Edward Burtynsky: Oil @Hasted Hunt Kraeutler

JTF (just the facts): A total of 17 large color prints, framed in black and not matted, and hung in the entry area, three adjacent gallery spaces that wind around, and the back gallery space near the offices. All of the works are digital chromogenic prints, and were taken between 1999 and 2007. The images come in a dizzying array of sizes and editions; with some exceptions, the single images come in as many as four sizes (27x34, 40x50, 48x60, and 60x75, in editions of 10, 9, 6, and 3 respectively) while the diptychs appear to come in three sizes (36x78, 48x120/140, 60x180, sometimes framed as a single piece, other times as two images hung edge to edge, in editions of 5, 6, and 3 respectively). A monograph of the entire body of work has been published by Steidl (here) and is available from the gallery for $125. (Installation shots at right.)

Comments/Context: Edward Burtynsky has made a career out of photographing the massive industrial landscapes that are often conveniently out of view, behind chain link fences or far away from everyday life. He has made images of huge factories, strip mines, quarries, ship yards and expansive industrial sites all over the world (we reviewed his book on China earlier this year here), making surprisingly beautiful images of sometimes ugly and forgotten places. Burtynsky's work shows a mastery of scale quite unlike other photographers at work today; he takes on the biggest, most un-photographable locations, and consistently finds subtle geometries and semi abstractions that often become striking visual patterns. His pictures work on two levels: the staggering decorative quality of the images, and the much tougher underlying questions that quickly emerge, that force the viewer to consider the downstream consequences of the activity being documented.
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The enormous multi-national oil industry and its complex and fragile distribution chain is perhaps the perfect project for Burtynsky's brand of photography: the sites for extraction and refinement are colossal, and the secondary and tertiary industries (shipping, cars/highways, military, etc.) are equally gargantuan. What's a bit different here is that Burtynsky has stepped into a much hotter political fire with these pictures than in his previous work; given both the climate change issues as well as the intricate geopolitical ramifications of the future of petroleum, the oil industry and all its interconnections are subject to much broader scrutiny than ever before. (As an aside, two excellent books on this topic are Daniel Yergin's The Prize and Matthew Simmons' Twilight in the Desert.) In a sense then, Burtynsky's timing with this exhibition (and the larger one at the Corcoran, linked below) is excellent; this is a topic that many people are intensely interested in, and his thoughtful juxtaposition of beauty and commentary will get people thinking.
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The images themselves cover the entire petroleum-based economy, from beginning to end. Several of the images in the show find repetitions in the endless acres of pumpjack wells of California and Azerbaijan (some now abandoned), black masses bobbing up and down, with adjacent towers and steeples, often artfully reflected in nearby pools of undisturbed water or sludge. Others follow the densely intertwined stainless steel pipes and tubes of refineries and chemical plants. A vast parking lot full of new cars at a VW plant in China and expansive ribbons of highway in Los Angeles show just how pervasive our car culture has become, and the array of moth-balled fighter jets in the Arizona desert is a not so subtle reminder of how strategic these fuels have become in our current world.

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Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed this show and feel like the content is both timely and important. My one knock on this exhibit is that I would have liked to have seen more of the images from this particular series; not every one on display hits the mark perfectly, and there are quite a few other works in the book that I would have enjoyed seeing in person. The back room of the show contains six of Burtynsky's recent landscapes of Australian mines: open pits with stagnant pools of water at the bottom, chasms of rock, red and orange earth, dirt roads and salt flats. And while these are solid images as well, I think showing these was a mistake; I would have certainly preferred to see a deeper sample of the Oil project, so that more of Burtynsky's comprehensive story could be told. The difference between 11 images here and 55 at the Corcoran is likely very significant in terms of the overall impact of the work.

Collector's POV: With the closing of the Charles Cowles Gallery, Hasted Hunt Kraeutler has taken over as Burtynsky's sole representative in the US. Given the complex bundle of sizes and editions, the price list for this show is equally detailed. For the single images, the prices start at $10000 for the smallest and rise through $16500 and $23000, finally reaching $30000 for the very largest works. For the diptychs, prices begin at $18000, and work their way up to $38000 and $51000 for the biggest sizes. There were lots of red dots and a few SOLD OUTs, just a week into the show.

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Burtynsky's work began to be available in the secondary markets in about 2005 and the number of prints for sale in any given year has slowly grown since that time. Prices have ranged between $5000 and $35000. Size is a problem for us with Burtynsky's work (too big for our walls), but there are certainly a couple of striking images here that would provide an interesting contemporary foil for pictures of chemical plants and factories from between the wars that we already own.

Rating: ** (two stars) VERY GOOD (rating system described here)

Transit Hub:

• Artist site (here)
• Edward Burtynsky: Oil @Corcoran Gallery of Art, 2009 (here)
• Reviews: Washington Post (here), DCist (here)

Edward Burtynsky: Oil

Through November 28th

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Hasted Hunt Kraeutler

537 West 24th Street
New York, NY 10011

Auction Results: Photographs, October 8, 2009 @Christie's

From my perch as a collector, the results of the Christie's various owner photographs sale sent me an altogether different message than those of the Miller-Plummer sale the same day. My takeaway from the Miller-Plummer auction was that there is indeed some hidden demand for unusual pictures of high quality.

My takeaway from the various owner sale is somewhat contradictory: many of the big ticket lots failed to sell, and the ones that did sell brought in quite a bit less than I might have expected. The platinum De Meyer is the most puzzling to me; given its rarity, I would have expected it to be solidly bid-up; instead, someone got a bit of a bargain (from my perspective). Beyond this, the Curtis set, the Alvarez-Bravo, the Strand, the Arbus, and the Kertesz all failed to find buyers; either the reserves were too high or the demand was too soft (or both) - this would indicate that prices still need to come down further to reach equilibrium.

The overall and somewhat disappointing result was that the Total Sale Proceeds missed the Total Low Estimate by about $600K, even though the rest of the sale was about normal. The summary statistics are below (all results include the buyer’s premium):

Total Lots: 139
Pre Sale Low Total Estimate: $3260000
Pre Sale High Total Estimate: $4740000
Total Lots Sold: 101
Total Lots Bought In: 38
Buy In %: 27.34%
Total Sale Proceeds: $2664225

Here is the breakdown (using the Low, Mid, and High definitions from the preview post, here):

Low Total Lots: 46
Low Sold: 30
Low Bought In: 16
Buy In %: 34.78%
Total Low Estimate: $350000
Total Low Sold: $240125

Mid Total Lots: 76
Mid Sold: 61
Mid Bought In: 15
Buy In %: 19.74%
Total Mid Estimate: $1640000
Total Mid Sold: $1465600

High Total Lots: 17
High Sold: 10
High Bought In: 7
Buy In %: 41.18%
Total High Estimate: $2750000
Total High Sold: $958500

