Christie's to auction Irving Penn Photos

Christie’sNew York is going to sell photographs by Irving Penn from a collection of Patricia McCabe. The 67 photographs were gifts from Irving Penn to Patricia McCabe, his personal assistant for over thirty years. The images span the breadth of Penn’s long and illustrious career and include such images as Cuzco Children, 1948, (estimate: $100,000-150,000), Street Photographer, New York, 1950 (estimate: $25,000-35,000), Poppy: Glowing Embers New York, 1968 (estimate: $70,000-90,000), and Two Guedras, Morocco, 1971 (estimate: $40,000-60,000). Irving Penn rose to prominence in the 1950s with his elegant fashion photography and went on to establish a signature style that he developed by pursuing his own projects often while traveling on assignment for Vogue magazine. Penn’s versatile and ever-more inventive treatment of his subject matter made him one of the most important American photographers of the 20th century.Initially employed in a short-term temporary capacity, Patricia McCabe immediately developed a bond with the reserved photographer and then spent over three decades working for Penn as his administrative assistant. During their extended professional life together, Penn gave Ms. McCabe 67 photographs, principally platinum prints, all inscribed affectionately to her. Ms. McCabe clearly possessed a wonderful eye and a decided preference for certain types of imagery within Penn’s body of work. The Collection includes a number of superbly composed and abstracted still lifes, several of the powerful and sensual tribal images, a number of the ‘street materials’ and ‘cigarette’ photographs, as well as his most stunningly beautiful, intensely colored flowers and wittily posed portraits. Numerous works on offer have either never appeared at auction or in recent auction history – Penn’s self portrait distortion, In a Cracked Mirror, 1986 (estimate: $25,000-35,000), Train Sandwich Vendor, 1950 (estimate: $25,000-35,000), Playing Card, New York, 1975 (estimate: $20,000-30,000), and Two in a Canoe, 1951 (estimate: $25,000-35,000) are a few important examples.

Auction: Three Decades with Irving Penn: Photographs from the Collection of Patricia McCabe, April 14, 2010 at 5pm

Viewing: Christie’s Galleries at Rockefeller Center, Feb 22-March 12, and April 10-13

Annie Leibovitz keeps Photo Rights in Debt Deal

By Graeme Wearden
Top photographer Annie Leibovitz has struck a deal with a private equity firm that will solve the financial crisis that threatened her with bankruptcy last year. Under the agreement, Los Angeles-based Colony Capital will become Leibovitz's sole creditor. Colony will provide Leibovitz with a loan to pay off her previous borrowings, and work with her on future projects. Crucially, the deal means that Leibovitz will retain the rights to more than 100,000 photos taken during a career which includes famous images of Demi Moore, Bruce Springsteen, and John Lennon – taken on the day he died. Leibovitz's finances hit trouble last year, and by February 2009 she had borrowed $15.5m (£10.3m) from Art Capital Group, a company that lends money to art owners. To secure the loans she put up the rights to all her photographs as collateral, along with several houses she owned. But the deal quickly turned sour. In July, lawyers for Art Capital Group claimed that Leibovitz had reneged on a promise to sell her back catalogue to repay her debts, and sued her for $24m.
Media reports claimed Leibovitz was facing bankruptcy, but the two sides eventually reached an agreement to extend the lifetime of the loans. It appears that the deal with Colony will allow the celebrity snapper to pay off Art Capital Group without losing control of her life's work. "Colony is a dedicated and creative team," said Leibovitz, according to the Financial Times. "We will be working on new projects and I will have the support and freedom necessary for nurturing my work and preserving my archive." Colony is more usually involved with property deals. In 2008 it bought a loan on Michael Jackson's Neverland ranch, which left it with the rights to the 2,700-acre California estate. Tom Barrack, who founded Colony, said his company would be "partners in managing her assets and her business so that Annie can spend her time and focus in pursuing her passion as only she can do".

Edward Steichen: In High Fashion

Edward Steichen (1879-1973) is one of the most prolific, influential and controversial figures in the history of photography. An incessant innovator, he applied his talents to portraiture, the nude, landscape, cityscape, flowers, dance, theatre, fashion, advertising and war. Steichen’s contributions could fill a full chapter in the history of photography. From 1900 on he was recognized on both sides of the Atlantic as a leading figure in fine-art photography. Between the two world wars he revolutionized fashion photography while becoming known as “the most famous portrait photographer in the world”. In the post-war period, Steichen made his influence felt as a curator at New York's Museum of Modern Art, most notably with the legendary exhibition “The Family of Man”.


