By Stephen Perloff
Editor of The Photograph Collector Newsletter

Denise Bethel opened Sotheby's auction--and the auction season--by stating that her high school English teacher was in the room and admonishing the audience to "make it look good." The outcome at first did not seem promising, as Sotheby's large auction room resembled the Mets' Citi Field in September with rows and rows of empty seats. There were chairs for 154, but only 37 bidders (or spectators) plus 10 people manning the phones. But the auction experience has changed as more and more bidding is done on the phone and online. (By half an hour in the crowd had grown to 51 and after a while to a high of 68 with 16 people on the phones.)

Bethel opened with the greatest leadoff hitter since Ricky Henderson: Ansel Adams. All of the first 13 Adams lots sold, six at more than 50% above the high estimates. Winter Sunrise, Sierra Nevada from Lone Pine, California ($25,000-$35,000) went to order bidder L0063 for $56,250. That bidder took five other mid-range Adams lots. Winter Storm Yosemite Valley (Clearing Winter Storm) ($30,000–$50,000) sold to a phone bidder right at the mid-point ($40,000 hammer) for $50,000, a very popular price in this sale.

The Grand Tetons and the Snake River, Grand Teton National Park, Wyoming ($40,000-$60,000) slithered to $59,375. A mural-sized, flush-mounted, framed, print of Mount Williamson, Sierra Nevada, From Manzanar, California, 1944, probably printed in the 1960s, hit its high estimate as a phone bidder scaled the peak at $182,500, the sixth highest-selling price of the day.

Edward Weston followed Adams. His Bad Water--Death Valley, 1938 ($15,000-$25,000) sold to New York gallerist Bruce Silverstein for $50,000. Silverstein was very active in this sale, bidding largely for a client. Jeffrey Fraenkel more than tripled the high estimate in wresting Weston's Tomato Field, Big Sur away from fellow San Franciscan Paul Hertzmann also at $50,000. Silverstein was back for Weston's sensuous Dunes, Oceano, going over estimate to $158,500 for the prize, good for seventh place.

Baron Adolf De Meyer's striking portrait study, Dolores, c. 1919, more than doubled its high estimate at--you guessed it--$50,000. Phone bidder L0038 took this and two other big lots including Timothy O'Sullivan's Ancient Ruins in the Cañon de Chelle, N.M., 1873 ($15,000-$25,000), for an astounding $134,500, a record for the artist at auction and ninth place in the sale; and Frederick Henry Evans's Aubrey Beardsley, 1895 ($15,000-$25,000) for $50,000. The latter two had once been in the collection of Beaumont and Nancy Newhall.

Also going for an eye-opening price was a large Alfred Stieglitz Steerage with major condition problems that Sotheby's was not shy about writing about in their condition report. Despite those problems, the print went to an online bidder for a whopping $34,375. I do give credit to Sotheby's New York, which has been doing a very good job lately on its largely excellent condition reports, unlike some of the other houses, which still lag behind in this area. Sotheby's also posts the condition reports conveniently online. Unless you don't mind overpaying for items in poor condition, the only real excuse for not reading them before bidding is illiteracy.

Rare book dealer Stephan Loewentheil and collector Michael Mattis staged the week's most scintillating battle as they pushed Mathew B. Brady's daguerreotype of John C. Calhoun, 1849, higher and higher. Loewentheil finally prevailed--at $338,500, more than five times the high estimate, third place in the sale, and a record for the artist at auction.

L0038 bested Jeffrey Fraenkel for Walker Evans's Negro Barbershop Interior at $116,500, over high estimate. Bruce Silverstein, this time consulting on a cell phone, bought Harry Callahan's Torn Sign, 1946 ($20,000-$30,000) for $62,500.

A later-printed Brassai of Le Corset Noir sold to Bruce Silverstein for $40,625 over a phone bidder.

Next up were the two highlighted Man Rays. His Untitled (Photomontage with Nude and Studio Lamp), 1933 ($100,000-$150,000) went to a private collector upfront for $410,500, making it the top lot in the sale. Then bookending the top ten, Man Ray's Solarized Male Torso, 1936, went to Peter MacGill up front over Edwynn Houk for $122,500, just at the high estimate.

August Sander's iconic Handlanger (Hod-Carrier), c. 1928, printed by Gunther Sander from his father's negative, probably in the 1950s ($30,000-$50,000) sold for $59,375 to a phone bidder. That was followed immediately by Jaromír Funke's Composition (from Abstraktní Foto), 1929 ($50,000-$70,000). Bruce Silverstein on his cell phone put up a fight, but it went to L0038 for $350,500, second place, and another auction record for an artist.

Richard Avedon's Avedon/Paris, portfolio of 11 photographs with two extra prints, 1948-57 ($150,000-$250,000) took fifth place at $314,500. Two Irving Penn's then went to phone bidder L0076: Nude 58, ($30,000-$50,000) for $53,125, and Sitting Girl, Cameroon (Nubile Young Beauty of Diamare) ($30,000-$50,000) for $56,250. Then Penn's Cuzco Children, Peru brought $68,500, just under low estimate, from a different phone bidder. The Cuzco Children had some slight condition issues, including a soft crease that was created prior to dry mounting the image, plus a one-inch scratch, etc. I suspect it would have gone higher had it not had these issues.

Helmut Newton's Elsa Peretti, Bunny almost tripled its high estimate at $62,500. Nick Brandt's well-known Elephant with Exploding Dust, Amboseli, stampeded above estimate to $59,375.

Several different phone bidders kept Peter Beard's prices at high levels. His Crab Diary Page, November 1984 ($30,000-$50,000) swam to $59,375. Amboseli Elephants (Tsavo Before the Die-Off, Tsavo North) ($15,000-$25,000) claimed $56,250. And the overestimated "Francis Bacon in His Studio" ($80,000-$120,000) was the only disappointment when it bought-in at $60,000 (plus that 25% premium).

Beard's Maureen Gallagher and a Night Feeder at Hog Ranch ($120,000-$180,000) reached new heights at $326,500, fourth place and a record for the artist at auction. Interestingly enough the latter was the same print that failed to go at $115,000 in the previous Sotheby's New York photography auction. The change in market mood over just the last six months to a year is rather stunning.

Irving Penn's dye-transfer print, Still Life with Watermelon (New York) ($30,000-$50,000), just missed the top ten at $104,500. But Richard Prince's made eighth place as his #14 Untitled (Cowboy Watering Horses), 1983, ($50,000-$70,000), rode off with L0076 for $134,500.

When the dust had cleared and the last five lots of contemporary work had passed with only eight people in the room, Sotheby's had realized $5,632,187 on only 173 lots offered, with a chill 18.5% buy-in rate. That's $39,945 per lot sold. While one can always find a handful of lots estimated too high or too low, still, the breakdown was revelatory. Thirty-two lots passed; 40 (23.1%) sold under estimate; and 37 (21.3%) sold within the estimates; but 64 (37%) sold above high estimate, including 34 (19.7) that sold for more than 50% over high estimate. A larger than normal percentage of lots seem to have their reserves at the low estimate (or very near it), instead of well below it.