85.15% of the lots that sold had proceeds in or above their estimate. There were a total of five surprises in this sale (defined as having proceeds of at least double the high estimate):

Lot 725 Henri Cartier-Bresson, Behind the Gare St. Lazare, 1932/Later, at $21250
Lot 732 Irving Penn, Cuzco Newsboy, 1948, at $72100
Lot 767 Edward Curtis, Before the Storm, Apache, 1906, at $43750
Lot 768 Edward Curtis, The Vanishing Race, 1904, at $47500
Lot 794 David Hockney, Christopher Isherwood talking to Bob Holman, Los Angeles, March 14th, 1983, at $37500

The top lot by High estimate was lot 719, Edward S. Curtis, The North American Indian, complete set of Portfolios 1-20 and Text Volumes 1-20, 1907-1930, at $700000-900000; it did not sell (UPDATE: actually it did sell, only after the auction finished; see the comments below). The top outcome of the sale was a tie between Lot 781, Robert Frank, Fish Kill, New York, 1955/1969, and Lot 819, Baron Adolph De Meyer, Water Lilies, 1906, both at $170500.

Complete lot by lot results can be found here.

So back to the conundrum I began above: if you had a superlative piece to consign for April, how would you read the results of these two sales? Evidence of optimism for top tier material, against the backdrop of possibly improving macro conditions? Or evidence of continued cautiousness on the part of most buyers, and the need for further price compression? Sure seems like a mixed message to me; if you think you know the answer, by all means, put it in the comments.

Christie's
20 Rockefeller Plaza
New York, NY 10020

Auction Results: The Miller-Plummer Collection of Photographs, October 8, 2009 @Christie's

It didn't really dawn on me until after the auction that my visit to the preview for the Miller-Plummer sale at Christie's should have been a more obvious sign for how the sale would perform. Unlike the normal sparse smattering of visitors that seem to be around when we tour a sale, the Miller-Plummer preview was like old home week: the viewing tables were thick with gallery owners, private dealers and collectors, and there was a lively banter as greetings were exchanged and opinions on the condition of this or that lot were given; the Christie's specialists and staff were swamped taking images out of frames, and there were plenty of folks circling around the 19th century cases. It was as busy a preview as I can remember; the material was beyond the routine fare of most auctions, and the interest level was accordingly high. I should have known what that would mean.

The sale of Miller-Plummer collection delivered Total Sale Proceeds over the Total High Estimate for the first time in all of the photography sales thus far in 2009. While the buy-in rate wasn't particularly low (just over 25%), it was the many surprises and unexpected price run-ups that drove this sale.

The summary statistics are below (all results include the buyer’s premium):

Total Lots: 118
Pre Sale Low Total Estimate: $1185500
Pre Sale High Total Estimate: $1746200
Total Lots Sold: 88
Total Lots Bought In: 30
Buy In %: 25.42%
Total Sale Proceeds: $1832625

Here is the breakdown (using the Low, Mid, and High definitions from the preview post, here):

Low Total Lots: 74
Low Sold: 59
Low Bought In: 15
Buy In %: 20.27%
Total Low Estimate: $444200
Total Low Sold: $481500

Mid Total Lots: 35
Mid Sold: 22
Mid Bought In: 13
Buy In %: 37.14%
Total Mid Estimate: $672000
Total Mid Sold: $873875

High Total Lots: 9
High Sold: 7
High Bought In: 2
Buy In %: 22.22%
Total High Estimate: $630000
Total High Sold: $477250

An unexpected 50% of the lots that sold had proceeds above their estimate, and there were an astounding seventeen surprises in this sale (defined as having proceeds of at least double the high estimate). The Irving Penn prints clearly got a meaningful bump from the announcement of his death, but it was the strength of the 19th century images that was the real news from this sale:

Lot 516 Edward Weston, Johnny, 1944, at $23750
Lot 523 Marcus Aurelius Root, Albert Pritchard Root Asleep by the Flag, 1850, at $74500
Lot 529 Irving Penn, Cigarette No. 86, New York, 1972, at $37500
Lot 532 William Henry Fox Talbot, The Pencil of Nature, 1844, at $30000
Lot 533 William Henry Fox Talbot, Sun Pictures in Scotland, 1845, at $62500
Lot 534, Marcus Aurelius Root, Anthony Pritchard, 1850, at $350500
Lot 535, Matthew Brady, Samuel Morse with His Recorder, 1857, at $37500
Lot 538 Victor Prevost, Columbia College, 1855, at $23750
Lot 541 American Daguerreotypist Unknown, Buildings in Rural Setting, 1860, at $12500
Lot 548 Consuela Kanaga, Untitled (Girl's profile), 1948, at $16250
Lot 550 Frederick and William Langenheim, Cast-Iron Lighthouse under Construction, Carysfort Reef, Florida, August 2, 1849, at $20000
Lot 593 Robert Heinecken, TV Dinner, 1971, at $10000
Lot 598 Irving Penn, Chimney Sweep, London, 1950/1976, at $74500
Lot 602 Frederick Debourg Richards, Self Portrait, Anglesea, New Jersey, 1880, at $3750
Lot 604 Frederick Evans, Sea and Sky and Sand, 1899, at $21250
Lot 617 Lewis Carroll, 'Xie' Kitchen, 1870, at $8125
Lot 618 Joel-Peter Witkin, Le Baiser, N.M., 1983, at $50000

The top lot by High estimate was lot 547, a complete set of Camera Work, Numbers 1-49/50, 1903-1917, at $90000-120000; it sold for $80500. The top outcome of the sale was lot 534, Marcus Aurelius Root, Anthony Pritchard, 1850, at $350500 (more than 10X its high estimate).

Complete lot by lot results can be found here.

Christie's
20 Rockefeller Plaza
New York, NY 10020

Justine Kurland, This Train is Bound for Glory @Mitchell-Innes & Nash

JTF (just the facts): A total of 22 color images, framed in white with no mat, and hung in the entry and the large main gallery space. The works are c-prints, in editions of 6, made between 2007 and 2009. The prints range in size from 11x14 to 40x50, with a few intermediate sizes in between. A monograph of this body of work is being published by Ecstatic Peace Library. (Installation shots at right.)

Comments/Context: Unlike most of the contemporary photography shows on view this Fall, Justine Kurland's recent body of work doesn't follow the usual theme and variation project formula, but instead brings together a group of pictures that seem to illustrate a single all-encompassing atmospheric narrative; it's as if these pictures were taken from an illustrated novel, each one depicting a particular moment in the adventure story.

The recent tough economic times have brought a nearly endless set of comparisons to the Great Depression of the 1930s, and Kurland's subject matter is a portrait of the "neo-hobo" lifestyle, a 21st century version of the Great Depression wanderer: down on his luck, homeless, off in the wilderness, riding the rails to get from place to place. This old time, folk song narrative is infused with a more contemporary "off the grid" environmental sentiment; perhaps these people are living this life because of economic hardships or maybe they have simply chosen to get away from society and try to find some meaning out in the woods.