When in 1923 Steichen was offered one of commercial photography’s most prestigious und lucrative posts, that of chief photographer for Vogue and Vanity Fair, the authoritative fashion and society magazines published in New York by Condé Nast, he came to the task well prepared. As an accomplished photographer, he had mastered the art of portraiture, and as a versatile practitioner of other media, he brought the skills of painter and printmaker to his new tasks. For Vogue he photographed the work of the finest couturiers, from Poiret to Schiaparelli; for Vanity Fair he showcased the most prominent figures in the realms of literature, journalism, dance, sport, politics, theatre and film. He took to the assignment with his characteristic enthusiasm, which would remain undiminished from the early 1920s until the late 30s.


Compared with his predecessors, Steichen accomplished a stylistic leap in fashion photography equal in magnitude to the transition from silent pictures to sound. He abandoned his artistic beginnings in photographic Impressionism, Art Nouveau and Symbolism in favour of a wholly original, Art Déco-inspired, thoroughly modern style perfectly adapted to the innovative fashions of the time. What strikes us today, some seventy-five years later, is the versatility of his approach. Steichen never fell back on formula, and constantly found new ways to show his sitters and their clothes to advantage. One admiring critic claimed that to be photographed by the master was to be “Steichenized”.

Edward Steichen: In High Fashion, the Condé Nast Years 1923 - 1937
February 26 - April 11, 2010
Museum of Art | Fort Lauderdale
One East Las Olas Blvd.
Fort Lauderdale

Auction of the largest Collection of vintage Glamour Photography

Bert Stern, Marilyn Monroe - The last sitting, color glossy print, 19 x 19 in., with photographer signature in ink and edition number 89/250 on the recto margin. Printed ca. 1974-78.

George Hurrell’s iconic portrait of Jean Harlow on a white bearskin rug created for Vanity Fair magazine now spearheads the largest auction of Glamour Photography in art history. The original camera negative, as well as a custom print of this incomparable photograph is regarded as Hurrell’s most important portrait and is estimated to sell for well over $20,000. The multi-million dollar Michael H. Epstein and Scott E. Schwimer collection, which contains tens of thousands of the best examples of Hollywood fine art, will be auctioned by Profiles in History March 25-27, 2010. Worldwide bids can be placed either in person, via mail, phone, fax or live on the Internet by visiting www.profilesinhistory.com or www.liveauctioneers.com.

The Michael H. Epstein and Scott E. Schwimer collection is recognized as the world’s largest collection of George Hurrell and includes over 1,000 original vintage photographs as well as 500 camera negatives. Featured are dozens of the most valuable 8 x 10 camera negatives from Hurrell’s career. Included is the bearskin rug portrait of Ann Sheridan as well as the negatives used for the Hurrell Portfolios together with those of Gary Cooper, Bette Davis, Marlene Dietrich, Rita Hayworth, Veronica Lake, and Johnny Weissmuller from Tarzan, which is the most symbolic ever taken of a male subject in Hollywood. The sequence of photographic lots include most of the heralded stars of Hollywood’s golden age, including Joan Crawford, Clark Gable, Greta Garbo, Jean Harlow, and Norma Shearer. Incorporated are two custom photographs of Ramon Novarro taken in 1929 from Hurrell’s first sitting with a Hollywood subject.

In addition to the Glamour photography collection, there are many prints by Richard Avedon, Robert Mapplethorpe, Man Ray, Helmut Newton, Herb Ritts, Cindy Sherman, Julius Schulman, Jock Sturges, Howard Zieff and Edward Steichen. Moreover, the collection contains an incomparable assemblage of Len Prince and Mel Roberts works as well as fine art by Andy Warhol, Richard Duardo, Keith Haring, Robert Indiana, Roy Lichtenstein, Beatrice Wood and numerous others. Epstein and Schwimer recently decided to open up their vaults and for the first time will be selling their collected photographic and fine art masterpieces to benefit many of the charitable organizations they passionately support, primarily the Los Angeles Gay & Lesbian Center on which Epstein served as board member for 7 years. Epstein comments, “It’s time for Scott and me to share the fruits of our 25-year collection with the rest of the world. We want others to enjoy and embrace the most rewarding field of collecting with which we can ever imagine being involved.” Epstein continues, “There is no better organization than Profiles in History to entrust our collection. I am certain that Scott and I will be back collecting once this auction is over.”

