Bereft of any dedicated single-collection sales, the season’s photography auctions unspooled with few dramatic moments, with mostly private buyers showing a preference for established masters from every era.
Christie’s October sales notched up a total of $3.5m (with fees, est $4.6m–$7m; all results here include fees, unless otherwise stated). The 27 pictures in the evening sale fetched $1.1m, led by Man Ray’s unique Rayograph (1922) (est. $250,000-$350,000), which sold for $295,500. Master status did not save Edward Weston’s rare work Shells, 6S (1927) (est $400,000-$600,000), from being bought in, although prints by artists including Thomas Struth, Robert Frank, Dorothea Lange, Erwin Blumenfeld, Richard Misrach and William Eggleston all landed squarely within or above estimate. The day session of 257 lots raised $2.4m, with high demand for a group of 20 works by Robert Mapplethorpe, spanning various stages of his career.
When asked to characterise the mood in the saleroom, Darius Himes, the international head of photographs at Christie’s, said: “There’s no longer any ‘room’. It’s called the internet,” referring to the increase of online bidders participating in live auctions. Christie’s has sold more than $1m worth of photographs in online-only sales this year. “There’s real, untapped potential around photographs,” Himes says.
Spreading 254 lots over three sessions, Phillips achieved its best results for works that crossed over into the contemporary art category. Its sale made $4.9m (est $5.1m–$7.2m), led by the early Gilbert & George work Day (1978) (est $600,000-$800,000), which sold for $670,000. Several prints by Diane Arbus—who currently has a show at New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art—found buyers. Her work Child with a toy Hand Grenade in Central Park (1962) sold for $150,000 (est $70,000-$90,000). “It’s wonderful to see strength at the highest end of the market,” said Sarah Krueger, the head of the sale. Contemporary compositions by Vik Muniz and Hiroshi Sugimoto, as well as fashion-oriented images from the likes of Herb Ritts and Helmut Newton, all saw competitive bids, and new records were set for Doug and Mike Starn, Hannah Wilke and Neil Leifer.
Last but not least, Sotheby’s made $2.9m (est $3.4m-$5.2m) on its 178-lot sale, topped by a 1918 portrait by Alfred Stieglitz of his future wife, the artist Georgia O’Keeffe (est $300,000-$500,000). The rare print is believed to be the only one in private hands and sold to a collector for $250,000. The top-selling contemporary works included Peter Beard’s Orphaned Cheetah Cubs, Mweiga, Kenya (1968) (est $50,000-$70,000), which sold for $87,500, while Yves Klein’s famed Situationist collaboration with Harry Shunk and János Kender, Leap into the Void (1960) (est. $15,000-$25,000), set a new record for a photograph by Klein, selling for $62,500 to Chicago’s Alan Koppel Gallery.