The sequencing of the images in the show brings several motifs back again and again:

• boxcars, hopper cars, tracks through the mountains, bridges, tunnels, the long S-shaped lines of distant freight trains off in the distance
• scratched out campgrounds, lean-tos, temporary structures of sticks and plastic tarps, shelters made of cardboard and plastic milk crates
• old men (vagrants, ramblers, travelers, mountain men) with scruffy beards and grubby clothing, naked children, sleeping in the back of a van or roaming in the weeds, bohemian backpackers communing with nature

Many of Kurland's images have the carefully composed quality of 19th century genre paintings, where the characters have been placed in the environment (along a riverside, perched on a fallen log, etc.) in such a way as to enhance the mood or to be representative of a larger allegorical idea/lifestyle. Unlike the documentary reality of the FSA pictures of the 1930s, Kurland's works have a romantic, utopian feel to them, a nostalgic back-to-the-land wildness and freedom, out on the frontier. And while there are fringe elements in all cultures, these pictures seem especially American to me, with a Huck Finn sensibility of self reliance and exploration, even if the times are hard.

This is a body of work that I think will be most successful in book form. While there are a few images that can easily stand on their own, the entire set of pictures is an evocative mood piece, where smaller pictures and train landscapes help fill in the gaps and details of the broader and larger narrative line; the best pictures benefit from being surrounded by the others. Overall, the images grew on me as I wandered through the gallery, and I left with the feeling of having been spun a yarn by an accomplished story teller.

Collector's POV: The prints in this show range in price between $2500 and $12000, based on size, with the middle range sizes priced at $6500, $7500 or $8500. Kurland's work has a very limited track record at auction - a handful of prints, in a range between $3000 and $6000, but not really enough sales to definitively chart a price trend. While these pictures don't fit into our collecting scheme in any way, I think they would be a solid fit for collectors interested in tableau-style work (the Crewdson/Yale school). As an aside, these works also reminded me of Alec Soth's recent body of work from the South (here); check them both out for a comparison of approaches to similar subject matter.

Rating: * (one star) GOOD (rating system described here)

Transit Hub:

• NY Times feature, 2007 (here)
• Reviews: NY Times, 2004 (here), Art in America, 2004 (here), ArtForum, 2002 (here)

Justine Kurland, This Train is Bound for Glory
Through November 14th

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Mitchell-Innes & Nash
534 West 26th Street

New York, NY 10001

Surface Tension: Contemporary Photographs from the Collection @Met

JTF (just the facts): A total of 50 works, in mixed frames and mats, hung in a single divided gallery on the 2nd floor of the museum. This group show includes images from 27 photographers, ranging from 1843 to 2008, all drawn from the permanent collection of the museum. (Marginal installation shots at right.)

The following photographers have been included in the exhibit, with the number of works on view in parentheses:

Anna Atkins (1 book, in case)
Marco Breuer (1)
Andrew Bush (17, in single case)
Miles Coolidge (1)
Tim Davis (1)
Robert Demachy (1, in case)
Walker Evans (1, in case)
Roger Fenton (1, in case)
Lee Friedlander (1)
Tom Friedman (1)
Adam Fuss (1)
Ann Hamilton (1 video)
Pertti Kekarainen (1)
Anselm Kiefer (1)
Jungjin Lee (1)
Christian Marclay (1)
Chris McCaw (1)
Daido Moriyama (1)
Vik Muniz (1)
Giuseppe Penone (7)
Eileen Quinlan (1)
Gerhard Richter (2)
Miguel Rio Branco (1)
Lucas Samaras (1)
Aaron Siskind (1, in case)
Frederick Sommer (1)
Wolfgang Tillmans (1)

Comments/Context: The group show now in view in the contemporary photography gallery at the Met is yet another in a string of thematic "idea" shows that began when the galleries were first opened a few years ago. Drawn from the permanent collection, this effort gathers together a wide range of works that touch on the concept of the surface of a photograph, and the inherent contradictions of capturing optical depth in a two dimensional medium. It also explores all kinds of surface manipulations, and the various process techniques used across the ages to create images on photosensitive paper.

While this subject has already received plenty of attention (and is a continuing area of exploration and experimentation for many photographers), this is a solid, if less than memorable show, with plenty of excellent unexpected examples and a good mix of the abstract and semi abstract. I particularly enjoyed Christian Marclay's massive cyanotype of unspooled cassette tape, Tom Friedman's horizontally stretched stripes, Andrew Bush's trompe l'oeil envelopes in frames, and Adam Fuss' photogram of squiggling snakes.

I guess my sense of unease with this show comes not from the show itself (which is generally well crafted), but from the feeling of the missed opportunity it represents. These thematic shows are altogether too safe; while they bring together some worthwhile contemporary work and educate viewers about current areas of activity in the medium, none of the exhibits has really taken a stand or shown us something wildly new - they are always appropriately diverse and inclusive. What I'd really like to see in this contemporary photography space is a series of more relevant solo shows that highlight the work of mid career contemporary photographers who matter. While I realize the hallowed halls of the Met are not the place for extreme risk taking, I think there are plenty of contemporary photographers who have earned a small show at the Met, and this space is the perfect venue for highlighting some rising stars.

Collector's POV: For our particular collection, the Anna Atkins book of algae cyanotypes from the 1840s would be the best fit; we continue to chase Atkins images whenever they surface, but haven't caught one just yet for some reason. Both the Marclay and the Fuss are superb, but neither really matches our existing genres.
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Rating: * (one star) GOOD (rating system described here)

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Transit Hub:

• Christian Marclay: White Cube site (here)
• Andrew Bush, Envelopes (here)

Surface Tension: Contemporary Photographs from the Collection

Through May 16th
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Metropolitan Museum of Art

1000 Fifth Avenue

New York, NY 10028

Hanging Fire: Contemporary Art from Pakistan @Asia Society

JTF (just the facts): A total of 55 works by 15 artists, made between 1991 and 2009, and hung in the second floor galleries - one small room and a second larger space that winds around on itself. (No photography is allowed at the Asia Society, so unfortunately, there are no installation photos of this show.) Three photographers have been included in the exhibit: Rashid Rana, Arif Mahmood, and Adeela Suleman. Details on each, below:

• Rashid Rana: 2 large color works (approximately 95x135), c-prints/Diasec, unframed, in editions of 5, from 2007/2008.
• Arif Mahmood: 6 black and white gelatin silver prints, approximately 16x20 or reverse, framed in black and matted, taken between 1998 and 2007.
• Adeela Suleman: 5 color works, c-prints, approximately 20x16, framed in black and matted, all from 2009. 3 actual helmets/sculptures are shown nearby in glass cases.