Also included in the auction will be several hundred photographs and camera negatives from Hurrell’s contemporaries in Hollywood, featuring a comprehensive sequence from Clarence Sinclair Bull, who was Hurrell’s contemporary and stylistic rival at M-G-M. Included are dozens of master images from Bull’s most important subject, Greta Garbo. There are dozens of rare prints of some of the most important Hollywood subjects including a Louise Brooks from 1925 before she signed with Paramount, Marlene Dietrich by Edward Steichen, and unseen prints of a luminous teenaged Marilyn Monroe. Len Prince is one of the few master photographers utilizing the large-format 8 x 10 view camera and detailed lighting in the fashion of Hurrell, Bull and Richard Avedon during their peak years. Prince rarely uses the digital format and prefers the "old school" refinement of shadows and highlights achieved by the rigorous demands of 8 x10 view cameras; he is recognized as one of the foremost glamour photographers. Among his celebrated subjects are some of the world's most beautiful women including his most recent muse, Jessie Mann, daughter of acclaimed photographer, Sally Mann. Drew Barrymore, Kirsten Dunst, Teri Hatcher, Kelly Klein and Sarah Jessica Parker are also featured. One of the most comprehensive collections of Prince's work ever to be offered at auction, Epstein and Schwimer's personal collection includes many custom prints created for them by Len and Charlie Griffin. Prince’s prints are almost all in expensive and archival permanent selenium toned papers, which produce rich deep tones.

The Harry Langdon archive includes the life work of a master photographer from the large-format fashion work of the 1960's to the present. He has photographed virtually every Hollywood celebrity from the magical Angelina Jolie at 15, to Ann-Margret, Halle Berry, Cher and Diana Ross at their most memorable. Also included, a young George Clooney, Will Smith, Rock Hudson and Arnold Schwarzenegger, all during their prime. Langdon’s impeccably high standard and style is widely recognized throughout the world. Included in the sale of this vast archive covering forty years of work in black-and-white and lush color includes approximately 50,000 vintage prints, black-and-white and color negatives and transparencies, as well as full copyrights. The complete Mel Roberts archive will be also sold intact including several thousand vintage prints with many unpublished, black and white negatives and color transparencies, as well as his personal video collection. All reproduction rights and copyrights for his name and photographs will also be part of this archive. First published in a physique magazine in the early 1960's, Roberts took over 50,000 photographs of nearly 200 male models, many of them friends and lovers. They were not the perfectly bodied men common in the physique magazines of the time but tanned in the California sun and casually posed by the pool or beach. In 2003, The New Yorker described his “witty Technicolor pictures” as “capturing all the giddy delights of being young during summertime...” Mel Roberts’ photographs are included in many notable collections in Hollywood.

