On October 22, Swann Auction Galleries is holding a Photographs & Photographic Literature Sale, featuring works ranging from the earliest days of photography through images by modern masters. Some of the works, including a series of portraits by Diane Arbus, are expected to sell for $20,000 to $30,000 each. Others, such as Richard Avedon’s nude portrait of Rudolf Nureyev or Ansel Adams’s landscape shot, Clearing Winter Storm, Yosemite National Park, California, are estimated to be sold for $30,000 to $40,000. Other interesting items include a “mural-sized” chromogenic print of Marilyn Monroe, an album containing Los Angeles Police Department photographs from the years 1917 through 1942, as well as a selection of rare salted paper prints by William Henry Fox Talbot, one of the inventors of photography itself (pictured above).

Press Release

On October 22, Swann Auction Galleries is holding a Photographs & Photographic Literature Sale, featuring works ranging from the earliest days of photography through images by modern masters.

One of the auction’s top lots is a series of photographs taken by Diane Arbus for a story on “The American Art Scene” in Harper’s Bazaar, 1966.  These down-to-earth portraits of artists Roy Lichtenstein, Frank Stella, Lee Bontecou, Claes Oldenburg and Agnes Martin are expected to sell for $20,000 to $30,000 each.

The sale also offers other photographs of fashion and cult icons, including a poignant mural-sized chromogenic print of Marilyn Monroe by Bert Stern from “The Last Sitting,” 1962, printed 1990 ($18,000 to $22,000); David Bailey’s glamorous Jean Shrimpton, 1963-64 ($8,000 to $12,000), and Richard Avedon’s nude portrait of Rudolf Nureyev, Paris, France, 1961, printed 1999 ($30,000 to $40,000).

Another aspect of the American social landscape is captured in photos related to crime, including an album titled Mysteries of Life, containing Los Angeles Police Department photographs, 1917-42 ($2,000 to $3,000) and mug shots of notorious criminals such as Al “Scarface” Capone, Charles “Lucky” Luciano, and John Dillinger.

Also available is Ansel Adams’s sublime landscape Clearing Winter Storm, Yosemite National Park, California, 1944, printed 1978 ($30,000 to $40,000).

For the photography enthusiast, the sale opens with a selection of rare salted paper prints by William Henry Fox Talbot, whose exploration of the negative/positive process became the foundation for modern photography. There are an elegant Untitled study of lace, circa 1845, reproducing a unique photogenic drawing (estimate: $6,000 to $9,000); The Woodcutters, circa 1845, depicting two men at work near a woodshed ($5,000 to $7,500); a portrait of Talbot’s daughter ($3,000 to $4,500); and a group of five images represented in his book, Sun Pictures in Scotland, 1844 ($18,000 to $22,000).

Swann also specializes in works by Lewis Hine, who is represented by vivid silver prints including Fresh Air for the Baby, N.Y., East Side, 1910 ($6,000 to $9,000); African-American Orphan, Washington, D.C., 1906, printed 1920s ($9,000 to $12,000); and a variant of the well-known Powerhouse Mechanic, circa 1926 ($8,000 to $12,000).

Illustration sourced from the Wikimedia Commons

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