Photography Collection

The top lot at Swann Galleries’ auction of Important 19th & 20th Century Photographs on Monday, October 15 was a partial set of Edward S. Curtis's magnum opus, The North American Indian, with 16 complete portfolios containing his large-format photogravures and 16 fully illustrated text volumes in handsome morocco bindings. The set, number 74 of an edition of 500, signed by Curtis, his financial backer J.P. Morgan, and Theodore Roosevelt, sold for $1,008,000 (including buyer’s premium).
Curtis set out to photograph and document the “vanishing race” of the American Indian in 1906. He devoted more than 20 years to the project, which resulted in 20 text volumes and 20 illustrated portfolios. Ultimately, Curtis produced only about half of the 500 sets of The North American Indian he intended to publish, due to an inability to find enough subscribers. Sets of this tour-de-force work are rare, and most of the extant copies are in institutional collections in the U.S. and Europe.
The auction also featured a fine collection of nautical photographs, early photographic images such as a whole-plate daguerreotype, classic silver prints, and works by contemporary artists. It was the first Photography sale at Swann Galleries to break $2 million, and was the highest grossing sale in that department to date.
For complete results, an illustrated auction catalogue with prices realized is available for $35 from Swann Galleries, Inc., 104 East 25th Street, New York, NY 10010, or online at www.swanngalleries.com.
For further information, and to consign items to forthcoming Photographs auctions, please contact Daile Kaplan at 212-254-4710, extension 21, or via e-mail at dkaplan@swanngalleries.com.

Villa Grisebach's fall season is marked by an emphasis on photography with two sales "Modern and Contemporary Photographs" & "Elective Affinities. Selected Works from a European Private Collection" and a total of almost 600 lots of classic and contemporary photographs that will be on offer. Both sales will be on November 29th, 2007 and will start at 3 p.m. with "Modern and Contemporary Photographs" followed by "Elective Affinities"

Analogies, similarities, elective affinities: Since its beginnings, photography has given both, photographers and collectors alike a tantalizing field for the joys of comparison. This "double gaze" is the focus of a European private collection that Villa Grisebach will showcase for the first time before offering it in the sale "Elective Affinities".

Two of the highlights of the special sale will be William Henry Fox Talbot's 1843 view of "The Boulevards of Paris" (10,000 - 12,000 €) and Edward Weston's "Chinese Cabbage" from 1931 (85,000 - 100,000 €). Among other important works are Jaromir Funke's "Composition with a bottle" from 1925 (20,000 - 25,000 €), seven photographs from Aaron Siskind's 1972 portfolio "Terrors and Pleasures of Levitation" (18,000 - 22,000 €), Manuel Alvarez Bravo's "The big fish eats the little ones" (1932; 15,000 - 20,000 €), a Man Ray rayograph from the "Champs Délicieux" portfolio of 1922 (14,000 - 16,000 €), "Handbag and Fur" (1924) by Paul Outerbridge, jr. (10,000 - 15,000 €), the delicate "Mademoiselle Pogany II", c. 1920, by Constantin Brancusi, as well as works by Heinrich Kühn, Frantisek Drtikol, Albert Renger-Patzsch, the late Bernd and Hilla Becher, William Eggleston and many more. Apart from such masterpieces, "Elective Affinities" includes works of vernacular and anonymous photography that are lucky finds for the young collector.


Grit Kallin-Fischer. "Freddo Bartoluci". 1928-1929. Vintag Gelatin silver print. 11 3/8 x 9 in.


The collection ows its appeal to the sensitive and curious eyes of a major collector of contemporary art and proves once again that photography can create a magical world entirely its own. A catalogue comprising the collection in its entirety of 299 lots and with an essay by Prof. Christoph Stölzl will be published. A preview exhibition of selected works from the collection will be held in New York City (Oct. 16-17) and Berlin (Nov. 3-21). For details, see www.villa-grisebach.de.

The approximately 160 lots of this fall's sale of "Modern and Contemporary Photographs" include more classical photographs of the highest quality, among these are masterworks such as "Gerbera Daisy (Three Flowers) by Irving Penn (2006; 18,000 - 22,000 €), Jean Painlevé's "Pince de Galithée" (1929; 8,000 - 9,000 €) or Paul Citroen's 1923 avant-garde photo-montage "Johnson training again" (7,500 - 10,000 €). The contemporary photography section comes up with the sought after names of Andreas Gursky, Peter Beard, Helmut Newton, Peter Lindbergh, Richard Avedon, Stephen Shore, William Eggleston, Ruud van Empel, Martin Parr or Michael Wesely. The sale ends with the newly established section "The cabinet", this time introducing a selection of unique prints by Czech shooting star Miroslav Tichy.

What are the new trends collecting photographs? What constitutes a good collection? The Aperture foundation and the Association of International Photography Art Dealers have organized a day dedicated to collecting photographs to take place Sunday, October 14, 2007 from 9:30 a.m.-3 p.m. at the Aperture Gallery, 547 West 27th Street, 4th floor, New York City. "The Passionate Eye II" will consist of three insightful presentations by a range of prominent photography collectors, each in dialogue with an esteemed writer or curator, followed by a special advice session with appraisers.