Swann Galleries sell Stephen L. White Photograph Collection

On Tuesday, March 23, Swann Galleries, New York will conduct a two-part auction of The Stephen L. White Photographs Collection, 102 works depicting aspects of the American Dream, and Fine Photographs, more than 130 diverse images from various owners. The first volume of the catalogue presents the White Collection according to three categories that characterize the American Dream: Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness. There are works by well-known masters of photography as well as lesser-known documentarians; similarly, there are photographs of both well known and obscure subjects. From the Life section are Andrew J. Russell’s Golden Spike Ceremony with Flag and Camera, Promontory Point, Utah, albumen print, 1869, commemorating the completion of the transcontinental railroad, one of the greatest American construction feats of the 19th century (estimate: $20,000 to $30,000); Eadweard Muybridge’s 13-part panorama of San Francisco, 1878, printed 1973, preserving a precise visual record of the city before the 1906 earthquake ($4,000 to $6,000); several of Lewis W. Hine’s images of child laborers, including Coal Breaker Boys, Pittston, Pennsylvania, silver print, 1910, printed 1930s ($20,000 to $30,000); Walker Evans’s New Deal-era photograph Country Store, Vicinity Moundville, Alabama, silver print, 1936, printed 1940s-50s ($15,000 to $25,000); and Paul Strand’s portrait of Mr. Bennett, West River Valley, Vermont, from his “Time in New England” series, silver print, 1944, printed 1961, with an inscription from the photographer on the back ($25,000 to $35,000).
The theme of Liberty is evoked by portraits of historical figures, such as a commanding half-plate daguerreotype of Henry Clay, the “Great Compromiser,” attributed to Montgomery P. Simons, circa 1848 ($20,000 to $30,000); the last photograph of frontiersman Kit Carson, taken by James Wallace Black just two months before Carson died, albumen print signed and inscribed by Carson on the original mount, 1868 ($30,000 to $45,000); and images of inventors Alexander Graham Bell, Samuel F.B. Morse and Thomas Edison. There are also examples of experimental works, such as a signed and inscribed copy of Muybridge’s seminal work Animal Locomotion, with 21 collotype plates of people and animals in motion, 1872-85, printed 1887 ($15,000 to $20,000); and two of Dr. Dain L. Tasker’s 1933 x-ray studies of daffodils, silver-bromide contact prints ($15,000 to $25,000 and $12,000 to $18,000). Highlights of the Pursuit of Happiness section include a very rare photograph by Alfred Stieglitz, one of only two known prints of Going Home by Ferry, New York City, showing a cramped boat delivering commuters at the end of a work day, silver print, 1902, printed 1920s ($50,000 to $75,000); and other city views, among them Karl Strauss’s N.Y. Public Library, circa 1913 ($8,000 to $12,000); a rare oversize period print of Berenice Abbott’s view of the three-masted schooner Theoline, [at] Pier 11, East River, Manhattan, New York, 1936, printed 1940s-50s ($12,000 to $18,000); and Robert Rauschenberg’s Untitled (American Flag, enough is enough), silver print, 1980 ($10,000 to $15,000).
There are also images that depict American industry, among them Hine’s Pittsburgh Steel Plants at Night, oversize sepia-toned silver print, circa 1910, printed 1930s ($10,000 to $15,000); Imogen Cunningham’s Fageol Ventilators, Oakland, Cal., silver print, 1934, printed early 1960s ($5,000 to $7,500); and Paul Outerbridge, Jr.’s Advertisement for Marmon Motor Co., New York, platinum print of a graphic montage, circa 1920 ($20,000 to $25,000). And, finally, celebrating the arts are Edward Steichen and Rolf Petersen’s Isadora Duncan at the Portals of the Parthenon, toned silver print, 1921, printed 1960s ($18,000 to $22,000); and Yousuf Karsh’s sensitive portrait of Ernest Hemingway, silver print, 1957, printed 1970s ($6,000 to $9,000). The second part of the auction, Fine Photographs, features early works, such as Lewis Carroll’s delicate image of Margaret Anne and Lilian Brodie, albumen print, 1860 ($10,000 to $15,000); natural history and ethnographic photographs of the American West, and albums containing views of exotic lands including Japan. Among images from the first half of the 20th century are Brassaï’s Devant le ‘Closerie de Lilas’ dans le brouillard, ferrotyped silver print, 1934 ($20,000 to $30,000); Dorothea Lange’s San Francisco, Alley, North Beach District, silver print, 1935 ($15,000 to $25,000); Horst P. Horst’s Mainbocher Corset, Paris, silver print, 1939, printed 1990s ($14,000 to $18,000); Dimitri Baltermants’s World War II photograph, Grief (Ditch of Kertsch), silver print, 1942, showing the aftermath of the Nazi massacre on a Crimean village ($10,000 to $15,000); and several of Ansel Adams’s classic images, among them Moonrise, Hernandez, New Mexico, 1941, printed late 1960s ($30,000 to $40,000), Mount Williamson, Sierra Nevada, from Manzanar, California, silver print, 1944, printed late 1960s, and Clearing Winter Storm, Yosemite National Park, California, silver print, 1944, printed 1978 ($20,000 to $30,000 each).
Mid-century photographs include Elliott Erwitt’s portfolio The Alchan Edition, with 12 (of 15) silver prints, 1952-76, printed 1980 ($8,000 to $12,000); the Mario Giacomelli portfolio La Gente, with 18 silver prints, 1956-68, printed 1981 ($25,000 to $35,000); Minor White’s Snow on Garage Door, Rochester, NY, silver print, 1960, printed circa 1970 ($7,000 to $10,000); Josef Sudek’s Remembrance of Mr. Poe, silver print, with an inscription from Sudek in Czech on the back, 1959, printed circa 1969 ($9,000 to $12,000). Finally, there are desirable fashion photographs and celebrity portraits, such as a double composite from Jack Smith’s The Beautiful Book, silver print, 1962 ($8,000 to $10,000); Dennis Hopper’s 1963 image of Andy Warhol, silver print, printed circa 1988 ($7,000 to $10,000); Annie Leibovitz’s color photos of The Rolling Stones, 1985 ($7,000 to $10,000), and Meryl Streep, 1986 ($6,000 to $9,000); and three sexually charged silver prints by Helmut Newton, Woman Observing Man, Saint-Tropez, 1975, printed 1980s ($30,000 to $40,000); Home Movies, Paris, 1980, printed 1980s ($14,000 to $18,000); and Woman Being Filmed, Paris, 1980, printed 1980s ($15,000 to $25,000). The auction will begin with the Stephen White Collection at 1:30 p.m. on Tuesday, March 23, and will continue with Fine Photographs at 3 p.m.
The photographs will be on public exhibition at Swann Galleries Thursday, March 18 and Friday, March 19, from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.; Saturday, March 20, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.; Monday, March 22, from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.; and Tuesday, March 23, from 10 a.m. to noon. The two-volume illustrated catalogue is available for $35 from Swann Galleries, 104 East 25th Street, New York, NY 10010, and may be viewed online at www.swanngalleries.com. For further information, and to make advance arrangements to bid by telephone during the auction, please contact Daile Kaplan at (212) 254-4710, extension 21, or via email at dkaplan@swanngalleries.com. Live online bidding is also available via Artfact.com.