"The wide range of photographers represented in our top-ten list says it all," said Chris Mahoney, senior specialist, Sotheby's photographs department. "To have great modernist works by Man Ray and Jaromír Funke selling at new levels alongside great 19th-century American photographers such as Mathew Brady and Timothy O'Sullivan, and contemporary artists such as Peter Beard, shows the wonderful breadth of today's photographs market. Our total of $5.6 million, well over our high estimate of $4.3 million, shows the strength and resilience of the market for important photographs."


(Copyright ©2011 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. Or for a subscription order form to The Photograph Collector Newsletter, go to: http://www.photoreview.org/collect.htm )

 

By Stephen Perloff
Editor of The Photograph Collector Newsletter

On April 7 Christie's held two single-owner sales: "The Feminine Ideal: An Important Collection of Photographs" and "Crossing America: Photographs from the Consolidated Freightways Collection, Part I." Here, too, the sales were more sparsely attended than usual. The morning began with 16 people in the audience--later growing to 20 people--and 13 people on the phones in a room with 108 seats plus another 10 in the very back.

But again, bidding on the phone and through the internet compensated for the lack of bodies in the room as the first sale realized $942,125 with an 18% buy-in rate. Condition was often an issue on this collection.

The top three lots in the first sale were all by Irving Penn: Balenciaga Mantle Coat (Lisa Fonssagrives-Penn), Paris, 1950, ($40,000-$60,000) took the top spot at $80,500, selling to a European phone bidder; Woman in Feather Hat, New York, November 1991, a platinum-palladium print, ($20,000–$30,000) was fought over by five or six different bidders and finally went to an online bidder over the phones $68,500; and Woman with Umbrella (Lisa Fonssagrives-Penn), New York, 1950, a gelatin silver print, printed 1984 ($30,000–$50,000) went to a private collector in the room at $60,000.

Other top lots in the session included: Irving Penn's Cigarette No.69, which sold for $37,500; Philippe Halsman's Marilyn Jumping, which sold to a single phone bidder for $40,000; Robert Mapplethorpe's Sonia Resika, which sold to an order bidder for $43,750 (more than double the low estimate); and Weegee's Nude, circa 1950s, which sold online over the high estimate at $47,500.

Works by Louise Dahl-Wolfe, Jeanloup Sieff, Erwin Blumenfeld, and Norman Parkinson all more than doubled their high estimates.

The audience grew in the afternoon to 39 people for Christie's second single-owner sale. Robert Mapplethorpe's Flag, 1987 ($70,000-$90,000), was the top lot at $158,500. Dorothea Lange's Migrant Mother, 1936 ($30,000-$50,000), followed at $134,500 as Bruce Silverstein fought off stiff competition from Howard Greenberg and Paul Hertzmann. Cindy Sherman's Untitled Film Still #55, 1980 (underestimated at $20,000-$30,000) tied that price.

Garry Winogrand's 1960's print (lot 216) went for four times the low estimate at $40,000. David Hockney's Merced River, Yosemite Valley, September 1982 ($8,000-$12,000) went to a phone bidder for $40,000 over dealer Alex Novak's underbidding. Bruce Silverstein took Stieglitz's Equivalent for $43,750. And Jeffrey Fraenkel went over estimate to $56,250 for Robert Adams's Berthoud, CO, 1976, from Summer Nights.

The last lot of the sale, Robert Frank's U.S. 285, New Mexico, 1955, ($50,000-$70,000) claimed $110,500.

The sale totaled $1,838,438 and had a meager 15% buy-in rate.


(Copyright ©2011 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. Or for a subscription order form to The Photograph Collector Newsletter, go to: http://www.photoreview.org/collect.htm )

 

By Stephen Perloff
Editor of The Photograph Collector Newsletter

Christie's Various Owners Sale the next day continued without missing a beat. There was even a slightly larger audience, eventually reaching 53 people.

The market for Robert Mapplethorpe's flower pictures is still blooming. His Flower arrangement, 1988 ($10,000-$15,000) brought $32,500; Tulip, 1984, signed by Michael Ward Stout, Executor ($10,000-$15,000) still reached $40,000; Calla Lily, 1984 ($30,000-$50,000) did the best at $62,500; and Orchid, 1985 ($10,000-$15,000) sold for $35,000. All of these went to the phones with phone bidder 1788 doing the most damage.

Gregory Crewdson's Dream House, a suite of 12 chromogenic prints, sold over estimate at $116,500, just making the top ten list. Erwin Blumenfeld's Hat and Jewelry, probably by Schiaparelli, 1938 ($20,000-$30,000) topped out at $56,250. It was one of many pictures by fashion photographers that dominated this sale. These, too, went to phone bidders, although dealer Bruce Silverstein underbid. While it had some minor condition issues, it was a dramatic and interesting image.

Josef Koudelka's marvelous Romania, 1968 (the squatting man talking to a horse) ($18,000–$22,000) galloped to $43,750. Robert Frank's Parade--Hoboken, New Jersey, 1955 ($70,000-$90,000) marched off for $170,500, sixth place. Both of these went to phone bidder 1757, the latter over the bid of Frank's dealer, Peter MacGill. The bidder was reported to be a European collector by Christie's.

W. Eugene Smith's portfolio, A Portfolio of Ten Photographs, ($30,000-$50,000) far surpassed its estimate at $98,500. Then another Frank, Peru, 1948, 39 gelatin silver prints mounted back to back with a spiral binding, ($100,000-$150,000) claimed third place in the sale at $242,500, again going to 1757.

Eight prints by Irving Penn sold for over our general cut-off of $50,000, and four made the top ten list. The first of those to come up was Black and White Vogue Cover (B) (Jean Patchett), New York, 1950, one of the edition of 16, which claimed seventh place at $170,500. William Eggleston's Memphis (Tricycle), rode into second place at $266,500, within its estimates. Phone bidder 1778 topped New York gallerist Howard Read for this gem.

An important piece of photographic history, Étienne-Jules Marey's Chronophotographie du saut en longeur, 1882-1883 (the long jumper captured in successive positions on a single plate) was estimated at only ($5,000-$7,000), but it leapt to $43,750 with dealers Alex Novak and Charles Isaacs, along with three phone bidders pushing up the price. Phone bidder 1778 got this one, too, as well as another Marey of a bird in flight, the latter over the underbid by private dealer Alex Novak.

Art consultant Kevin Moore snagged Paul Outerbridge's Seated Nude with Red Shoes, 1936 ($20,000-$30,000) at $50,000. Then two more Irving Penn's came up and both went to the phones. Italian Still Life, New York, Sept., 1981 ($30,000-$50,000) at $60,000; and Faucet Dripping Diamonds, New York, 1963 ($30,000-$50,000) at $68,500.