Comments/Context: The current exhibit on view at the Asia Society is the first major roundup of Pakistani contemporary art to be shown by an American museum; as such, and given the current importance of Pakistan in global politics, the show has received a larger dose of press coverage than normal. Most of the articles have eventually come around to asking the central question: how does this new art reflect on the current status of Islamist repression and violence?

As I wandered through this rather small show, I came to the conclusion that this isn't perhaps the right question to be asking, or at least, most of the artists don't seem to be asking themselves this question with the kind of righteous ardor that we (as Americans) might expect. There are no outraged shouts or vicious attacks coming from these walls; nearly all of the works come at the questions of what is going on in their society with much more nuance and subtlety; the critiques are more oblique and from within, often laced with a light dose of satire.
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I will freely admit that this show was my first update on art from this country/region since the Mughal miniatures of the 16th century, and my knowledge of the recent photography from Pakistan prior to this exhibit was virtually nil. The three photographers on view therefore represent a tiny sampler of what is likely out there, but I came away impressed with what I saw.

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Rashid Rana is Pakistan's answer to the white hot contemporary artist out of nowhere; his works had no auction record at all until 2008, when they routinely began to jump into six figures. Having now seen Rana's Red Carpet 1, 2007, up close in this show, I absolutely understand why. (Image at right, top, via Asia Society website.) From ten feet, Rana's work looks like an intricate Persian carpet, albeit rigid and glossy up on the wall. But as you move inward, the carpet dissolves away, and it becomes clear that the work is made up of hundreds of smaller images carefully placed in a digital mosaic. As you get right up close, the subject of the tiny pictures becomes clear: the bloody killing floor of a slaughterhouse, with dismembered goats strewn in all directions. (Image at right, bottom, via Asia Society website.) The effect is jolting; the contrast between the lush carpet and the gory scene is a harsh reminder that things aren't always what they seem. And while we have seen plenty of works across the history of photography that have sewn together small objects or fragments to make larger pictures (Vik Muniz comes to mind), Rana seems to have found some specific motifs that deepen the impact of the practice; it comes off not as sly digital trickery, but as an insightful commentary on the culture around him.

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Arif Mahmood's black and white photographs of the streets of Karachi come squarely out of the documentary tradition; these are well crafted images that capture the hidden moments of life in the city: a painted mermaid, a chalk ladder on the pavement, a boy with a toy gun on the seashore. Adeela Suleman's head shot portraits come at the realities of life with a healthy dollop of irony: the women in her images are all wearing elaborate motorcycle helmets (sculptures really) crafted out of found tea kettles and kitchen gadgets, elaborately painted in bright colors and adorned with peacock feathers and intricate floral borders. The works touch on a variety of women's issues embedded in the society, simply by recontextualizing the everyday objects found all around.

An interesting idea to consider is how these Pakistani photographers are grappling with the combination of their own culture and the artistic traditions of the West, and how their approach is similar to or different from that of the Chinese contemporary photographers that have gotten so much attention of late. To my eye, the Pakistani artists have found ways to make art that resonates with their own cultural issues without resorting to the overt Western cliches that have dominated recent Chinese photography. While it is dangerous (and perhaps foolhardy) to draw sweeping conclusions from such a small sample of artwork, it appears that many of the Pakistanis are critiquing their society from within, and largely for themselves, while many of the Chinese have been looking at their world from the outside, with the eyes of the foreigners.

Collector's POV: Rashid Rana is represented in New York by Bose Pacia (here); Adeela Suleman is represented by Aicon Gallery in New York (here); I was unable to locate gallery representation for Arif Mahmood. As I mentioned above, Rana is the only one of the three photographers on view that has any kind of secondary market track record, and his is quite short.

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The three bodies of work in this show will appeal to three different kinds of collectors: Rana for the high end contemporary art collector, Mahmood for the intimate, black and white documentary collector, and Suleman for the portrait/sculpture collector and/or those with particular interest in women's issues.
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Rating: * (one star) GOOD (rating system described here)

Transit Hub:

• Exhibition website (here)
• NY Times preview (here) and review (here)
• More reviews: WSJ (here), FT (here)

Hanging Fire: Contemporary Art from Pakistan
Through January 3rd

Asia Society

725 Park Avenue

New York, NY 10021

Auction Results: Photographs and Photographic Editions, October 6, 2009 @Bloomsbury

Regular readers here will hopefully realize that we do our best to provide honest critical thinking as applied to the world of fine art photography, but we generally refrain from overly harsh slicing and dicing; it's hard enough being an artist without having slings and arrows being thrown from collectors as well. When we come across an exhibit or show that doesn't interest us or meet our standards, we simply omit it from the editorial calendar. Auctions are, on the other hand, a slightly more objective experience; they are the unadorned matching of buyers and sellers, finding equilibrium prices via the invisible hand of the market. As such, we tend to report even the less than positive outcomes that occur from time to time at auction, as these seem to us to be mostly a retelling of the facts, rather than any imparting of opinion or critique.

With that preamble, it gives me no pleasure to report the results from Bloomsbury's sale last week. As I gathered up the statistics for this post, I can say that this outcome is the single most dispiriting set of auction results that I can remember in a decade of collecting photography; what it must have been like to be in the room as the lots went by makes me shudder in sympathy, especially for the set of Weegees that went 5 for 50. This sale had two parts (photography and photographic literature) and we'll discuss each in turn below; continue to read, if you dare.

The summary statistics for the photography lots are as follows (all results include the buyer’s premium):

Total Lots: 197
Pre Sale Low Total Estimate: $660000
Pre Sale High Total Estimate: $1000000
Total Lots Sold: 35
Total Lots Bought In: 162
Buy In %: 82.23%
Total Sale Proceeds: $154994

Here is the breakdown (using the Low, Mid, and High definitions from the preview post, here):

Low Total Lots: 192
Low Sold: 33
Low Bought In: 159
Buy In %: 82.81%
Total Low Estimate: $911000
Total Low Sold: $124494

Mid Total Lots: 5
Mid Sold: 2
Mid Bought In: 3
Buy In %: 60.00%
Total Mid Estimate: $89000
Total Mid Sold: $30500

High Total Lots: 0
High Sold: 0
High Bought In: 0
Buy In %: NA
Total High Estimate: $0
Total High Sold: NA

Of the lots that did sell, 37.14% sold below the low estimate. There were no surprises in the photo portion of the sale (defined as having proceeds of at least double the high estimate).

The top photo lot by High estimate was lot 19 Richard Avedon, Cyd Charisse, Evening Dress by Macrini, 1961/1981, at $20000-30000; it was the top outcome in the sale at $21960.