Swann Galleries
104 East 25th Street
New York

Sally Mann - The Family, the Land

Candy Cigarette. From the series « Immediate Family », 1991 © Sally Mann, Courtesy Gagosian Gallery, New York

For the first time in Switzerland, a museum exhibition is devoted to the oeuvre of Sally Mann. Over the past fifteen years this body of work has earned Mann an international reputation. Since the 1970’s this American photographer (b. Lexington, Virginia in 1951) has been dealing with the troubling themes of intimacy and the inexorable passage of time. Sally Mann’s work is centered on portraits of her children, as she observed them closely and with great honesty as they grew into young adults. The portraits are complemented by landscapes, revealing strangely timeless places characterised by an exuberant nature seemingly charged with symbolism. Since her debut, Sally Mann has pursued the path of intimacy. Her work is distinguished by a specific technique, at the same time both traditional and inventive: the use of the large format camera together with a selective use of nineteenth-century processes. Mann is also admired for her mastery of optics and related exposure times, some of which can last several minutes. Mann’s work is concerned with the exploration of themes that are both personal and universal: childhood, memory, mortality. The photographs of her three children, gathered together in 1992 for the book Immediate Family, sparked immediate controversy, while propelling the artist to the summit of the American photography scene. However, in the dialogue that developed in the work between the children and their environments, the landscape would acquire increasing weight; by the beginning of the 1990s it would be depicted devoid of human representation. Wishing a fresh approach, the photographer attached nineteenth-century lenses to her camera (one of which is thought to have belonged to the celebrated portrait photographer Nadar). Profoundly attached to her place of birth, Mann focused her camera on the Southern States, a region marked by a particularly turbulent history. By employing antiquated equipment and nineteenth- century photographic processes, Mann succeeded in infusing her images with a radiant atmosphere. The long exposure times render tangible air and light, evoking the great American tradition of the sublime. The most recent works in the exhibition - those made since 2000 - reward viewing on another level. They deal poignantly with vulnerability, old age, death and decay. Fragility is also reflected in the tightly cropped portraits of the children - now young adults - and the large format invites contemplative scrutiny. It is now difficult to distinguish between Emmett, Jessie and Virginia, as the particularities of the photographic process confound distinguishing traits. By means of glass negatives and the wet collodion method, the artist once again questions memory and the ephemerality of life or as Sally Mann herself puts it in a phrase that could be either a declaration or a question: « what remains ». Thus the artist shares with us a personal vision, close and intimate, a meditation on life and death.

Immediate Family, 1984-1995
Immediate Family is a series of work where intuition plays an important role. Struck by the beauty of her three children, Emmett, Jessie and Virginia, Sally Mann photographed them over a ten year period on her property in Lexington. Since 1984, she has recorded ordinary, everyday and intimate moments that only parents can remember. She photographed her children angry, wounded, naked, playing or resting. Sally Mann sought to reveal these moments of truth that characterize childhood. Her images reveal the struggles that take place at this particular age: the search for autonomy, vulnerability, self-discovery, doubt, games, a sense of immortality and omnipotence, fear. The photographs of Sally Mann lift the veil on childhood. Beyond being portraits of her immediate family, the artist addresses with subtlety this tender age, this stage of life where character is forged. Immediate Family is also an immediate testimony to maternal love and what children give back in return. In each image, Emmett, Jessie and Virginia play a role, even when they seem to sleep or be unaware of the presence of the large format camera. All three agreed to pose and all three have agreed since that these images should be shown outside the family circle. With Sally Mann, family photography acquires an unexpected importance.

Sally Mann, Bridge.From the series «Deep South», 1996 [#23H] © Sally Mann. Courtesy Gagosian Gallery, New York

Virginia, 1993-1994, Deep South, 1996-1998
After Immediate Family, Sally Mann dedicated herself to nature, which had gradually taken over the portraits of her children. The artist, fascinated by the region of her birth – the Deep South of the United States, has chosen to work with equipment of the 19th century to photograph the magnificent scenery. Sally Mann plays with different toning techniques, especially with the imperfections of her camera: flaws of light and scratches on the negative underline, in the eyes of the artist, the ‘radical light of the South’. Her photographs, which seem to belong to another century, reveal the strange beauty of the Southern landscape (Virginia, Louisiana and Mississippi) and evoke in a sudden and surprising manner, the presence of a tormented past. ‘These images speak of rivers of blood, sweat and tears that Africans have shed in the dark soil of their new ungrateful homeland,’ says Sally Mann.