While Richard Avedon made our cutoff only three times to Penn's eight, he claimed the top-selling lot of the day--and of the auction season--as his famous portrait Marilyn Monroe, New York City, May 6, 1957, 9/10, ($200,000-$300,000) well exceeded its high estimate at $482,500. Another movie icon, Marlene Dietrich, by Penn sold for $86,500, the mid-point of its estimate.

Peter Beard's Last Word from Paradise, Loliondo, from The End of the Game, seemed underestimated at $10,000-$15,000. An internet bidder captured it at $80,500. A portfolio of 12 prints, African Negro Art: Photographs by Walker Evans, ($30,000-$50,000) at $62,500 was the only major lot to go to an order bidder.

Penn's Bee on Lips, New York, September 22, 1995 ($50,000-$70,000) buzzed to fifth place at $182,500. His After Dinner Games, New York, 1947 ($40,000-$60,000) claimed eighth place at $158,500. It went to 1778. And Penn's Frozen Foods (New York), 1977 ($40,000-$60,000) melted a phone bidder's heart--or wallet--at $86,500. That same bidder, 1764, paid the same price for Robert Mapplethorpe's Lydia, 1985. That print, too, was signed by Michael Ward Stout, Executor.

O. Winston Link's Selected Images, 1955-1958, consisted of 79 contact prints. It steamed to its low estimate of $50,000. One last Penn made the top ten: Mermaid Dress (Rochas), Lisa Fonssagrives-Penn, Vogue, 1950 ($80,000-$120,000). It took ninth place at $134,500.

While it didn't do as well as the Atget in the Joseph Baio sale, Eugène Atget's La Villette, rue Asselin, 1921 ($40,000-$60,000) was fought over by numerous bidders. Alex Novak made a play but was topped by a phone bidder. Then Michael Mattis took the lead but was outdistanced by another phone bidder. Finally Gabriel Catone, consulting on his cell phone, took the prize at $242,500, the fourth highest selling lot of the day.

Toward the end of the sale two Richard Avedons sold for $50,000, the mid-points of their estimates: Sunny Harnett and Alla Evening dresses by Balmain, Casino Le Touquet, bought by New York gallerist Robert Mann; and a small Dovima with Elephants, Evening Dress by Dior, Cirque d' Hiver, Paris, which went to a phone bidder.

Christie's various-owner sale totaled a very strong $5,367,500 (just barely topped by Sotheby's), with a 19% buy-in rate. Their $31,574 per lot sold price was behind Sotheby's $39,945. But including the single-owner sales of the day before, Christie's topped out at $8,148,063, the clear total dollar leader.

Philippe Garner, Christie's international head of photographs remarked: "We are very pleased to conclude our spectacular Spring Photographs Sales, leading the season with yet another robust auction. The results of the various-owner photographs sale showed enthusiastic bidding for works by William Eggleston, Robert Frank, and Richard Avedon…All three sales including "The Feminine Ideal: An Important Collection of Photographs", "Crossing America: Photographs from the Consolidated Freightways Collection, Part I" and "Photographs" surpassed their high estimates, reconfirming the ever-increasing presence of photographs in the global market place."


(Copyright ©2011 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. Or for a subscription order form to The Photograph Collector Newsletter, go to: http://www.photoreview.org/collect.htm )

 

By Stephen Perloff
Editor of The Photograph Collector Newsletter

Not all life is baseball (though perhaps much of it is), but to continue the metaphor I opened with, just as we look up at the beginning of May and see the Cleveland Indians (69-93 last year) with the best record in the American League, there can be no more surprising result than what Phillips de Pury & Company accomplished on April 9. The inaugural Photographs Auction Day at their new Park Avenue headquarters began at 10 am with a Photographs Aficionado Class, covering how to start a collection, how to auctioneer, and how to care for your collection. The exhibition and a café were open all day, and downstairs from 1 to 4 pm Sophie Elgort made individual and group portraits. It was a happening!

By the time I walked in about 10:40 am the place was already packed, the audience was attentively listening, and when auctioneer Simon de Pury bounded onto the stage to begin the sale there was an energy that was almost as electric as a sold-out Phillies game. There were already 100 people in the room and 17 or 18 people on the phones. And more came throughout the morning until there was standing room only. Clearly, many of these people had not been to Christie's or Sotheby's. Many seemed to be from the Park Avenue neighborhood--including two very hip gray-haired women, sitting separately, one of whom had hair dyed bright blue on top and the other of whom had hair dyed purple on the bottom--and a couple of others who brought very small dogs snuggled in their large purses (though I imagine those purses are really very upscale designer dog-carrying bags). And not all of those new attendees sat on their hands. There were numerous new bidders, and even for those who didn't bid this time, they might yet educate themselves and become collectors.

Like Phillips's Chelsea space, there were high ceilings, a magnificent view--on a beautiful sunny day--bad acoustics, and a column partially obscuring the view from some seats. And the auction began with the wrong image on the screen. But no matter, it was a party atmosphere and no one was to be deterred, even as the cappuccino machine constantly ground away in the background.

The first 25 lots sold before the first pass, including Horst's Corset for $57,500, well over high estimate, and Cartier-Bresson's Rue Mouffetard at the same price, but triple its high estimate. (Generally when I don't mention the buyer it means the lot went to the phone, order, or internet.)

Robert Frank's Paris New Year (Young Man with Tulip) ($40,000-$60,000) took ninth place in the sale at $104,500. Cartier-Bresson's portrait of Alberto Giacometti sold for four times its high estimate at $74,500!

A silver print of Irving Penn's Woman in Palace (Lisa Fonssagrives-Penn), Marrakech, Morocco brought $112,900, good for sixth place; and just edging that out in fifth place was Peter Beard's Tsavo North on the Athi Tiva, circa 150 lbs.-160 lbs. side Bull Elephant, February, at $120,100. All of the Beard's exceeded their admittedly low estimates, including Hunting Cheetahs on the Taru Desert at $74,500, which doubled its high estimate.

I'm sure there are some among the old auction hands who may be annoyed by de Pury's manner. But it is a kind of performance art as he leans over the podium, gesticulates freely, and cajoles the audience in his clear but unmistakable accent. Most of the audience seemed to be enjoying the game. The fact that there were often multiple bidders on many lots helped keep the energy high as he bounced between several phones, the internet, and even an occasional bidder in the room. There certainly seemed to be far more bidders on most lots than at the other houses.

A Weston Nude of Charis sold below estimate, but still at $56,250. Mapplethorpe's Flowers in a Vase ($35,000-$45,000) just missed the top ten at $100,900. His Flag here came in seventh at $110,500, just at high estimate.

Kevin Moore strolled off with Avedon's Bob Dylan, Singer, at $68,500. And Irving Penn's striking Miles Davis hand and trumpet, New York, almost tripled its high estimate, selling at $122,500, fourth place. Robert Frank's Fourth of July--Jay, New York, edged past its high estimate at $92,500.