The photographic literature performed better in comparison, but the total proceeds were still quite low. The summary statistics for the books are below (all results include the buyer’s premium):

Total Lots: 95
Pre Sale Low Total Estimate: $124800
Pre Sale High Total Estimate: $185800
Total Lots Sold: 60
Total Lots Bought In: 35
Buy In %: 36.84%
Total Sale Proceeds: $76770

Here is the breakdown (using the Low, Mid, and High definitions from the preview post, here):

Low Total Lots: 94
Low Sold: 60
Low Bought In: 34
Buy In %: 36.17%
Total Low Estimate: $170800
Total Low Sold: $76770

Mid Total Lots: 1
Mid Sold: 0
Mid Bought In: 1
Buy In %: 100.00%
Total Mid Estimate: $15000
Total Mid Sold: $0

High Total Lots: 0
High Sold: 0
High Bought In: 0
Buy In %: NA
Total High Estimate: $0
Total High Sold: NA

Of the lots that did sell, 41.67% sold below the low estimate. Again, there were no surprises (defined as having proceeds of at least double the high estimate) in this portion of the sale.

The top book lot by High estimate was lot 219 Alexander Rodchenko and Volya Lyakhov, Poet Vladamir Mayakovsky, 1924; Soviet Advertising Posters 1917-1932, at $10000-15000; it did not sell. The top outcome in the book portion of the sale was lot 229 William Klein, Life Is Good & Good For You In New York, 1956, at $7930.

Complete lot by lot results can be found here. The silver lining for collectors in all of this is that perhaps there are some after sale bargains available.

Bloomsbury Auctions
6 West 48th Street
New York, NY 10036

Auction Results: The American Landscape: Color Photographs from the Collection of Bruce and Nancy Berman, October 7, 2009 @Christie's

The Berman sale at Christie's last week was proof of the consistent demand in the secondary markets for classic American color photography: the buy-in rate was very low (just over 12%) and the Total Sale Proceeds fell near the top of the estimate range, at just over $1500000. The Mid range lots were especially strong, outperforming the estimate range by almost 26%. A terrific result all around.

The summary statistics are below (all results include the buyer’s premium):

Total Lots: 189
Pre Sale Low Total Estimate: $1120000
Pre Sale High Total Estimate: $1679000
Total Lots Sold: 166
Total Lots Bought In: 23
Buy In %: 12.17%
Total Sale Proceeds: $1544625

Here is the breakdown (using the Low, Mid, and High definitions from the preview post, here):

Low Total Lots: 160
Low Sold: 140
Low Bought In: 20
Buy In %: 12.50%
Total Low Estimate: $955000
Total Low Sold: $839000

Mid Total Lots: 27
Mid Sold: 24
Mid Bought In: 3
Buy In %: 11.11%
Total Mid Estimate: $414000
Total Mid Sold: $521625

High Total Lots: 2
High Sold: 2
High Bought In: 0
Buy In %: 0.00%
Total High Estimate: $310000
Total High Sold: $184000

This sale didn't exactly go as planned, at least according to the estimates in the catalog - 31.93% of the lots that sold had proceeds below their estimate, while 37.95% pushed above their estimate; it looks like the estimates were set in the middle and collectors decided which lots were of interest (and which weren't) and bid accordingly. There were eleven surprises in this sale (defined as having proceeds of at least double the high estimate):

Lot 9 Erwin Olaf, The Hallway, 2005, at $25000
Lot 40 Chris Jordan, Container Yard #1, Seattle, 2003, at $20000
Lot 47 Mitch Epstein, Dad's Briefcase, Holyoke, MA, 2000, at $10625
Lot 48 Mitch Epstein, Office Door (private sign), Holyoke, MA, 2000, at $10000
Lot 50 Mitch Epstein, Flag, Holyoke, MA, 2000, at $15000
Lot 80 William Eggleston, Untitled, Paducah, Kentucky, 1996, at $18750
Lot 108 Adam Bartos, Blue Mustang, 1978, at $10625
Lot 121 William Eggleston, Untitled, Berlin, 1982, at $27500
Lot 122 William Eggleston, Untitled, Memphis, 1972, at $20000
Lot 134 Robert Polidori, 2732 Orleans Avenue, New Orleans, LA, 2005, at $47500
Lot 166 William Eggleston, Near Greenwood, Mississippi, 1979, at $37500

The top lot by High estimate was lot 151, Bruce Davidson, Subway portfolio, 1980, at $150000-250000; it was also the top outcome of the sale at $146500.

Complete lot by lot results can be found here.

Christie's
20 Rockefeller Plaza
New York, NY 10020

Auctions: Contemporary Art Day and Evening Sales, October 17, 2009 @Phillips London

Phillips has the final slot in the high speed Contemporary Art auction run in London, with Day and Evening sales this coming Saturday. Among the big three, Phillips is delivering the largest number of photo lots (54) and the largest total High estimate (£1373500) across its two sales. (Catalog covers at right, via Phillips.)

Here's the breakdown:

Total Low Lots (high estimate up to and including £5000): 9
Total Low Estimate (sum of high estimates of Low lots): £31500

Total Mid Lots (high estimate between £5000 and £25000): 29
Total Mid Estimate: £372000

Total High Lots (high estimate above £25000): 16
Total High Estimate: £970000

The top lot by High estimate is lot 18, Cindy Sherman, Untitled Film Still #8, 1978, at £100000-150000.

Here's a short list of the photographers who are represented by more than one photo lot in the two sales (with the number of lots in parentheses):

Vik Muniz (7)
Florian Maier-Aichen (4)
Thomas Ruff (4)
Vanessa Beecroft (3)
Nan Goldin (3)
Cindy Sherman (3)
Wolfgang Tillmans (3)
Bernd and Hilla Becher (2)
Philip-Lorca DiCorcia (2)
Louise Lawler (2)
Paul McCarthy (2)

In these two sales, the best fit for our collection would be lot 286, Bernd and Hilla Becher, Krefeldn Hafen, 1979 at £8000-12000. Although outside our collecting parameters, the Cindy Sherman film still (the top lot across the two auctions) is pretty amazing.

The complete lot by lot catalogs can be found here (Day) and here (Evening).

Contemporary Art Day Sale
October 17th

Contemporary Art Evening Sale
October 17th

Phillips De Pury & Company
Howick Place
London SW1P 1BB

Polaroids: Diana Kingsley, Richard Pettibone, Mike and Doug Starn @Castelli

JTF (just the facts): A total of 54 works by three different artists, hung in the two main gallery rooms. (Installation shots at right.) Here are the details on each:

• Diana Kingsley: 16 color and black and white Polaroids, framed in black and matted, and hung in the smaller second room. All of the images are approximately 3x4; the images were taken between 1999 and 2009.
• Richard Pettibone: 15 color works, framed in white and matted, and hung in the larger first room. Some of the works are framed as diptychs and many have colored acrylic paint lines that cut across the prints. The images were taken between 1979 and 1980.
• Mike and Doug Starn: 18 color and black and white works, framed in white and matted, and hung in the larger first room. Some of the works include multiple Polaroids taped together or assembled into single works. Most of the prints are 3x4, several of the assembled pieces are as large as 5x7; none of the prints are dated.