What Remains, 2000
On 8th December 2000, an escaped armed prisoner committed suicide on Sally Mann’s property in Lexington. This incident inspired the What Remains series. Sally Mann, deeply affected by the death of the fugitive on her property, decided to dig up the metal cage in which she had buried her English greyhound, Eva. She wanted to find the dog’s remains. In a bag, she carefully placed the skin, bones and small fragments of the animal – tail bones, teeth, and claws. In her studio, the photographer recreated the animal from head to tail and photographed ‘what remains’. Eighteen months have passed between the death of the dog and the photographs taken using the wet collodion process, an old photographic technique, which requires about six minutes of exposure time. The defects of the glass plate are visible and reinforce the idea of a memory being fixed. ‘Is it too sentimental of me to want to keep my dog, or at least to keep part of it? Is it disrespectful to observe this form of intimate decomposition?’ What Remains continued thereafter around new issues linked to decay and death.

What Remains, 2001
Sally Mann’s growing fascination with death led her to taking a further step: she went to a forensic institute in Tennessee called ‘Body Farm’, where corpses are left to decompose. She obtained permission to photograph in the garden of the institute, where the bodies were placed among trees, plants and bushes. They were left there until the flesh was sufficiently decomposed to be examined by scientists. The second component of What Remains therefore offers a new reflection on death. The damaged bodies, whose remnants merge with the earth, haunt the artist. Photographing them allowed her to keep track of the fragility and vulnerability of the human being before it returns to dust. These images are certainly shocking, but Sally Mann has managed to surpass this raw representation by using the wet collodion process that has become her favourite medium. The collodion, developed by Briton Frederick Scott Archer in 1851 to sensitize glass plates, was also used to make bandages for the wounded in the Civil War. Just before making this series on the corpses of the ‘Body Farm’, Sally Mann walked the battlefields of the Civil War to ‘walk in the midst of these remains – bones, lives, souls, hopes, joys and fears fallen by millions into the earth’.

What Remains, 2004
With the images from the Faces series, Sally Mann returned to her starting point: her children. These close-up pictures show the faces of Emmet, Jessie and Virginia who have now become adults. It is difficult to differentiate them in these dark and out of focus photographs, due to exposures that lasted several minutes. These collodion portraits evoke ambrotypes of the 19th century, glass plate negatives set upon a dark background. The surfaces are so marked that the faces seem to have been disfigured by the photographic emulsion. Sally Mann has not sought to refine the process, saying the involuntary flaws and scratches make her photographs already old images. Does she mean that these are posthumous images? The eyes are sometimes downcast in front of the camera. The series indeed gives a strange impression of rest. The exhibition has been designed by Sally Mann in collaboration with the Swedish photographer and curator Hasse Persson. Prior to its presentation in Lausanne, it has been shown in Stockholm, Oslo, Helsinki, Helsingborg, Copenhagen and The Hague. The exhibition is accompanied in the Salle Lumiere (2nd basement level) with a documentary film by Steven Cantor. Made at Sally Mann’s home, ‘What Remains’ gives us an intimate insight into the artist’s life and reveals her methods, her approach and her motivations

AIPAD Photography Show in New York

Edith Maybin, Untitled #3, 2006, C-print, 26 x 33 inches, Edition of 10, 51 x 40 inches, Edition of 6, Courtesy Jackson Fine Art.

The AIPAD Photography Show New York, will be presented by the Association of International Photography Art Dealers (AIPAD) from March 18 through 21, 2010. More than 70 fine art photography galleries will present a wide range of art works including contemporary, modern and 19th century photographs, as well as photo-based art, video and new media, at the Park Avenue Armory in New York City. The 30th edition of The AIPAD Photography Show New York will open with a Gala Preview on March 17 to benefit the John Szarkowski Fund, an endowment for photography acquisitions at The Museum of Modern Art in New York City.

Exhibitors:

A Gallery For Fine Photography, New Orleans
Nailya Alexander, New York
Deborah Bell Photographs, New York
Joseph Bellows Gallery, La Jolla
Bonni Benrubi Gallery, Inc., New York
Galerie Daniel Blau, Munich
Stephen Bulger Gallery, Toronto
Robert Burge/20th Century Photographs, Ltd., New York
Stephen L. Clark Gallery, Austin
John Cleary Gallery, Houston
Commerce Graphics Ltd., Inc., New York
Contemporary Works / Vintage Works, Ltd., Chalfont, PA
Czech Center of Photography, Prague
Stephen Daiter Gallery / Daiter Contemporary, Chicago
David Gallery, Culver City, CA
Keith de Lellis Gallery, New York
Candace Dwan Gallery, New York
Catherine Edelman Gallery, Chicago
Gary Edwards Gallery, Washington, DC
Etherton Gallery, Tucson
Kathleen Ewing Gallery, Washington, DC
Henry Feldstein, Forest Hills, NY
Peter Fetterman Gallery, Santa Monica
Gallery 19/21, Guilford, CT
Gitterman Gallery, New York
Howard Greenberg Gallery, New York
HackelBury Fine Art Limited, London
The Halsted Gallery, Bloomfield Hills, MI
Charles A. Hartman Fine Art, Portland, OR
Hasted Hunt, New York
Hemphill, Washington, DC
Paul M. Hertzmann, Inc., San Francisco
Michael Hoppen Gallery Ltd., London
Edwynn Houk Gallery, New York
Hyperion Press Limited, New York
Charles Isaacs Photographs, Inc., New York
Jackson Fine Art, Atlanta
Steven Kasher Gallery, New York
Kicken Berlin, Berlin
Robert Klein Gallery, Boston
Alan Klotz Gallery, New York
Robert Koch Gallery, San Francisco
Paul Kopeikin Gallery, Los Angeles
Hans P. Kraus Jr., Inc., New York
Baudoin Lebon, Paris
Lee Gallery, Winchester, MA
Gallery Luisotti, Santa Monica
Robert Mann Gallery, New York
Laurence Miller Gallery, New York
Robert Miller Gallery, New York
Richard Moore Photographs, Oakland, CA
Scott Nichols Gallery, San Francisco
Pace/MacGill Gallery, New York
Galerie Priska Pasquer, Cologne
Photographs Do Not Bend Gallery, Dallas
Photology, Milan
Picture Photo Space, Inc., Osaka
Serge Plantureux, Paris
Yancey Richardson Gallery, New York
William L. Schaeffer/Photographs, Chester, CT
Scheinbaum & Russek Ltd., Santa Fe
Charles Schwartz Ltd., New York
Lisa Sette Gallery, Scottsdale, AZ
Michael Shapiro Photographs, San Francisco
Silverstein Photography, New York
Barry Singer Gallery, Petaluma, CA
Andrew Smith Gallery, Santa Fe
Joel Soroka Gallery, Aspen
Staley+Wise Gallery, New York
Galerie Zur Stockeregg, Zürich
Tartt/Washington, Washington, DC
Throckmorton Fine Art, Inc., New York
Wach Gallery, Avon Lake, OH
Weinstein Gallery, Minneapolis
Winter Works on Paper, Brooklyn
Galerie Esther Woerdehoff, Paris
Zabriskie Gallery, New York

These are the Highlights.pdf.

Unified Fashion Objectives

Albert Watson, Gisella, Paris 1990

In “UFO (Unified Fashion Objectives),” Albert Watson unveils a collection of his fashion photographs from 40 years. Selected from his archives, Watson presents some of his most well-known fashion work alongside images that have never been presented to the public before. The show includes the portrait “Kate Moss in Torn Veil, Marrakech, 1993” and the classic fashion shot “Gisella, Paris, 1990,” shot in the Jardin des Tuileries. The clothes of designers such as Prada, Chanel, Armani, Valentino, Issey Miyake and Yohji Yamamoto are featured on models in Watson’s distinct and powerfully graphic style in a series of limited-edition, black and white prints. These fashion photographs also offer a preview of Watson’s upcoming book “UFO,” to be published in fall 2010 by PQ Blackwell. Watson has photographed more than 200 covers of Vogue magazine worldwide during his career, and also worked for many years for other top fashion magazines, such as Harper’s Bazaar, Elle and Mademoiselle. He also photographed the collections in Paris and Milan for 25 years. Albert Watson has won numerous honours, including three Andy Awards for advertising, a lifetime achievement Lucie Award and even a Grammy. Albert Watson was born in Edinburgh, Scotland, and immigrated to the United States in 1970. He has been based in New York since 1977.

UFO (Unified Fashion Objectives)
25th February to 30th April 2010
Young Gallery
Avenue Louise 75b
Brussels, Belgium

Opening hours:
Tue - Sat: 11.00 to 18.30

Albert Watson, Charlotte

Photo Collectors - Kent Belden

By Conor Risch
While we often hear a lot from the perspectives of gallerists, museum curators and publishers, we aren’t often privy to the world of collectors, those all-important patrons who have helped the market grow to its current level. How did they come to collect photographs? What are their interests and criteria for buying a print? Where do they buy work and discover new talent? For a look into the other side of the collectible photography market, we spoke with three collectors with vastly different backgrounds, experience levels and taste, and asked them about the view from where they stand.

