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• Issue #165
• Article

By Alex Novak

The single-owner sale at Christie's evening sale of Sally Mann photographs did reasonably well, selling 79.7% of the lots and netting $667,625 including the steep Christie's premiums. I have limited my reporting to those lots that hit $20,000 or more

Lot 307, Candy Cigarette, sold for an artist world auction record of $68,500, just over its high estimate, to a "private" party.

Lot 309, The Last Time Emmett Modeled Nude, also sold well at $40,000—again over the high estimate and to another "private" party. Jessie in the Wind (lot 317) was another top seller at $27,500.

Night Blooming Cereus (lot 326), the cover of Mann's book, "Still Time", sold for $22,500, which was just below the low estimate. Damaged Child (lot 336) sold for $22,500, just at the high estimate. Lot 345, Virginia #36, one of only a few of her later pieces (and atypical of them), sold for just above the high estimate for $27,500. And the last lot in the sale, lot 358, Emmett, Jessie and Virginia, the cover of Mann's book, "Immediate Family", sold over the high estimate at $22,500.

Novak has over 48 years experience in the photography-collecting arena. He is a long-time member and formerly board member of the Daguerreian Society, and, when it was still functioning, he was a member of the American Photographic Historical Society (APHS). He organized the 2016 19th-century Photography Show and Conference for the Daguerreian Society. He is also a long-time member of the Association of International Photography Art Dealers, or AIPAD. Novak has been a member of the board of the nonprofit Photo Review, which publishes both the Photo Review and the Photograph Collector, and is currently on the Photo Review's advisory board. He was a founding member of the Getty Museum Photography Council. He is author of French 19th-Century Master Photographers: Life into Art.

Novak has had photography articles and columns published in several newspapers, the American Photographic Historical Society newsletter, the Photograph Collector and the Daguerreian Society newsletter. He writes and publishes the E-Photo Newsletter, the largest circulation newsletter in the field. Novak is also president and owner of Contemporary Works/Vintage Works, a private photography dealer, which sells by appointment and has sold at exhibit shows, such as AIPAD New York and Miami, Art Chicago, Classic Photography LA, Photo LA, Paris Photo, The 19th-century Photography Show, Art Miami, etc.