Swann Auction Galleries' Monday, October 15th sale of Important 19th & 20th Century Photographs will be held at 2:30 p.m. at 104 East 25th St., New York City. The auction house has not raised its buyer's premium (currently 20%) as have other NYC auction houses.

A collection of 34 nautical photographs by prominent American and European photographers will be featured. The collection was built over the course of 25 years by marine photography enthusiast Charles W. Sahlman of Tampa, FL and has been exhibited at the Tampa Museum of Art.

A strong selection of 19th-century English photographers' works in the auction includes a salted paper print from a calotype negative by the inventor of photography, William Henry Fox Talbot. It is a very early (circa 1842-45) image of the "Hungerford Suspension Bridge", with several docked boats in the foreground (estimate: $15,000-25,000). Lewis Carroll's large format "Fair Rosamond" ($25,000-35,000) shows this noted photographer of children at his very best. This print was exhibited in San Francisco MoMA show's on Carroll and was published in the accompanying book, "Dreaming in Pictures". And Francis Frith's mammoth plate print of "The Temple of Komumboo" ($9,000-12,000) is another prime example of early British travel photography. Displaying the fallen and upright columns of this Egyptian temple, the image has a monumentality that is striking.

Other European photographers are also represented here, including Gustave LeGray's stunning "Brig on the Water", large-format albumen print, 1856 ($25,000-35,000), and two important Eugene Cuvelier photographs, including the unique and rich salt print of an 1862 image of a "Cart on the Road" ($20,000-30,000) and the circa 1860 albumen print of "Glade" ($6,000-9,000)--both incredible bargains against Cuvelier's Spring auction prices earlier this year.

American 19th-century landscape work also features strongly in this auction, including Timothy H. O'Sullivan's "Black Canyon, Colorado River from Camp 8, Looking Above", albumen print, 1871, from the Wheeler Geological Survey of the Western U.S. ($9,000-12,000); two mammoth plate albumen prints by Carleton Watkins--"The Devil's Canyon Geysers" ($20,000-30,000) and "Golden Gate Entrance to Harbor of San Francisco" ($15,000-25,000); a spectacular and perhaps unique panoramic view of a train heading east on the newly reconstructed Rockville Bridge in Pennsylvania by Philadelphia photographer Frederick Gutekunst ($15,000-25,000); and Frederick I. Monsen's sweeping vision of the "Laguna Indian Pueblo, New Mexico" in a brown-toned silver print from the 1890s (($2,500-3,500).

Also featured are Civil War photographers, including George N. Barnard's "Savannah, Georgia No. 2", gold-toned albumen print, 1866, from his photographic documentation of Sherman's Campaign ($2,500-3,500); and a rich, virtually perfect print of " Mortar Dictator, Front of Peterburg, October 1864" by David Knox and from Gardner's Photographic Sketchbook of the Civil War, pl.75 ($2,500-3,500).

Other turn-of-the-century work includes the lyrical English photographer Peter Henry Emerson's "Marshman Going to Cut Schoof-Stuff", platinum print, circa 1885, from his masterwork "Life and Landscape on the Norfolk Broads", ($4,000-6,000); and the renowned Antarctic photographer Herbert G. Ponting's majestic view of "The Terra Nova Icebound in the Pack", oversize green-toned carbon print, 1914, taken during Admiral Scott's ill-fated expedition ($15,000-25,000).

From the early 20th century are Karl F. Struss's "Sailboats, New England", platinum print, 1910 ($4,000-6,000); Alfred Steiglitz's classic image "The Steerage" that appeared in his publication Camera Work, photogravure on Japan tissue, 1911 ($5,000-7,500); a group of seven panoramic and large-scale albumen and platinum prints of New York City ($6,000-9,000) ; and Eugene Atget's "La Rochelle-Bateau", arrowroot print, circa 1920 ($7,000-10,000).

Modernist examples include master photographer Edward Weston's abstraction depicting the bow of a "Boat in San Francisco Bay", silver print, 1925 ($25,000-35,000); German artist Ernst Scheel's New Objectivity view of "Schiffmaste" from below, oversize silver print, circa 1930 ($10,000-15,000); Margaret Bourke-White's powerful scene of a sailor "Climbing the Mast", warm-toned silver print, 1934 ($9,000-12,000); and Manuel Alvarez Bravo's 1938 Untitled (Window in Wall), a silver print which came from the Andre Breton estate but was not in the auction ($20,000-30,000).

Other striking modernist views include Brassaï's "Regatte sur la Seine", ferrotyped silver print, 1933, printed 1940 ($5,000-7,500); Marta Hoeppfner's 1935 original and unique photographic collage "Sudden Fright" ($3,000-4,000); Brett Weston's 1946 silver print of "Manhattan Bridge" ($4,000-6,000); and Robert Frank's 1956 silver print of "Miami Beach" ($30,000-40,000).

