at $217,000. Man Ray's Untitled Rayograph, 1926 ($150,000–$250,000) tied for eighth place at $157,000.

L0132 held off the bidding of Howard Greenberg to take Paul Outerbridge, Jr.'s Kandinsky, 1937 ($150,000–$250,000), a color carbro still life, at $241,000, fourth place. Another Outerbridge, Political Thinking, tripled its high estimate at $109,000. In tenth place was Robert Mapplethorpe's Calla Lily, 1984, which went to a European dealer bidding by phone, for $145,000.

The cover lot, Robert Frank's Paris, went just under high estimate at $58,600, but many other Frank's sold over their high estimates, including Marilyn Dead at $61,000. The picture shows a family at the beach with a young boy reading the Daily News with that headline. Oddly, I know just where I was that day: Portland, Pennsylvania. We had just finished a three-day canoe trip on the Delaware River and when we landed the racks of newspapers outside the local drug store were filled with newspapers with that headline and similar ones, as well as stories on thalidomide babies.

The top lot of the sale came near the end, Diane Arbus's A Family on the Lawn One Sunday in Westchester, N.Y., 1968 ($200,000–$300,000), which Jeffrey Fraenkel took for $553,000, a new record for the artist at auction. Lastly, L0132 more than doubled the high estimate for Shirin Neshat's Untitled (from the Women of Allah series), paying $63,400.

Sotheby's various-owners sale totaled $6,870,325 with a buy-in rate under 10% and set seven auction records, also, in addition to those cited above, for William Dassonville, Minor White, Walter Peterhans and Henry Wessel, Jr.

Denise Bethel, Senior Vice President and Director of Sotheby's Photographs department in New York said, "This was an outstanding series of sales. The fine art photographs market has never been more vibrant. The response to great material, as evidenced by our overwhelming number of individual artists' records, is as strong as ever. We offered 300 lots--and only 26 did not sell. Our total is a record for a Sotheby's season of photographs sales."

(Copyright ©2008 by The Photo Review. My thanks to Steve Perloff and The Photograph Collector Newsletter for giving me permission to use this information. The Photograph Collector, which is a wonderful newsletter that I can heartily recommend, is published monthly and is available by subscription for $149.95 (overseas airmail is $169.95). You can phone 1-215-891-0214 and charge your subscription or send a check or money order to: The Photograph Collector, 140 East Richardson Ave, Langhorne, PA 19047.)

 

As we've done with the previous Jammmes' auctions, you get to hear it here first: the fourth Jammes' sale is set for Sotheby's Paris this November.

Reportedly some of the buy-ins from the previous sales will be on offer, as well as numerous new items from the collection. The formal announcement in September will have more details.

 

The Andrew Smith Gallery has joined the I Photo Central website's member galleries. It is the one of the world's leading photography galleries selling 19th and 20th-century classical and contemporary original photographs. You can see the photography offered by the gallery up on the I Photo Central website here: http://www.iphotocentral.com/search/result_list.php/64/14/0 . There are over 2,000 great images just added to the site by this gallery.

The gallery has been in the business of buying, selling and exhibiting fine historic and contemporary photography since 1974. Beginning with the sale of three Edward Curtis prints to the Madison Art Center in that year, Andrew Smith expanded his interests in both finding important collections and masterpieces and in exhibiting an eclectic mixture of the finest regional, national and international fine art photographs. In the past 10 years the gallery has had an estimated 500,000 visitors. There are also now two locations for the gallery in the historic plaza district of Santa Fe, NM.

The gallery is known internationally for Historic and Classic Western American Photography and is a major source of collections of work by Ansel Adams, Timothy O'Sullivan, Carleton Watkins, Adam Clark Vroman, William Henry Jackson, Laura Gilpin and Edward S. Curtis.

Among the subject areas in inventory are portraiture, landscape, documentary, fashion, nudes by Flor Garduno, still life, alternative processes, New York City, the American West and the American Indian.

The Andrew Smith Gallery actively represents some of the most famous photographers, such as Paul Caponigro, Eliot Erwitt, Lee Friedlander, Annie Leibovitz, Herman Leonard and Jerry Uelsmann, to other noted regional, national and international photographers, including Christopher Burkett, Miguel Gandert, Joan Myers, Jack Spencer, Barbara Van Cleve, Jody Forster, Alan Ross and Delilah Montoya. The gallery also works with the leading Native American contemporary photographers Victor Masayesva Jr., Hulleah Tsinhnahjinnie, Larry McNeil, Shelley Niro and Zig Jackson.

The older gallery is located at 203 W. San Francisco St., Santa Fe, NM 87501, and currently has a special exhibition by Shelley Niro ( Hiawatha's Belt and Other Visions ) as well as special collections of work by Ansel Adams (Recent Acquisitions) and Jack Spencer (Recent Work: This Land, Gestures, Portraits).

The new gallery located at 122 Grant Avenue, next to the Georgia O'Keeffe museum, currently has two special exhibitions, Joan Myers(Brimstone) and Ansel Adams (Introducing the David H. Arrington Collection of Ansel Adams).