There was a slightly smaller crowd of 70 after lunch, but that still outnumbered the attendees at Sotheby's and Christie's. And the afternoon session provided the top three lots of the day. Third was Frank's Café-Beaufort, SC ($40,000–$50,000). Both Edwynn Houk and Michael Mattis bid, but another bidder in the room took it at $182,500. Diane Arbus's Jewish giant brought $68,500, the same price as Peter Lindbergh's Kate Moss.

Then Cindy Sherman's Untitled #278 sold at the low estimate, but still garnered the top spot in the sale at $242,500. Steve McCurry's renowned Afghan Girl more than tripled its high estimate, selling for $60,000. The latter probably the most overpriced image in the marketplace, given that the photographer has not editioned these images.

A phone bidder strolled off with David Hockney's Walking in the Zen Garden at the Ryoanji Temple, Kyoto, ($35,000-$55,000) at $108,100, eighth place. Robert Mann was certain when he bought Elger Esser's Doubt just over estimate at $92,500.

Florian Maier-Aichen's Untitled, a large color print of Mount Williamson overlooking a vast expanse of a town at night, tied for ninth place at $104,500. Desiree Dolron's Xteriors VI, claimed second place at $194,500, and her Xteriors XI ($30,000-$50,000) also did well at $70,900.

Contemporary work was strong here. Barry Frydlender's Friday sold over estimate at $68,500. David LaChapelle's Statue, Los Angeles, from his Deluge series, floated to $80,500. Candida Höfer's Real Gabinete Português de Leitura Rio de Janerio II attained the same price.

Ahmet Ertug's The Annex of the Library of Senate, Paris, France ($25,000-$35,000) was another contemporary work to sell over estimate at $50,000. And lastly Sandy Skoglund's well-known Revenge of the Goldfish doubled its high estimate at $47,500.

While Phillips de Pury & Company's Photographs sale did have more lots--260--it took the various-owners sale crown at $5,802,250, and they did it with a season low 9.6% buy-in rate. And who saw that coming?

Simon de Pury, Chairman and Chief Auctioneer of Phillips de Pury & Company, enthusiastically averred, "I am thrilled with the results of our inaugural Photography Sale on Park Avenue, which allowed us to achieve an excellent total and to break many records."

And Vanessa Kramer, Worldwide Director, Photographs, exclaimed, "We are tremendously excited with the results that reflect our dedication to offer the best in classic and contemporary photographs. We broke a great number of world auction records for emerging and established photographers, which speak of sellers' confidence in offering top-quality works as well as buyers' confidence in aggressively pursuing them. Today's results are a testament to our commitment to the field of photographs."

Including Swann Galleries' March 24 sale, the overall total for the spring auctions was $20,577,594, up 10% from the year before. With strong prices, low buy-in rates, and numerous records set, it's clear the photography auction market has recovered nicely from the lows of the recession.


(Copyright ©2011 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. Or for a subscription order form to The Photograph Collector Newsletter, go to: http://www.photoreview.org/collect.htm )

 

By Alex Novak

It wasn't the most intriguing auction that Swann put on this May 19th, but it produced yeoman-type results, bringing in $968,120, against a low estimate (without premium) of $1,169,650. More disturbing was the very high buy-in rate of over 37%--the highest of the Spring New York sales. That is even worse than its recent March sale's buy-ins at 26%, its December sale when buy-ins were at 31% and its October sale when buy-ins stood at 34%. I will ignore Swann's silly claims of records for individual images, as opposed to photographer records.

The top ten lots consisted of:

Lot 289, André Kertész, A Hungarian Memory, a portfolio complete with 15 silver prints, which sold to a collector for $48,000.

Lucky lot 13, Alfred Stieglitz, 291, numbers 1-12, which sold to a lucky dealer for only $31,200.

Lot 253, Roy DeCarava, Dancers, a later print bought by a collector for a whopping $22,800.

Lot 212 ,Walker Evans, a group of five silver prints from the portfolio, which sold to a dealer for $21,600.

Lot 199, Josef Koudelka, Gypsy, Romania, which sold to a collector for $21,600.

Lot 298, Herman Rubin's 68 photographs of Hollywood from the 1930s, sold to a collector for $19,200.

Lot 203, the Brassaï portfolio with 10 silver prints sold to a dealer for a very reasonable $16,800.

In a four-way tie for tenth place:

Lot 142, group of 50 albumen prints attributed to Frederick Gutekunst, related to the Philadelphia Society of Artists and rural scenes in Delaware County, sold to a dealer for $15,600.

Lot 309, Francesca Woodman, Untitled, sold to a dealer for $15,600.

Lot 305, a small (11 x 14 inch) Henri Cartier-Bresson, Bords de la Marne, printed late 1980s, sold to a collector for $15,600.

Lot 194 W. Eugene Smith, Minamata--Tomoko and Her Mother (Japan), sold to a collector for $15,600.

The top book in the sale was lot 17, Alvin Langdon Coburn's New York, first edition, London & New York, which sold to a collector for $14,400.

 

The 1981 self-portrait taken by celebrated photographer Cindy Sherman was sold at a Christie's New York's contemporary auction this May. The sale surpassed Christie's estimates of $1.5-2 million ringing in at a final price of $3,890,500, including premium. That is not only a record for the photographer, but also the highest price ever realized for a photograph.

The buyer was reportedly New York dealer Philippe Segalot, a former head of contemporary art for Christie's and now a private art consultant, who purchased the Sherman for a client.

The image was the cover of one of Sherman's books, but is not considered by many observers to be a particularly important work by Sherman.

The price took the title away of "Most Expensive Photograph at Auction" from Richard Prince. Richard Prince's Marlboro Man (Untitled, Cowboy) sold at Sotheby's, NY's November 14, 2007 Contemporary Art Evening Sale for $3,401,000. That beat the record for a photograph at auction previously held by Andreas Gursky's 99-cent diptych of $3,346,456, which had been set at Sotheby's London on February 7, 2007. It also beat Edward Steichen's Pond--Moonlight, which still holds the record for a non-contemporary photograph at $2,928,000.

 

By Alex Novak

In another major shakeup of the museum world, Peter Galassi, the longtime chief curator of the Museum of Modern Art's photography department, has suddenly retired, which opens up one more important photography vacancy.

The older giants like Galassi are disappearing from the scene. Just in the last several years the American museum world has lost John Szarkowski (retired and passed away), Ted Hartwell (passed away), Weston Naef (retired from museum, but still working), Robert Sobieszek (passed away), Terry Toedtemeier (passed away), David Travis (retired from museum, but still working), Robert Flynn Johnson (retired from museum, but still working) and Tom Hinson (retired from museum, but still working)--just to mention a few of the major and influential players no longer on the active museum scene.

Now with positions at NY MoMA, Cleveland, New Orleans, University of Florida, and Arizona's Center for Creative Photography all currently open and other major institutions' photography curator positions being filled relatively recently (Minneapolis, LACMA, Getty, Atlanta High Museum, Art Institute of Chicago, Philadelphia, San Francisco Museum of Fine Arts, Norton Museum, etc.), it looks like the photography world will lose much of its experience at the top of the museum curator world.