Kent Belden has always worked in music and fashion, including a stint as creative director at Epic Records, and for the past five years as a representative for photographers, hair and make-up artists, and wardrobe stylists for the Margaret Maldonado Agency. Having always appreciated art, Belden says his work in commercial photography led him to realize that photographs were a more attainable contemporary art medium for the average person. He began his collection 12 years ago, but he and his partner have only been collecting seriously for six years, so he still considers himself a new collector. Belden, who owns work by Terry Richardson, Nan Goldin, Robert Mapplethorpe, Martin Schoeller, Ryan McGinley, Ed Templeton, Massimo Vitali, Larry Clark and Edward Burtynsky, credits meeting gallerist Sarah Hasted socially and their friendship was a key factor in fueling his collecting. Hasted introduced Belden to her partner in New York’s
Hasted/Hunt gallery, W.M. Hunt, and, as a result of those relationships, Belden has gone from casually making a couple of purchases here and there to acquiring more aggressively at a rate of five or more pieces per year. Estimating that his collection is evenly split between emerging and established artists, Belden says his process of evaluating a photograph, which often starts with a phone call or e-mail to Hasted, includes considering the history and future of the artist, and determining whether the work is priced correctly. How something is mounted and presented can also factor in his decision, but these considerations ultimately take a back seat. “Right now, everything I have is something that I love,” says Belden. “I think I’m at a stage that I’m still new
enough that they’re all my favorites.” Most of the work he purchases, he says, tends to be emotive photographs of people. “If it’s Nan Goldin, it’s emotion of some sort, or a physical scenario with people. Another one of our favorites, who is up-and-coming, is Ed Templeton. His photographs are very slice-of-life as well.”
Belden has only decided to sell one piece, which he says he bought when he got caught up in the moment. “When I purchased that particular photograph it was because of the photographer, not because of the picture.” Fortunately, the work appreciated and Belden was able to fund other acquisitions by selling it at Phillips de Pury, where he and his partner frequently make purchases. Although Belden has been to auctions at all of the major houses, he feels most comfortable with the atmosphere at Phillips. “My impression, and this is just my impression, is that things aren’t as astronomical, and Phillips also markets to junior and up-and-coming collectors as well as those who are established.” Belden also attends art fairs like Photo L.A., the Armory Show and its offshoots, like Scope, and also the Affordable Art Fair. Based in New York and Los Angeles, Belden and his partner have bought work at galleries on both coasts, but he has also made purchases over the internet, which he says he uses often for reading and research. By way of example, Belden relates that he had seen work by Massimo Vitali at auction in New York, but that the prices for the work had been a bit out of reach. “I ended up finding his gallery in Austria, which had smaller-sized but larger-edition photographs that were much more my price point. I ordered them sight unseen from Austria,” he recalls. “They showed up in a crate, and they’re two of the best things I’ve ever purchased.”

A Positive View

Elliott Erwitt, Wyoming, Steam-train Press, 1954. © Elliott Erwitt, Courtesy of Hackelbury Fine Art.

The exhibition A Positive View will showcase in London a range of photography on an international scale. The third edition of this exhibition, to be held at Somerset House, will bring together more than 100 rare and signed vintage works across almost a century of photography; classic and contemporary works will cross a variety of genres, from still-life, fashion, landscape, portraiture and reportage. Two masterpieces by Henri Cartier-Bresson will be on show; his renowned Seville (1933) and the Queen Charlotte’s Ball, London (1959). Other highlights will include a rare landscape by Elliot Erwitt, Wyoming Steam-Train Press, (1954); Friends of the Spanish Press (1968) by the winner of the 2007 Venice Biennale Golden Lion, Malick Sidibe, an image from Robert Polidori’s New Orleans series (2006) and Corinne Day’s photograph of supermodel Kate Moss, Kate (1990). These will be shown along with a still life of Francis Bacon’s Studio (2001) from Perry Ogden’s 7 Reece Mews series and Wim Wenders’ classic Lounge Painting, Gila Bend, Arizona (1987). For the first time, A Positive View will also feature work from contemporary artists whose creative practice incorporates photography, with geographically diverse representations from Korea, China, Japan and West Africa.

Wim Wenders, Lounge Painting, Gila Bend, Arizona, 1983. © Wim Wenders, Courtesy of Haunch of Venison, London.

With signature works by Seydou Keita, Yum Joongho, Bohn-Chang Koo and Weng Fen among others, the exhibition will provide an opportunity to consider how practitioners beyond Europe and America are working with photography. A 200-page fully-illustrated coffee-table book will be published in March, and will be available for purchase from Somerset House, Christie’s internationally, specialist art bookshops and online through Amazon.co.uk (£25, March 2010). A limited edition, signed and numbered hardback edition will also be available (£100, March 2010).

A Positive View
10th March to 6th April 2010
Embankmanet Galleries and Terrace Rooms
South Wing
Somerset House
Strand
London

Opening Hours: Monday to Sunday 10am – 6pm