You can also view these exhibitions on line http://www.andrewsmithgallery.com/home.html . You can contact the gallery by email at: info@andrewsmithgallery.com ; or by phone at: 1-505-984-1234.

 

There were over 100 new photographs added to the I Photo Central site in just the last week (click here to see the newest ones: http://www.iphotocentral.com/search/result_list.php/16/7/0 , with nearly 2,300 added in just the last month (click here to see those in the last month: http://www.iphotocentral.com/search/result_list.php/16/30/0 .

Some of the photographs that were added in the last week include a group of Leonard Misonne pictorialist work; some vintage Henri Cartier-Bresson images; a large Herbert Ponting carbon print of "The Freezing of the Sea"; a large Edouard Baldus of the Bibliotheque Imperiale du Louvre, Paris with Horse Cart; a fine group of photographs by Linked Ring member, Francis Allen Bolton; and a number of beautiful female nudes by both Willy Kessels and Sasha or Cami Stone--just to mention a few.

Three Special Exhibits were also put up this past week:
"Henri Cartier-Bresson: Decisive Moments":
http://www.iphotocentral.com/showcase/showcase_view.php/185/1/0 .
"Léonard Misonne: Images Made of Light":
http://www.iphotocentral.com/showcase/showcase_view.php/184/1/0 .
"Francis Bolton: Missionary for the Linked Ring":
http://www.iphotocentral.com/showcase/showcase_view.php/183/1/0 .

Of course, our photography dealers continue to add and change these Special Exhibits, which now number 120 different exhibits, which you can view here: http://www.iphotocentral.com/showcase/showcase.php .

 

By Matt Damsker

AMERICAN PHOTOBOOTH.
By Nakii Goranin. 2008, W.W. Norton & Co., Inc., New York, London. 223 pgs.; approximately 200 photographs. ISBN Nos. 978-0-393-06556-5 (hardcover); 978-0-393-33076-2 (paperback). Information: http://www.wwnorton.com .

Among all that we take for granted in popular culture, the photobooth--that curtained locus of impulsive self-portraiture that once clacked and wheezed on just about every boardwalk and midway in America--has probably gotten less respect than it deserves. Before the darkroom-dismissing magic of the Polaroid Land Camera and long before the digital advent of pixel-swapping cell phones, there was the automated, 25-cent photobooth, spewing out the only instant snapshots to be had anywhere.

Photobooths became the epitome of photography's democratizing spirit, and it is hard to imagine anyone over the age of 40 who hasn't crammed into one with friends, family, would-be (and won't-be) lovers. A typically fast, giggly session soon yielded a strip of oddly poignant portraits, briefly redolent of developing fluid as it curled up in one's hand. (And how come there was never a Twilight Zone episode about a haunted photobooth that delivered scary images of the future?) For most of us, the photobooth was a kind of psychodramatic detour--C'mon, let's take our picture!--on the way to or from the places where our lives actually happened. Indeed, few artifacts so perfectly convey a sense of life on-the-fly as its hurried images of folks in their coats, hats, scarves, or military uniforms, of couples kissing shamelessly, and of cut-ups mugging in brief fits of photo-mockery. Indeed, how many millions of us have stuck out our tongues at that non-existent photobooth "photographer," emboldened by the fact that no one is actually there to pass judgment?

It's probably a good thing that Nakki Goranin's new book on the subject doesn't delve too far into such psychology, since there may not be much more to conclude other than that photobooths are inherently whimsical, private spaces that invite a certain loosening of inhibition, not unlike a stiff drink. Instead, Goranin's "American Photobooth" concentrates on the history of the innovation, and reproduces a wonderful collection of vintage photobooth portraiture that reminds us, as vintage snapshots tend to do, of how innocent we once were before the camera.

Apparently (and perhaps amazingly), this is the first such published account of the photobooth's origins and evolution, and as such it is overdue. (Editor's note: Weston Naef rightly points out that Babbette Hines, "Photobooth", Princeton Architectural Press, 2002, predates this book.) Goranin's loving narrative traces the invention of the "photomaton" to a Siberian immigrant named Anatol Josepho, who struggled devotedly with the idea, improving upon lesser automatic photo machines, until he crafted a durable process for producing a positive image directly on pretreated paper, mechanically moving it through different chambers of developing solution, water, bleach, fixer, toner, into a dryer and out of the machine. Eventually, Josepho opened his Photomaton Studio on Broadway, between 51st and 52nd streets, in 1925. For 25 cents, the machine delivered a strip of eight different photos, and it was the sort of New York novelty that had folks lining up in droves. Soon, a consortium of businessmen led by Henry Morganthau, the former American ambassador to Turkey and one of the founders of the American Red Cross, made Josepho a rich man, buying him out of his Photomaton patent for one million dollars. Josepho's labor of love soon made its way to Atlantic City, Coney Island and beyond: American Dream accomplished.