Galassi, at a mere 60, was a surprise. He was named director of the photography department in 1991 at the age of 40, after only ten years as associate director, taking over the position long held by John Szarkowski, who just passed away last year. In fact, Galassi is only the fourth curator to hold that director post since the department was formed in 1940 by Beaumont Newhall. Edward Steichen was the only other chief curator for the department.

Galassi organized or co-organized over 40 exhibitions at MoMA, where he began as a curatorial intern in 1974, including, surveys of both Andreas Gursky in 2001 and Lee Friedlander in 2005, a Jeff Wall show in 2007, and "Henri Cartier-Bresson: The Modern Century" in 2010.

Several observers that I have talked to recently decried this loss of talent and experience, worrying about younger curators and their focus on contemporary and celebrity, rather than substance and history. Personally, I think the jury is still out on the abilities of some of the younger curatorial talent. Many have the vision and flexibility to excite new audiences. It remains to be seen if they understand the importance of continuity, context and history.

 

George Eastman House International Museum of Photography and Film is organizing its second benefit auction of photographic objects and prints, books, and camera technology, to take place in New York City at Metropolitan Pavilion at 7 pm, Monday, Oct. 3. Denise Bethel, director of the Photographs Department at Sotheby's New York, will again volunteer her services as auctioneer, as she did for last year's inaugural benefit auction, which raised more than a half-million dollars in less than two hours for Eastman House.

Artists whose works will be among those in the 2011 auction include Roger Ballen, Jeff Bridges, Carl Chiarenza, Robert Glenn Ketchum, Les Krims, Steve McCurry, Barbara Morgan, Lori Nix, George Seeley, Neal Slavin, George Tice, Larry Towell, Charles Traub, Alex Webb, William Wegman, and Brian Ulrich, recipient of the 2009 John Simon Guggenheim Memorial award. All of the items auctioned are donations; none are from the Eastman House collections.

Coupled with an online component, last year's benefit auction of 300 photographic items ultimately raised more than $650,000, making it the largest fundraiser in the museum's 64-year history. More than 300 people attended last year's Eastman House benefit auction. It was "the best attended auction of the season," according to Alex Novak of IPhotoCentral.com. The online component that accompanied the Sotheby's New York auction was the auction house's largest charity auction in history. The 2010 donations came from more than 200 donors and featured most processes of photography from the 19th, 20th and 21st centuries.

The George Eastman House 2011 Benefit Auction's live portion will be preceded by a reception, as well as a program featuring conversations with artists. An online selection also will be available. According to iGavelAuctions.com, the 2010 online lots garnered more than 1,700 bids from an international audience of collectors.

The challenge of the recession has required Eastman House to employ new fiscal solutions, such as this auction. Proceeds from the benefit auction help the Eastman House--the world's oldest museum of photography--maintain its extensive collections of photographs, camera technology, motion pictures, and related literature, totaling more than four million objects. Eastman House also serves as an educational institution and center of preservation, offering degree-granting graduate programs in photographic and motion-picture film preservation on the site of the National Historic Landmark house, gardens, and museum.

As museums look for creative ways to raise funds, what is so impressive about this benefit is summed up by Dr. Anthony Bannon, the Ron and Donna Fielding Director of George Eastman House: "For more than 60 years George Eastman House has showcased and supported photography, and now, for this auction, we turned to the photography world to help the museum. We are overwhelmed by how enthusiastically all have embraced this effort."

To donate to the auction, or to register to bid in the live and online auctions, please visit http://auction.eastmanhouse.org . Donations will be accepted until June 1. To receive updates or an auction catalog, please email your contact information to kbaldwin@geh.org or call 1-585-271-3361. Information about the venue is available at http://www.metropolitanevents.com .

 

The photography dealers on I Photo Central have been extremely busy over the last month or so, putting up over 110 new photographs and books. You can see these new items at: http://www.iphotocentral.com/search/result_list.php/16/30/0 .

There are now well over 2,100 different photographers and over 8,500 items listed for sale on I Photo Central, making it the most important place to buy photography in the market. You can search all of these here: http://www.iphotocentral.com/search/search.php .

Lots of top vintage and contemporary pieces are included in the many images added to the site this month. Formats for the 19th-century work posted up range from daguerreotypes to stereos to cartes-de-visite to larger salt and albumen prints. Some of the important 19th-century photographers whose work has been posted include: Gustave de Beaucorps, Giacomo Caneva, Francis Frith (mammoth plate of Cairo), Andreas Groll, Hill & Adamson, Baron Louis-Adolphe Humbert de Molard, Charles Marville, Eadweard Muybridge, Charles Negre, Shimooka Renjô and Baron Raimond Von Stillfried, among others.

Charles Schwartz Ltd. has added a new special exhibit on 19th-century Japanese ambrotypes (late 1860s-1890), which you can see here: http://www.iphotocentral.com/showcase/showcase_view.php/39/3/1 . These rare, one-of-a-kind images were created by Japanese photographers for Japanese clients, which was a shift from earlier photographs made in Japan by Westerners and for Western consumption. Culled from villages and remote family collections, these portraits were made as personal keepsakes and intended to be passed-down as precious heirlooms. Of particular note is a portrait of a Samurai whose name is known (CS8994). Prices range from $300-$6,500. In addition numerous other 19th-century Special Exhibits have been revised. You can see the rest of the Special Exhibits here: http://www.iphotocentral.com/showcase/showcase.php .

New 20th-century images just posted up this month include a superb group of important vintage and early photographs by André Kertész. The entire Kertész's Special Exhibit has been revised with these new images, which you can see here: http://www.iphotocentral.com/showcase/showcase_view.php/34/1/1 .

Other 20th-century masters whose work has just been added include: Erwin Blumenfeld, Edouard Boubat, Brassai, Harry Callahan, Henri Cartier-Bresson, Eugene V. Harris (Peruvian Boy with Flute from "Family of Man"), Yasuhiro Ishimoto, Alfred Cheney Johnston, Clarence John Laughlin, Dora Maar, Herbert Matter-Alberto Giacometti, Willy Kessels, Germaine Krull, Leonard Misonne, Jean Moral, Barbara Morgan, Helmut Newton, Irving Penn, Alfred Stieglitz (Steerage), Sasha Stone, Charles Swedlund, Else Thalemann, Arthur Tress, Brett Weston, Edward Weston and others.

Top pieces by contemporary artists, including Peter Beard, Robert Mapplethorpe, David Hockney, Marcus Leatherdale, Kim Joon and Nobuyoshi Araki, have also been put up on the website.

And numerous images that will knock you out from lesser known or anonymous photographers, plus some scarce photographer-signed books. There's something here for every budget.

We have also continued to change out images and add to our essays for all our Special Exhibits, so they are worth another peek, especially if you have not looked lately. If you see one you like, let a friend know too! And don't be afraid of posting them up on your Facebook or LinkedIn pages.

You can see all of these fine new exhibits and others (now a total of over 160 Special Exhibits in all) at: http://www.iphotocentral.com/showcase/showcase.php . Don't forget to check out the archived exhibits at the bottom of the page as well.