Comments/Context: Polaroids have long been used by artists of all kinds as a visual note taking facility: quick shots made to test lighting or compositions before diving into the final artwork, or pictures taken to be reminders of a fleeting idea or situation. Many were never meant to be shown as finished works, while others were designed from the beginning to be stand alone pieces. This show brings together the Polaroids of three artists not known as "Polaroid photographers" and shows how each has used the medium to further his/her own artistic processes.

Diana Kingsley's Polaroids are mostly preliminary studies, where the arrangement of her rumpled tabletop still lifes are tested and reconfigured. Others (a deflated beach ball, a canoe, and a brightly lit sparkler) seem to have more of a life of their own, perhaps as momentary ideas, archived for some future project.

Mike and Doug Starn have taken their use of Polaroids a step further. Many of the works are repeated studies of objects (globes, snowflakes, raindrops in a puddle), but several have been taped together to form single refracted images, a little reminiscent of David Hockney's photographic assemblages.

Richard Pettibone's Polaroids seem the closest to final artworks. Pettibone has taken photographic monographs by Guy Bourdin, Helmut Newton and Diane Arbus and photographed cropped spreads from the books, a twist on his normal process of appropriation. Thin colored lines of paint have then been applied on top; together with the glamour shots, the works have a 1980s album cover feel.

To my eye, about half of the works on display in this show deserve to be called finished artworks. But for those interested in the experimenting of the artistic process, the others provide intriguing background material.

Collector's POV: All of the images in the show are unique and are priced as follows:

• Diana Kingsley: $1500 each
• Richard Pettibone: between $7000 and $12000 each
• Mike and Doug Starn: between $4000 and $6000 each

Neither Kingsley or Pettibone has any auction history in the photography markets; photo work by the Starns can be found from time to time, generally ranging from $2000 to $20000. If we had a collection of 1970s photography by Richard Price and Cindy Sherman, the Pettibone appropriations would be a perfect fit; while none of the works in the show is a match for our specific collection, the Starn snowflakes were my favorites.

Rating: * (one star) GOOD (rating system described here)

Transit Hub:

• Diana Kingsley artist site (here)
• Richard Pettibone retrospective @ICA Philadelphia, 2005 (here)
• Mike and Doug Starn artist site (here)

Polaroids: Diana Kingsley, Richard Pettibone, Mike and Doug Starn
Through October 24th

Leo Castelli Gallery
18 East 77th Street
New York, NY 10075

Auctions: Post-War and Contemporary Art Evening and Day Sales, October 16 and 17, 2009 @Christie's London

Christie's follows right on the heels of Sotheby's with a pair of Evening and Day sales in London later this week. The material is a bit better here, but still relatively thin in terms of stand out contemporary pictures. There are total of 36 photography lots on offer across the two sales, with a Total High Estimate of £866000. (Catalog covers at right, via Christie's.)

Here's the breakdown:

Total Low Lots (high estimate up to and including £5000): 1
Total Low Estimate (sum of high estimates of Low lots): £5000

Total Mid Lots (high estimate between £5000 and £25000): 24
Total Mid Estimate: £323000

Total High Lots (high estimate above £25000): 11
Total High Estimate: £538000

The top lot by High estimate is lot 8, Andreas Gursky, Salerno, 1990, at £90000-120000.

Here is a short list of the photographers who are represented by more than one photo lot in the two sales (with the number of lots in parentheses):

Andreas Gursky (6)
Richard Prince (4)
Florian Maier-Aichen (3)
Shirin Neshat (3)
David LaChapelle (2)
Thomas Ruff (2)
Hiroshi Sugimoto (2)
Andy Warhol (2)

While there weren't any great fits for our collection in these sales, if we were magically given a choice of what's on offer, we'd likely select lot 211, Andreas Gursky, Taipei, 2000.

The complete lot by lot catalogs can be found here (Evening) and here (Day).

Post-War and Contemporary Art Evening Sale
October 16th

Post-War and Contemporary Art Day Sale
October 17th

Christie's
8 King Street, St. James's
London SW1Y 6QT

Auction: Contemporary Art Including Arab & Iranian Art, October 16, 2009 @Sotheby's London

Sotheby's is first up in the Contemporary Art auction season in London, timed to coincide with the Frieze Art Fair in Regent's Park (here). Overall, the selection of contemporary photography in this sale isn't particularly inspiring, although many of the usual contemporary names can be found. There are total of 39 photography lots on offer, with a Total High Estimate of £1080000. (Catalog cover at right, via Sotheby's.)

Here's the breakdown:

Total Low Lots (high estimate up to and including £5000): 2
Total Low Estimate (sum of high estimates of Low lots): £8000

Total Mid Lots (high estimate between £5000 and £25000): 24
Total Mid Estimate: £342000

Total High Lots (high estimate above £25000): 13
Total High Estimate: £730000

The top lots by High estimate are lot 114, Gilbert & George, Ginkgoed, 2005, and lot 126, Rashid Rana, Red Carpet-3, 2007, both at £80000-120000.

Here is a short list of the photographers who are represented by more than one lot in the sale (with the number of lots in parentheses):

Hiroshi Sugimoto (4)
Rineke Dijkstra (2)
Shirin Neshat (2)
Richard Prince (2)

While there weren't any great fits for our collection in this sale, I recently saw another print from Rashid Rana's Red Carpet series at the show of Pakistani Art now on view at the Asia Society (review coming later this week), and I'll admit it was pretty spectacular.

The complete lot by lot catalog can be found here.

Contemporary Art Including Arab & Iranian Art
October 16th

Sotheby's
34-35 New Bond Street
London W1A 2AA

Looking In: Robert Frank's The Americans @Met

JTF (just the facts): A total of 221 black and white images, along with 8 glass enclosed cases containing 17 books, 23 contact sheets, letters, writings, and other ephemera, and 1 4-minute movie, displayed on the exterior hallway walls and in 5 interconnected gallery spaces.

The exterior walls hold all 34 prints from Frank's book Black, White and Things, published in 1952, prior to The Americans. The images are framed in white and matted, and were taken between 1948 and 1952. The entry area also holds a glass case with three early versions of The Americans and 1 contact sheet enlargement. (Installation shot at right. No photography was allowed inside the exhibit itself, so unfortunately, this is the only shot available.)

The first room is divided into three sections. The first is entitled Early Work 1941-1953 and includes images from Frank's book 40 Fotos, as well as images from Peru and other locations. A glass case of other influential books of the period includes Evans, Brodovitch, Kertesz, Tuggener, Schuh, and Brandt. A second case displays Mary's Book, a hand crafted view of Paris made for Frank's wife. The second section is entitled Guggenheim Fellowship 1955-1957 and includes a detailed map of Frank's travels across the country, a pair of images, and two cases of letters to/from Walker Evans and Jack Kerouac, as well as maquettes and early text drafts for The Americans. Along one wall are two enormous gatherings of work prints (a total of 81 in all). The final section of the room begins the complete display in sequence of The Americans, with 6 images in this room; the works are framed in ribbed black, with white mats.

