Photography Collection

A family album, a comprehensive exhibition, and a personal diary – Annie Leibovitz’s photographs from her private life and professional work merge seamlessly into a chronicle of the events, official commissions, and personal stories of the last fifteen years. With this exhibition, Leibovitz honors her family and close friends with photographs of their travels to Sarajevo, Venice, Berlin, Kyoto, and Cairo. Numerous sequences of photographs focus on her parents
and her extended family as it expanded from one year to the next, with images of family reunions and trips to the sea. Poignant photographs of her father’s death appear alongside pictures of the births of her three daughters. And again and again, we find ourselves face to face with the celebrities who Annie Leibovitz knows how to portray with such startling immediacy: Bill Clinton in the Oval Office, George W. Bush and his staff, Nelson Mandela in Soweto, Demi Moore in the late stages of pregnancy, Jack Nicholson on Mulholland Drive, William Burroughs in Kansas. Leibovitz's work in this exhibition is a collection of images that eclipse her previous
work. Particularly her personal, spontaneous snapshots express a remarkable intimacy, warmth,
familiarity and unabashed candor. Her photos are neither voyeuristic nor do they give evidence of exploitation or hunger for fame. (Reuters/C/O Berlin)

Annie Leibovitz . A Photographer’s Life . 1995 - 2005
to May 24, 2009
C/O Berlin im Postfuhramt
Oranienburger Straße / Tucholskystraße
Berlin

Claude Berri, who was a noted director, photographer, producer, screenwriter and actor, died last month in Paris. He was 74. French President Nicolas Sarkozy called Berri "the great ambassador of French cinema" to the world. The cause was a stroke. His company, Renn Productions, made dozens of films. In the late 1980s Berri sold half the company--then worth about $50 million--to support a new hobby, collecting contemporary art, including photography. His collection eventually became one of the most important in France, although he sold much of his photography collection four years ago at auction in Paris.

By Judith Salkin
Robert Mapplethorpe is often associated with the sexually-charged images featured in his controversial exhibit, “The Perfect Moment,” nearly 20 years ago. The photographer, who died in 1989 at age 42, is best known for the frank eroticism of his middle period, which sparked debate about the public funding of art. But much of Mapplethorpe's photography was extraordinarily ordinary — portraits, mostly for magazines, and landscapes. Both are celebrated in two separate but complimentary exhibits in Palm Springs. “Robert Mapplethorpe: Certain Photographs,” at the Maloney Fine Art @ The Galleria is a collection of still lifes with a few portraits. A reception is slated for 6 p.m. tonight, while the exhibition runs through Feb. 28. Mapplethorpe's flower still lifes are awe-inspiring for the artist's use of shadow and light. In one such image, a single stalk of hyacinth is the centerpiece as bands of light seem to wrap around the walls and vase, while the flowers bend toward the light. “Mapplethorpe liked to sleep in,” noted gallery owner Michael Maloney. “His assistants would bring in fresh flowers every day. He'd shoot (the flowers) as a way to get ready for whatever he was shooting that day.” Over at the Palm Springs Art Museum, “Robert Mapplethorpe: Portraits” is on display featuring 120 photos through mid-April. The museum recently started the Photography Collection Council, which is sponsoring this weekend's photography symposium with Mapplethorpe's work at the center of discussion. “He liked to make his subjects a little uncomfortable,” said Bob Bogard, director of marketing communications for the Museum. While the portrait might end up being the subject's back, hands across a face or a floating head in a sea of black, “that was the way he thought represented them best.”

Robert Mapplethorpe
Certain Flowers
- Saturday, February 28, 2009
Opening Reception: February 6, 2009, 6-8pm
Maloney Fine Art @ The Galleria
457 N. Palm Canyon Drive, Palm Springs CA

Following the December auction Christie’s starts the sale of part II of The Constantiner Collection. This will be offered in a single session on 12 February 2009 in New York. Assembled by Leon and Michaela Constantiner, this collection focuses on photography as a key shaping force within the media worlds that have, for over half a century, celebrated fashion, style, celebrity and desire. The Collection features the work of highly sought-after artists, including Helmut Newton, Horst P. Horst, Tom Staebler, Guy Bourdin, Jeanloup Sieff and Bert Stern. Glamorized figures represent the core theme; subjects range from stars of the era of Marilyn Monroe to contemporary celebrities such as Madonna, Tom Hanks and Cindy Crawford. Comprising 155 lots, the sale is expected to achieve $1.1 to 1.7 million. A double contact sheet of Helmut Newton’s Sie Kommen – Naked and Dressed, is the top lot of the sale. This rare version of one of his most famous subjects comprises a pair of greatly enlarged gelatin silver contact prints, each signed, titled and dated by Newton (estimate: $150,000- 250,000). A four-panel diptych of Sie Kommen, a highlight of the December sale, set a world auction record for Newton. Helmut Newton’s work is well represented in the sale, which includes the diptych, Dressed and Nude Model Reclining, Brescia, 1981 (estimate: $50,000- 70,000), and Violetta with monocle – Big Nude IX, Paris, 1991 (estimate: $20,000-30,000). The sale also features rare color work by Guy Bourdin, including Fashion study, French Vogue, circa 1975 (estimate: $3,000-5,000). Tom Staebler’s Playboy cover of Candace Collins from February 1980, is the sale’s cover lot (estimate $2,000-3,000) . Studies of Marilyn Monroe complete the offering from the Collection of a selection of portraits of the greatest Hollywood siren of all time. Her glamorous public image is celebrated, while a range of informal and more intimate photographs build a powerful document of her personality and explore the fragile, vulnerable quality of Monroe’s particular appeal. The sale presents photographs of Monroe by many distinguished artists, including André de Dienes, Weegee, Cecil Beaton, Eve Arnold, Elliott Erwitt, Milton Greene and Bert Stern. With estimates starting at $1,000, the sale offers collectors the opportunity to acquire key images from every facet of her career. Among the highlights are an iconic study by Bert Stern from The Last Sitting for Vogue (estimate: $5,000-7,000), and Weegee’s witty 1960 image of the star as she playfully puckers her lips for the camera (estimate: $6,000-8,000) .

Auction: 12 February 2009
Viewing: 7-12 February 2009