 

By Matt Damsker

FROM HERE TO THERE: ALEC SOTH'S AMERICA.
Published by the Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, for the recent exhibition of the same name. Hardbound; $60; 224 pages; approximately 237 color and black-and-white prints, plus 48-page softbound artist's book, "The Loneliest Man in Missouri." ISBN No. 978-0-935640-96-0. Information: http://www.alecsoth.com ; or contact the Weinstein Gallery, which represents Soth, at 1-612-822-1722 or by email at weingall@aol.com .

Comfortably ensconced in mid-career, Alec Soth (rhymes with both) is getting the recognition that befits a brilliant iconoclast and inheritor of the mantle of America's great, unblinking eyes of the everyday: Eggleston, Friedlander, Shore, to name the obvious few. In icy color, Soth builds on their project, carefully framing the banalities of America's overlooked architecture and landscape along with the Gothic eccentricities of its characters, and what emerges is at once random, compassionate, funny, and sad.

This catalogue of his first major survey, which ran earlier this year at the Walker Art Center, is itself a unique artwork, steeped in a new-media sensibility that begins with the joshing, unserious cover art (it includes Soth's email and Website addresses and notes that he is "available for hire"). Inside, the serious considerations of Siri Engberg (who edited this tome and curated the Walker exhibit), Geoff Dyer, Britt Salvesen, Barry Schwabsky and others are more than matched by excerpts from Soth's blog posts, which range from detailed descriptions of his equipment and darkroom ("It really can be annoying," he notes of the interest in photographers' equipage) to charming ruminations about why he likes or dislikes the titles of famous photo books ("'Why Mister,Why' by Geert van Kesteren, 'Yesterday's Sandwich' by Boris Mikhailov--these are titles that match the originality and excitement of the pictures inside.").

Most generously, this hardbound volume contains a small, softbound artist's book in an endpaper pocket, "The Loneliest Man in Missouri," a 2010 cycle of mostly surreptitious shots Soth took of middle-aged men he glimpsed while driving around the state. It doesn't amount to very much, but it is another reflection of Soth's restless energy, and when he nails an image--a figure crossing a street, say, all but shrouded in morning mist--it more than justifies the whimsical quest.

As for the main body of work contained here, its echoes of famous forebears--from Arbus and Avedon to the aforementioned masters--put Soth easily within their realm of greatness, largely because Soth doesn't struggle against their photographic legacy. Guided by this aesthetic past, he wants to take strong pictures that speak beyond the frame, and more often than not, he does. The glum mother and daughter posed with a shopping cart outside of a St. Paul K-Mart, or a black woman garishly tinted by the red leatherette upholstery of a Minneapolis barroom, or the surprisingly Mondrian-ish colors and geometries of a cheap motel room door and windows are images to linger over, and so we do. Indeed, when Soth ventures to a natural edge, as in his 2005 study of Niagara Falls and environs, he finds as much to look at in the faces, bodies and random sights of tourists, overweight (and sometimes nude) brides and grooms on honeymoon, and poolside furniture as in his stunningly crisp gunmetal-blue image of the great falls.

As Siri Engberg notes in the lead essay: "These pictures, unabashedly lyrical, are pervaded by themes of religion, death, sleep, and sex…Soth's particular embrace of the American vernacular is tuned toward small-town curiosities, with an intentional avoidance of major urban centers and the sameness of the suburban periphery…" This seems especially so in a powerful 2002 image of Johnny Cash's shack-like boyhood home in Dyess, Arkansas, captured under a deathly gray sky that inhabits four fifths of the frame, with bare trees clawing from the low horizon.

That unpeopled icon of American Gothic is especially lyrical, yes, and looks like a Johnny Cash song sounds, but just as lyrical in wholly different ways are the less picturesque sights: an old mattress floating in an Arkansas swamp, the long-limbed Iowan mother and daughter, their legs casually crossed on each other, the New Orleans woman whose red hair, tattoos and floral dress accent the crucifix of Ash Wednesday ashes on her forehead while she gazes up and off to the side. Inevitably, Alec Soth's America seems like the loneliest place in the world, and perhaps it is, but it is also doggedly, drearily, dirtily, and driftingly alive, singing itself.


ELLIOTT ERWITT: SMALL AND SERIOUS.
Published by the Stephen Daiter Gallery, Chicago, to accompany the recent exhibition "Small, Serious and Otherwise." Hardbound, 62 pages, 55 black-and-white plates. Information: email info@stephendaitergallery.com ; phone: +1-312-787-3350.

This compact catalogue collects a treasurable trove of some of Elliott Erwitt's vintage gelatin silver prints from the 1940s, '50s and '60s, each of them 8 x10 inches or smaller and all of them marvels, in their unpretentious way, of the candid approach he furthered. Given Erwitt's eminence and broad reach--as a commercial photographer, documentary filmmaker and cinematographer—it might be easy to overlook these "small" gems, but at the same time it's striking to note his influential instinct, especially when he opens our eyes to the abstract in the everyday: a cup of spilled coffee, on a Manhattan street, exposed in all its accidental expressionism, or a fish head propped on a board, surreally, somewhere in Venice.

Erwitt never pushes his rhetoric, and that keeps these older shots so fresh. He can be unabashedly sentimental, as in a 1964 handkerchief-waving scene of departure at a Budapest rail station, or street urchin-angels with dirty faces in Italy; and he can be purely, coldly observational, as in a 1949 shot of a hulking automobile, or a Friedlander-esque image of a traffic sign shot from within a moving car. In between, Erwitt is powerfully descriptive, and as a member of Magnum Photos, close to history: his shot of a veiled Jacqueline Kennedy at Arlington cemetery during the 1963 funeral of JFK is classic and endlessly haunting, capturing the widow's restrained grief as few photos of that day were able to do.

Just as powerful, though, are Erwitt's images of the unknown souls who drift through the urban landscape. An open-mouthed man calls a trade above a foreground blur of bald heads on Wall Street in 1945; men and women dance, wearily, in early-50s New York City; a pretty, lonely woman peers at us from the rear of a Prague streetcar in 1964.

"Average people are quite right not to want their picture taken," Erwitt has written. "It's not that I feel any guilt, any sense of using people against their will, but I'd suffer a bit if I thought I was making anyone unhappy…If my pictures help some people to see things in a certain way, it's probably to look at serious things non-seriously. Everything's serious. Everything's not serious."


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. Books must be aimed at photography collecting, not how-to books for photographers.)

 

Forty years ago, shortly after working for a year and a half as an editorial assistant at Aperture (and using many of the contacts he'd made there), Peter Schlessinger opened a photography workshop center called Apeiron Workshops.