Among journalistic images are Berenice Abbott's "Tusitala, North River and 156th St., Manhattan", silver print, 1937 ($4,000-6,000); and Andreas Feininger's "Brooklyn Bridge and Fulton Fish Market", and "New York, Fulton Fish Market", ferrotyped silver prints, 1940 ($3,000-4,500 each).

The auction also features several important albums, portfolios and books, including Edward S. Curtis' magnus opus, "The North American Indian", with 16 complete portfolios containing his large-format magisterial photogravures and 16 fully illustrated text volumes in handsome morocco bindings ($800,000-1,200,000). Besides the Curtis portfolio, other notable portfolios include Doris Ulmann's "Roll, Jordan, Roll", which was issued with an extra signed photogravure ($25,000-35,000), and a spectacular presentation album of 100 11 x 9-inch cyanotypes of the 1900 Paris Exposition attributed to Albert Levy ($10,000-15,000).

The preview will be held from 10/8, Monday, by appointment; from Tuesday, 10/9 to Friday, 10/12 from 10 a.m.-6 p.m.; Saturday, 10/13 from 10 a.m.-4 p.m.; Monday, 10/15 from 10 a.m.-noon. The actual auction hours are on Monday, 10/15 beginning at 2:30 p.m.

Swann Auction Galleries is at 104 East 25th St., New York, NY, 10010; phone: 1-212-254-4710, ext. 21; email: dkaplan@swanngalleries.com . You can order the illustrated catalogue for $35 from Swann, or view it online at http://www.swanngalleries.com .

Surrealist photography was officially born in 1924 with the movement Manifesto by André Breton. The thirst for new experiences which inspired the surrealist oeuvre sustained the exploration of the photographic medium in various forms. Man Ray’s solarization involving exposing the negative to light, Raoul Ubac’s brûlages, Pierre Molinier’s photomontages or André Kertész’s mirror effects are all examples of techniques which de-realise subjects and objects, giving them an element of mystery...Surrealist beauty is irrational and coincidental, marvellous and convulsive.

MAN RAY was a painter and Dadaist alongside Marcel Duchamp before dedicating himself to photography. Initially focused on portraits, in the early 1920s he adopted rayography, a photographic technique without the use of a camera involving objects positioned directly on light-sensitive paper. The prices for his rayographs reach levels unseen by any other photograph: in 2006, for example, six Man Ray photographs were auctioned for more than USD 200,000 a piece …all were rayographs produced between 1926 and 1930. One of them, Rayograph (Electricity) achieved GBP 200,000 (more than EUR 290,000, Christie's London, on 17 May).
However, such heights are rare and aficionados of surrealist photographs can acquire works in this series for a tenth of this amount like Else Triolet's Necklace and Bracelet in White Horsehair (1932/33), which changed hands for GBP 20,000 last May at Christie’s London. For less than EUR 5,000, the rayograph lover will need to be content with a later print such as those produced by Pierre Gassmann after the artist’s death. In addition to this type of work, more 'classical' subjects, portraits or incongruous juxtapositions of objects, are affordable at under EUR 1,000, even where vintage gelatine silver prints are concerned. For example, L'œuf et le coquillage, a 1931 photograph, was offered for auction by Hampel in Munich in June 2007 at an estimated range of EUR 400-600…but failed to find a following and remained unsold.

Four years after the historic dispersal of the pope of surrealism, André Breton’s, collection (15 April 2003, which set new auction records for Hans BELLMER with La poupée (1936, EUR 185,000), for Manuel ALVAREZ BRAVO with Parabola optica (EUR 130,000) or for Raoul UBAC for Le triomphe de la stérilité - Penthésilée (EUR 95,000), these artists have yet to repeat such exploits. It should be said that a provenance as prestigious as that of the Breton collection coupled with works of an exceptional quality triggered inordinate enthusiasm from collectors. Under the seal of this collection, the Bellmer Poupée works, less successful than that of 1936 coloured with aniline dyes, change hands at around EUR 10,000, as did the one offered at auction by Mathias-Le Roux-Morel-Baron-Ribeyre (Paris) in November 2006, which still managed to quadruple its low-end estimate!

By way of another example, the sale proceeds achieved for Raoul Ubac in 2003 amounted to nearly EUR 400,000 whereas, in 2005, his works 'only' raised EUR 90,411 on virtually the same number of transactions as in 2003. You need to reckon on between EUR 10,000 and EUR 20,000, currently, if you covet a photomontage or a solarized composition from the 1930s. As for Pierre Molinier, despite 2003 sale proceeds of EUR 142,421, a 460% rise on the previous year, his record was not set in that year but in 2005 with EUR 211,873. This good result in 2005 reflected the success of the 8 June sale dedicated to Molinier, organised by P.Bergé-Buffetaud-Godeau-Chambre-De Nicolay in Paris. No fewer than 126 photographs were offered at auction during this sale, of which the majority saw the hammer down at between EUR 350 and 750, although certain prints went for between EUR 1,000 and 3,000 like Le podex d'amour, a photomontage sold for EUR 2,600.

A British gallery that turned over a photograph belonging to Elton John to police amid concerns that it amounted to child pornography has now closed an exhibition featuring the star's photographic collection, it said Monday.