Goranin's history is detailed and neatly written, but it's her collection of photobooth photos that makes the case for the invention's commercial immortality and aesthetic potency, as the flat, unforgiving frontality of the snapshots amounts to a distinctive style. Although hidden from the world's view by the curtain, photobooth subjects can't hide from the camera, and so they are captured in a kind of vulnerable vérité, up close and personal in the truest sense. The greatest image here is probably the1953 honeymoon photo of Jacqueline and John F. Kennedy--a shot worthy of Avedon or Karsh, with a beaming, boisterously handsome JFK and, pressed close behind him in the tightly shared space, a regally reserved Jackie, her white-gloved arm clutching his lapel. No other portrait of the fabled pair seems to convey their personalities with such ease and unstudied grace.

The other photos range widely and well, and there are many interesting shots of solitary sitters, inhabiting the booth with everything from misplaced vanity to exhibitionistic nudity to quiet desperation. Couples dominate, of course, whether mothers and children, brothers and sisters, husbands and wives, or, always, lovers--some sharing a final photographic intimacy before one of them ships out. This is the sort of photography book that sneaks up on you, transcending a first impression as a mere trove of found photography, relentlessly random, and finally asserting some real narrative power amid the purity of so much unguarded imagery.


Matt Damsker is an author and critic, who has written about photography and the arts for the Los Angeles Times, Hartford Courant, Philadelphia Bulletin, Rolling Stone magazine and other publications. His book, "Rock Voices", was published in 1981 by St. Martin's Press. His essay in the book, "Marcus Doyle: Night Vision" was published in the fall of 2005.

(Book publishers, authors and photography galleries/dealers may send review copies to us at: I Photo Central, 258 Inverness Circle, Chalfont, PA 18914. We do not guarantee that we will review all books or catalogues that we receive.)

 

By Stephen Bulger, Stephen Bulger Gallery, Toronto

Photographer Lutz Dille died in France on July 6, 2008.

Dille arrived in Toronto in 1951 and worked in a variety of odd jobs until the late fifties, when CBC television producer Ted Pope saw Lutz's Paris photos and decided to animate them into a short film for television. Following this Lutz started to receive assignments and was able to turn freelance. Apart from his commissioned work, whenever time and money allowed, he set out without any particular social message in mind or preconceived ideas, simply to photograph people. The personal assignments took him across Europe, the United States and Latin America. Three more films featuring his photographs were produced by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation: Ring of Time, Mexico 1960; Speakers Corner, London 1961; and New York Live In, New York City, 1962.

In 1967, the National Film Board of Canada organized the exhibition, "The Many Worlds of Lutz Dille". A catalogue of the same title was published by the NFB at this time, the first of their IMAGE series. In the same year at the Bytown International Exhibition he received the Yousuf Karsh award for the best collection of photographs in the exhibition.

By this time, Lutz was working in film as well as photography. In the early 1960s he'd bought his first movie camera and had started to work freelance for television, particularly in the area of Social Documentary. As an independent filmmaker he produced a number of documentaries and experimental films in which he often utilized both still and moving images. In photography he began to experiment with color printing, texture and form. He explored these aspects in his series "Lanes" which he photographed in the back alleys of downtown Toronto. He exhibited this work at the Arnolfini Centre for Contemporary Art, Bristol, England in 1982.

In 1975 and again in 1977 he visited Salford, an industrial town in the North of England, which was going through a period of drastic social change. Whole neighborhoods were being demolished and people were being uprooted and re-housed in high-rises. Lutz chose to photograph mostly in color and, in fact, this was the only time he chose to photograph people in color.

Lutz returned to Europe in 1980, accompanied by his second wife Mary and soon after their son Oliver was born. Dille was sorely missed by a legion of Toronto friends and colleagues who had grown accustomed to his dominant social presence. He lived in Wales from 1980 until 1985 where he taught a course in Filmmaking at the Newport College of Art, Gwent. He was awarded a British Arts Council Film Grant to make a documentary on the potter Walter Keeler titled "The Mudspinner".

From 1985 until the time of his death, Lutz Dille lived in the south of France, where in recent years his photography has been widely exhibited. In 1990 his Parisphoto series '1951' was edited and distributed by the Griffelkunst in Hamburg, Germany. Between 1993 and 1995 the FNAC Photo Galleries, Paris, organized a retrospective "Lutz Dille, Street Photography" 1951-1968. This exhibition toured major cities in France, Antwerp, Belgium and Germany.

His photographs are found in many private, corporate and public collections, including: National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, Canada; The Canadian Museum of Contemporary Photography, Ottawa Canada; The National Collection of Photography: The Public Archives of Canada; The Museum Of Modern Art (MOMA) New York; The Museum of the City of New York; Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris; Bibliotheque Historique de la Ville de Paris; Griffelkunst-Vereinigung, Hamburg, Germany; The Museum of London, U.K.

In 1995, the "Centre de la Photographie" in France organised a lecture and exhibition titled "Lutz Dille Photographies". In 2004, the catalogue On the Street : Photographs of the 1950s and 1960s by Lutz Dille was published in conjunction with a retrospective exhibition curated by Martin Eberle for Stadtisches Museum, Braunschweig, Germany.

Mary Dille passed away on October 25th, 2006. Lutz is survived by his two daughters from his first marriage, Maya and Zoe, two grandchildren, Francesca and Satchel, and Lutz and Mary's son Oliver.