Located two hours north of NYC in Millerton NY and based on methods of focusing attention taught by Aperture's editor Minor White, Apeiron offered immersive residential programs of various lengths. Its summer programs offered workshops with an A-list of creative photographers of the time, including Bernice Abbott, Robert Adams, Diane Arbus, Paul Caponigro, Linda Connor, Judy Dater, Robert Frank, Lee Friedlander, Ralph Gibson, Emmett Gowin, Robert Heineken, Elaine Mayes, Lisette Model, Aaron Siskind, Frederick Sommer and Gary Winogrand, plus Magnum photographers Charles Harbutt, Mary Ellen Mark, Susan Meiselas, Gilles Peress and Burk Uzzle.

Always run on a shoestring and the heroic commitment of its near-volunteer staff, it closed in 1982 as interest rates hit 18% and President Reagan slashed the NEA's funding.

This coming Labor Day weekend, a reunion open to all who ever participated (as staff, students, workshop leaders, artists-in-residence or special project staff) is being held at a conference center in the mountains outside Ashville, NC. Anyone who falls into one or more of the aforementioned categories is encouraged to contact Benjamin Porter at apeironreunion@gmail.com or call him at 1-828-281-1825 for full information.

 

Sometime before the Museum of Decorative Arts in Prague closed at 6 pm on Sunday, March 13, 2011, a thief walked up to a sensuous image of a female nude, looked around to make sure no one was watching, cut the photograph out of its frame, and boldly walked out of the museum.

The next morning, the museum reported that "The Wave", 1925, by the important Czech photographer František Drtikol was missing.

Several months before, in January, Joseph Bellows of Joseph Bellows Gallery in La Jolla, CA, received an email from someone who wanted to know if the gallery would be interested in Drtikol’s "The Wave".

“He asked if I would be interested in this photograph which had been given to his grandfather, who was a tailor, by the photographer Drtikol. It was quite an elaborate story.” Joseph Bellows said. “He wanted me to buy the work sight unseen.”

Clearly, the thief was determining if there was a market for the work before he stole the photograph.

Bellows continued corresponding by email with the seller and spoke to him on the phone as well. “Initially it sounded very legitimate. He had a number of family issues that were not uncommon. I encouraged him to send the photograph to me so that I could make a proper assessment of the work.”

On March 13, Bellows flew to the East coast to exhibit at The AIPAD Photography Show New York (March 17-20) at the Park Avenue Armory. The next day, the seller finally wrote to say that he would be willing to send the photograph. Bellows convinced him to send it to his hotel in New York. In the meantime, Bellows continued to research the print and discovered the work was missing from the Museum of Decorative Arts in Prague. He immediately notified the Art Loss Register in London.

Bellows, who is a member of The Association of International Photography Art Dealers (AIPAD) and also serves on its board of directors, notes, “It was exciting for me as a dealer to hold this amazing image. I derive tremendous gratification from knowing that I was able to facilitate the safe return of this icon of Czech photography."

“The AIPAD membership applauds Joseph Bellows’s actions that ensured the safe return of the stolen Drtikol to its rightful owner, The Museum of Decorative Arts in Prague,” said Stephen Bulger, President of The Association of International Photography Art Dealers (AIPAD), and President, Stephen Bulger Gallery, Toronto.

 

Czech Photographer Miroslav Tichý passed away April 12, 2011 in Kyjov, his home town, at the age of 84. He was born in Netcice, Moravia on November 20th, 1926.

After beginning his studies at the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague, he began his career as a painter before becoming a photographer in the 1960s. His photography and his approach to it were bizarre and disturbing. He often acted as a voyeur taking pictures of women unaware on the street, in public pools, etc. His homemade equipment was equally strange. Tichý crafted his own cameras and enlargers of cardboard tubes, tin cans and other at-hand items, sanding lenses before coating them with toothpaste or other materials.

Of his technical methods, he once said, "First of all, you have to have a bad camera." He also says in the film about his life, "If you want to be famous, you must do something more badly than anybody in the entire world."

In 1985, Tichý stopped making his photographs and again concentrated on drawing. Reportedly Film Director Roman Buxbaum discovered his photographic work in 1981. Buxbaum formed a foundation and promoted Tichý. A solo show of Tichý's work opened in 2004 in Seville. A retrospective was held in Zurich's Kunsthaus in 2005. That same year he was awarded the Prix de la découverte in the Rencontres de la Photographie d'Arles. In 2008 the Centre Pompidou gave him an exhibition. In 2010 the International Center of Photography showed 100 of his pictures and co-published a book with Steidl on his work.

In 2009, it was announced that Tichý had severed all ties with Buxbaum and the Tichý Oceàn Foundation's website. In a notarized statement dated 22 January 2009, Tichý stated that he made no agreement, written or oral, with Buxbaum to propagate his works, that Buxbaum exploits his works without authorization and violates his copyright, and that only he, Tichý's neighbor and "surrogate mother" Jana Hebnarovà, and his lawyer have the right to decide on the use and propagation of his works. Reportedly Hebnarovà was named Tichý's heir.

Besides this on-going battle, there has been considerable controversy about his work and its amateur look and condition. There have also been reports of many prints being sold as original Tichý's that are just clever imitations. Literally thousands of prints and negatives were made over Tichý's lifetime with little to no documentation. He reportedly only made one print from each negative. Once he had printed a picture, it was cast aside, dropped haphazardly about his home, exposed to dirt, damage, rats and insects.

 

Diemar/Noble Photography is presenting a celebration of the first 100 years of photography in France. Behind the somewhat belittling title, "Some Photographs taken in France", which would perhaps indicate forgotten holiday snaps, hides an extraordinary group of photographs. These vintage photographs in a wide range of media include daguerreotypes, salt, prints, albumen prints, wax paper negatives, glass stereos and silver gelatin prints, displaying the technical developments of medium's history.

This exhibition is not an academic survey. The works have been carefully chosen from the point of view of a collector, focusing on the finest and rarest prints--prints that nobody knew even existed, the intriguing snapshot and the curiosity.

Thematically, the exhibition features a wide range of genres from art photography, portraiture, still life, reportage, social documentary, scientific photography as well as amateur snapshots. Amongst the latter there are a unique group of seven photographs of Captain Dreyfus relating to the Dreyfus Affair, which split France in two and which continues to reverberate even today.

The images were taken in June 1899 by a sailor on board the Sfax that returned Dreyfus from Devil's Island to France to face a retrial for high treason. Also on show is a portrait of Emile Zola, whose open letter J'Accuse in the newspaper Aurore broke the scandal.

Also on display will be what probably constitutes the first photographs of a celebrity behaving badly, predating the likes of Paris Hilton, Charlie Scheen and Lindsay Lohan by over a hundred years. A set of four extraordinary photographs of artist Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec defecating on the beach at Le Crotoy, Picardie, taken by his friend, the art dealer Maurice Joyant.

The exhibition begins with the early masters of photography. Included in this selection is a stunning marine picture of the French Fleet at Cherbourg by Gustave Le Gray who set the standard for art photography in the 1850s.

On view is also a rare oversized waxed paper negative by Dominique Roman of the Roman theater in Arles. Waxed paper negatives would often be exhibited in salons at the time as objects of beauty in their own right.