The second room continues the sequence of The Americans with 25 additional images. Two glass cases house 12 and 10 contact sheets respectively, marked with grease pencil annotations.

The third room contains the next 24 images from The Americans, and the fourth contains the final 28 images, for a grand total of 83 prints. Given the physical layout of these rooms, the sequence is forced to wind around and jump over itself a few times, which is a little distracting, given the crowds. The fifth and final room in entitled Destroying The Americans 1960-2008 and includes a glass case containing a composite piece incorporating a stack of prints with drilled holes, a 4-minute movie, a single print from the 1970s, and a final glass case with 5 international versions of the book.

An exhaustive catalogue edited by Sarah Greenough of the National Gallery, with a wide variety of scholarly essays, contact sheets etc. is available in a hardcover "Expanded" version ($75) and a somewhat thinner softcover version ($45). It is published by Steidl (here).

Comments/Context: From my vantage point, the media frenzy around the 50th anniversary exhibit of Robert Frank's The Americans has reached a fever pitch unlike any I have seen for a photography show since we began collecting a decade ago; I feel like I am watching the Robert Frank cable channel: all Frank, all the time. There have been a never ending stream of supplementary exhibits, film screenings, lectures, and even a rare appearance by Frank himself, bracketed by a flood of feature articles, bios, and exhibit reviews by every major local and national publication (many linked below). Most of these have traversed the obvious and well worn paths: Frank as the Swiss outsider, the Guggenheim fellowship and the Kerouac anecdotes, the universal hatred of the book when it was released, Frank as the voice of the America that didn't yet understand itself, Frank's radical approach and its downstream impact on generations of documentary photographers, The Americans as an undeniable classic. Trying to add something of value to this mountain of celebration certainly seems daunting, but luckily, there are plenty of treasures buried in this sprawling exhibit that seem to have been overlooked by the scholarly gang of critics and summarizers.

Prior to seeing this exhibit, my experience of The Americans was limited to looking through the book (a copy of which nearly every collector likely owns) and seeing an odd print here or there in an auction or exhibit, most of which were later prints. I can hardly tell you what a revelation it was to see the large vintage prints of these familiar works, all sequenced together (not all of the prints in the exhibit are vintage, but those that are stand out a mile away). This was especially true for the vertical images, which were reduced the most to fit into the 8x10 format of the book; these works in their large grainy glory are truly astounding. Images that I had nonchalantly flipped over in the book suddenly jumped off the walls; it's as if I really saw them for the first time here, and finally understood what they were all about.

Here's my list of images that offer a completely different experience when seen in this show than when viewed in the book:

View from Hotel Window - Butte, Montana
US 30 Between Ogallala and North Platte, Nebraska
Car Accident - US 66 between Winslow and Flagstaff, Arizona
Barber Shop Through Screen Door - McClellanville, South Carolina
Los Angeles
Movie Premiere - Hollywood
Drug Store - Detroit
Courthouse Square - Elizabethville, North Carolina
US 90, En Route to Del Rio, Texas

The difference between the larger, grainier, and warmer vintage prints and the smaller, crisper, and blacker later prints is extremely noticeable; in my view, there is really no comparison - the vintage prints are far and away better. (As an aside, nearly every time I would look down to see who owned the very finest of the vintage prints in this exhibition, the answer was almost always gallerist Peter MacGill and his wife.)

The glass cases of contact sheets are the second fascinating and potentially overlooked portion of this exhibit. I spent a considerable amount of time crouched down looking at the contacts up close (they are a bit hard to see as they are presented). I must admit that I am generally a sucker for contact sheets, but these were especially compelling; seeing the variants across time, as he reframed or waited for the scene to change, provides plenty of insights into Frank's working process. There is a great series of the famous Parade - Hoboken, New Jersey image where the flag flutters in various positions before finally unfurling to partially cover the second window; the process of selecting the winners among the variants is equally interesting.

The final attention grabbing idea in this show (at least in my mind) is found in the last gallery, whose design feels a bit like an afterthought. But regardless of the haphazard collection of items, the key insight in this room is the idea that in his later career, Frank felt trapped by The Americans, that given its popularity, he could never get away from this body of work. Of course, now that I think about it, this is perfectly obvious; I'm sure it was terrifically hard to find ways to explore new artistic ideas when the world continually brings you back to your most famous project. The composite piece that includes a stack of prints riddled with drill holes shows how emotionally stressful it actually was.

While The Americans is undeniably one of the most famous photography books of all time, I can say that I truly saw this book for the first time during my visit to this show, or perhaps I finally discovered what Frank was really trying to get across. I found myself walking back and forth, covering each room several times, in order and backwards, letting the whole complex melancholy mood wash over me. The iconic images are still iconic; it's many of those secondary images that suddenly have much more meaning, especially in the context of our current imperfect world - what I had once previously overlooked, I now see as astounding photographs.

This is clearly one of the can't miss shows of the year, regardless of the over hype; carve out some time to see it, and make sure you allot enough to fight through the crowds and savor all the details that you might normally skip by.

Collector's POV: Robert Frank's work is routinely available at auction, especially later prints from The Americans from the 1970s, and other bodies of Frank's work. For the more obscure images, prices can be as low as $5000 or so, but these are generally the outliers. Even later prints from The Americans can reach six figures, and vintage prints of the most iconic images have topped $600000 in recent years; even middle of the road later prints from this series can easily set you back $50000. Given the structure of our personal collection, in the past, I have not thought that Frank's work was a particularly terrific fit for us; having seen some of the images in this show in a new light, perhaps that opinion needs to change.

Rating: *** (three stars) EXCELLENT (rating system described here)

Transit Hub:

• Exhibit reviews/features: New Yorker (here), NY Times (here and here), WSJ (here), Village Voice (here), Newsweek (here)
• Interview: WNYC (here)
• Review of catalogue @5B4 (here)

Looking In: Robert Frank's The Americans
Through January 3rd

Metropolitan Museum of Art
1000 Fifth Avenue
New York, NY 10028

Auction Results: Photographs by Sally Mann, October 7, 2009 @Christie's

Christie's has to be generally pleased with the results of the Sally Mann single owner sale last week: the buy-in rate was on the low side (just over 20%) and the Total Sale Proceeds fell nicely within the estimate range, at just over $660000. This sale seems to have been a case of getting expectations set appropriately all around, and then solidly meeting those expectations.

