This May sees the return of regular Photographs sales to London. Sotheby’s is honoured to open this sale with a section of works donated by leading contemporary photographers such as Hiroshi Sugimoto, Susan Derges and Guido Mocafico in support of the Bodleian Library’s campaign to acquire the Personal Archive of William Henry Fox Talbot.
The sale will additionally include photographs from the early days of the medium to the present day. One of the sale’s undisputed highlights is a unique 1850s album comprising 44 salt or albumenised salt prints by the ingenious John Beasley Greene, which offers spectacular modern views of the Egyptian landscape and Constantine in Algeria. This album of photographs is joined by Richard Avedon’s glamorous portfolio Avedon/Paris, 1978, dedicated to early photographs of his favoured muses of the 1940s and 1950s.
Amateurs of classical modern photography will be enticed by a group of Otto Steinert’s most striking, virtually abstract images. Spanning spectacular works by the masters of fashion photography such as Horst P. Horst, Herb Ritts, Peter Lindbergh and Helmut Newton, the sale concludes with exciting contemporary photographic creations. Unique monumental works by artists such as Vera Lutter and Adam Fuss executed in elegant ranges of grey are complemented by extremely vibrant interiors by Robert Polidori and Ahmet Ertug, as well as the unique, lavishly hand-coloured African savannah scenes by Peter Beard.
Top Lot:
JOHN BEASLEY GREENE
ALBUM OF EGYPT AND ALGERIA, 1852 – 1856
Estimate (121,880 — 182,821 EUR)
ANDRÉ KERTÉSZ
BOULEVARD DES INVALIDES, PARIS, 1926
Estimate (30,470 — 36,564 EUR)
ANSEL ADAMS
‘PORTFOLIO FOUR: WHAT MAJESTIC WORD, IN MEMORY OF RUSSEL VARIAN’, 1963
Estimate (36,564 — 48,752 EUR)
RICHARD AVEDON
‘AVEDON/PARIS’, 1978
Estimate (146,256 — 219,385 EUR)
ROBERT MAPPLETHORPE
‘DAN S.’, 1980
Estimate (48,752 — 73,128 EUR)
RALPH GIBSON
VARIOUS WORKS, 1975 – 1996
Estimate (30,470 — 42,658 EUR)
RALPH GIBSON
VARIOUS WORKS, 1970 – 1997
Estimate (30,470 — 42,658 EUR)
VERA LUTTER
‘BATTERSEA POWER STATION, II, JULY 3, 2004’, 2004
Estimate (48,752 — 73,128 EUR)
ADAM FUSS
UNTITLED, 2007
Estimate (30,470 — 42,658 EUR)
PETER BEARD
‘PEBBLEWORM (CROCODRILLOS) 1968’, 1968/1998
Estimate (36,564 — 48,752 EUR)