Also included is work by Eugène Atget, who vehemently opposed the changes happening to his beloved old Paris and made it his life's work to document it before it vanished under new town planning by the then city planner Haussmann. Durandelle's documentation of the construction of the Paris Opera is also featured in the exhibition. Here we see the old and the new meet.

Not all the photographers in the exhibition are French. Between the wars, Paris was a magnet for photographers from the rest of Europe as well the USA, attracted by the art scene, the publishing industry and highly successful picture magazines, such as Vu and Photographie. Several émigrés are included in the exhibition, among them Erwin Blumenfeld, Geza Vandor and Man Ray.

The exhibition features several examples of how Modernist and Surrealist photographers would stretch the medium's possibilities through experimentation. One such image titled "Young Girl Dreaming" by Brassaï, was the result of the photographer scratching a drawing on a glass plate negative of one his nude studies, then reprinting the photograph from the defaced negative.

Another great example of experimentation featured is Jean Dreville's "Synthese Cinegraphique" that was achieved by printing two negatives on top of one another.

Also, Raoul Ubac's "The Battle of The Amazons" displays a cacophony of fragmented nudes through a complex process of combination printing and solarisations.

Jacques Henri-Lartigue, perhaps photography's only true child prodigy is represented with a beautiful blue-toned still life showing his and his lover Renée Perle's hands.

There are also several images by anonymous photographers, including a set of nine pornographic images from the mid 1920's, taking on a Surreal air due to the masked participants. The resemblance to Germaine Krull's similar sexual series is almost shocking.

Scientific photography from the 19th century has long been a strong area of interest to collectors, particularly in France. "Some Photographs taken in France" features several outstanding examples of scientific photography, including three x-rays of animals by Charles Infroit and a rare movement study by Étienne Jules Marey.

With such a vast variety of images on display there is something here for burgeoning and experienced collectors alike, with prices ranging from a mere £100 to $250,000.

The exhibition is at Diemar/Noble Photography, which is located at 66/67 Wells Street, London W1P 3PY, UK; telephone + 44 (0)207 636 5375. The exhibition has opened and runs through July 16, 2011. Gallery hours are 11- 6, Tuesday through Saturday.

 

By Alex Novak, Contemporary Works/Vintage Works

For those European friends of mine and others traveling to the same venues at the same time, or simply those that need to get in touch with me this coming month, I will be in Paris, Bievres and finally at Art Basel (staying at a hotel though in sedate and less expensive Mulhouse). Also, if you need me to preview and bid for you in any of the upcoming Paris auctions, please let me know.

Please be aware that my associate Marthe Smith can still be reached for anything relating to purchases, shipping, etc. Feel free to call her Monday-Thursday, 11:30-6:00 at our office at 1-215-822-5662; or email her at info@vintageworks.net .

My French cell phone from the US is 011-33-610-62-54-33, which is the same as last year. Most Europeans just need to change the 011 to 00 to call me. But please note my itinerary dates. When I am in Paris and at the apartment that I am renting, I can also be reached by the landline, which is 011-33-950-71-98-71. If you are calling from the U.S. or some other non-European location, please consider the time difference and try not to call me in the middle of the night (and besides my phones are liable to be off then).

I am staying near the Hotel De Ville, not far from the Georges Pompideu on 67, rue de la Verrerie, which is the fourth arrondissement.

I arrive in Paris June 1, and will be at Bievres on Saturday (and perhaps Sunday as well), June 7-8.

I will stay in and around Paris until June 15 when I take the train to Mulhouse, where I will stay at the Kyriad Mulhouse Centre, 15 rue Lambert, Mulhouse, France; Phone: 33 (3) 89 66 44 77. It's not one of my usual hotels, but I guess some of you must have read my descriptions of this town in my past newsletters and decided to take a hotel here rather than in Basel itself. Stop doing that! Please. Yes, Mulhouse is about 15% the cost of a similar hotel in Basel, has three or four restaurants that are better than nearly anything in Basel (and at a much lower cost with decent availability), is only a half hour away from Basel by inexpensive local train, and is quieter and less stressful than Basel during Art Basel week. But is those reasons enough for you to take up all the hotel space in town over a month before Art Basel? In any case, I will be there until Sunday, June 19, when I take an early train back to Paris.

I stay in Paris until June 22, taking the plane back to Philly midday.

 

Jessica May has been promoted to Associate Curator of Photographs. She will continue to collaborate with John Rohrbach, senior curator of photographs, in managing the Amon Carter's photography collection and interpreting and developing exhibitions on photography. May joined the curatorial department in October 2006 after completing the Jane and Morgan Whitney Art History Fellowship in the Department of Photographs at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.

 

SlowExposures is the nationally-recognized juried photography exhibition that underscores the diversity, contradictions and complexity of the rural American South. Now in its ninth year, SlowExposures invite photographers to submit their work.

The deadline to enter the annual photo exhibition in Georgia is midnight, Wednesday, June 15th. Professional and amateur photographers are invited to submit their work.

Each photographer may submit up to six (6) images electronically through the web site below. All work must be original to the artist and must have been photographed within the past four years. The fee of $50.00 U.S. must accompany the entry and may be paid through credit card or PayPal. Photographs may be color or black and white; using traditional or digital processes or elements of both.

"SlowExposures 2011" is staged September 16 through September 25 at the historic R. F. Strickland Building in Concord, GA, 60 miles south of the Atlanta airport.

All entries must be submitted online at the new "SlowExposures" website http://www.slowexposures.org using the online registration form and payment by PayPal or credit card. Contact Christine Curry at 770-567-3600 for additional information.

 

l Philip Manheim has two photography exhibitions opening up shortly. The first opens this week. The opening reception for "Reflexive, Photographs by Michael Manheim" is this Thursday, June 2nd, from 6-8pm. The show runs from June 2 through July 16 at the Griffin Museum at Digital Silver Imaging in Belmont, MA. A gallery talk is scheduled for June 7, at 7 pm.

The gallery is usually open to the public Monday through Friday, 10 am to 5:30 pm, to mirror Digital Silver's hours, or by appointment. Call 1-781-729-1158 for more details.

Wailoa Center presents the photography of Michael Philip Manheim, in a show entitled "Island Souls: Souls of the Big Island" in Hilo, Hawaii, from July 8-July 28, 2011. An opening reception will be held at the Wailoa Center on Friday, July 8 from 5-7 pm. This event is free and open to the public.

An artist's gallery talk will be held at the Wailoa Center on Monday, July 11, at noon. This event is free and open to the public.

The essence of portraiture comes alive in the evocative, impressionistic images of Massachusetts photographer Michael Philip Manheim. He captures the energy of his subjects through multiple exposures that combine spontaneously in the camera. Manheim feels, "In recording multiple layers of personality, I’ve collaborated on portraiture that seems to create a dialogue with the soul."

Manheim is represented by I Photo Central dealer, Contemporary Works/Vintage Works. You can see some of his images for sale here: http://www.iphotocentral.com/search/result_list.php/256/Michael+Philip+Manheim .