The summary statistics are below (all results include the buyer’s premium):

Total Lots: 59
Pre Sale Low Total Estimate: $583000
Pre Sale High Total Estimate: $869000
Total Lots Sold: 47
Total Lots Bought In: 12
Buy In %: 20.34%
Total Sale Proceeds: $667625

Here is the breakdown (using the Low, Mid, and High definitions from the preview post, here):

Low Total Lots: 17
Low Sold: 13
Low Bought In: 4
Buy In %: 23.53%
Total Low Estimate: $133000
Total Low Sold: $97875

Mid Total Lots: 42
Mid Sold: 34
Mid Bought In: 8
Buy In %: 19.05%
Total Mid Estimate: $736000
Total Mid Sold: $569750

High Total Lots: 0
High Sold: 0
High Bought In: 0
Buy In %: NA%
Total High Estimate: $0
Total High Sold: NA

89.36% of the lots that sold had proceeds in or above the estimate range. There were no surprises in this sale (defined as having proceeds of at least double the high estimate).

The top lot by High estimate was lot 307 Sally Mann, Candy Cigarette, 1989, at $30000-50000; it was also the top outcome of the sale at $68500.

Complete lot by lot results can be found here.

Christie's
20 Rockefeller Plaza
New York, NY 10020

As an aside, the average price paid for work in this sale was just over $14200 per lot (i.e. the total sale proceeds divided by the total number of lots that actually sold); this is an interesting comparison to the "about $20000" being charged for Mann's new work (here).

Benefit Auctions: PRC and Aperture

In addition to the normal stream of photography auctions that we regularly cover here, I thought it might make sense to bring to your attention a pair of benefit auctions that are coming up in the next few weeks: one at the Photographic Resource Center at Boston University (here), the other at the Aperture Foundation (here). Event details (tickets, venues, honorees, etc.) can be found below:

2009 PRC Benefit Auction
October 24, 2009

Aperture Foundation 2009 Benefit and Auction
November 2, 2009

In general, benefit auctions are surprisingly effective hybrid events that often provide some unexpected opportunities for collectors who are paying attention. On one hand, these events are of course first and foremost fund raisers: opportunities to support organizations whose missions match a photography collector's interests. Both of these organizations enrich the photography community via their myriad efforts (exhibits, book publishing, artist support, lectures, awards, and the like) and both are worthy of the generous backing of collectors of all kinds.

On the other hand, these are auctions: places to acquire photographs, just like any other auction. Since benefit auctions tend to get their material as direct donations from artists or their galleries, the images are often offered at surprisingly low prices/reserves, especially in the silent auction portion of most events. And given that there are usually far fewer bidders than a normal photography auction, unless the enthusiastic spirit of giving gets overly lubricated (as it does at some events), bargains can certainly be had from time to time.

While we won't do our normal statistical analysis of these two auctions, a few notes on each:

At the PRC, there are 35 lots in the live auction and 110 lots in the silent auction, ranging from vintage 19th century work to fresh contemporary images, generally weighted toward the newer material. The lot by lot catalogue can be found here. Works by Aaron Siskind and Nicholas Nixon (both in the live auction) are clearly of interest to us.

At Aperture, there are 13 lots in the live auction and 57 lots in the silent auction, mostly contemporary work, several by artists that have published books with Aperture. The lot by lot catalogues can be found here and here. Works by Malick Sidibé and Ruud van Empel caught our eye in the live auction, while images by Dana Buckley and Simon Chaput (in the silent auction) might fit into our collection more neatly.

In both cases, a quick review of the online catalogues is worth your time; there are plenty of excellent, reasonably priced pictures on offer, and both organizations need and deserve your support.

Sally Mann, Proud Flesh @Gagosian

JTF (just the facts): A total of 33 black and white images, framed in silver and matted, and hung in three connected gallery rooms on the 4th floor. All of the prints are gelatin silver prints, made from wet collodion negatives; the works are approximately 15x14, and are printed in editions of 5. The negatives were taken between 2003 and 2009. A catalogue of the show is available from the gallery for $75. (Installation shots at right.)

Comments/Context: In contrast to the usual photographer/model interaction, something altogether different occurs when a husband or wife photographs his or her spouse, especially when those images are nudes; emotions run higher, deeper vulnerabilities get exposed, and more willing risks get taken. In the history of photography, it has traditionally been the men taking pictures of the women, and there are plenty of superlative examples to recall: Stieglitz and O'Keefe, Strand and Rebecca, Weston and Charis, Callahan and Eleanor, just to name a few; on the flip side, there are few if any examples where the role was reversed - the only one I can come up with is Cunningham's nudes of Roi from the early 1900s, and these pictures were deemed too risque for wider viewing until decades later. Sally Mann is in many ways the perfect photographer to step into this void and take the male nude somewhere new; her unflinching portraits of her young children are profound evidence of her willingness to take some chances to explore the boundaries of how we see one another.

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Over the period of about five years, Mann took pictures of her husband Larry, whose strong body was showing the signs of aging and the results of a battle with muscular dystrophy. The shadowy images are mostly indirect fragments: arms and backs, hips and buttocks, legs and elbows, feet and folds of skin, photographed in angled natural light, leaving plenty of darkness and melancholy. The settings are sparse: lying on a metal table, sitting on a stool, resting on a striped mattress with the stuffing coming out, or walking on a patterned Oriental rug. And if the compositions weren't striking enough in and of themselves, Mann's 19th century process adds yet another layer of timeless complexity to the works: many of the images are covered with chemical drips and splotches, stains and rips, and all manner of chance imperfections that often decorate each picture with swirls and streaks; others have been bleached out to a wince inducing whiteness.

These pictures are a far cry from beefcake portraits of men with ripped abs and massive shoulders; they tackle head on the questions of aging, waning strength, and male vulnerability. But unlike the unflinching self portraits of John Coplans, which address similar subject matter, these images are undeniably the gaze of a wife at her husband, which changes the emotional setting completely. What I think is most remarkable about these pictures is their amazing sense of honor; there are no longer any secrets between these two people, anything that was once hidden has long ago been revealed. The intimate pictures expose Larry's frailties with respect and trust; they are images seen through the eyes of someone who loves this wiry and withered aging man.

Overall, these revealing and often unexpectedly beautiful works have the feeling of a contract: Mann was taking something from her husband, who gave it willingly, but not without giving up something of himself in the bargain; the emotional pitch is so consistently high that the show is a little exhausting. As a male viewer, I think there is one additional level of meaning here: a sense of wisdom shared, a look into the future and what it might mean to get older, and an example of how to bear those years with dignity and grace.
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Collector's POV: No printed price list was available for this show, but I was told the images were "about $20000" each. While part of our collection is currently made up of female nudes, these images are really the first male nudes from any period in the history of photography that seem like they could fit within our existing group. I particularly enjoyed Ponder Heart, 2007 (a back and hand in the bright sunlight), The Nature of Loneliness, 2008 (a back), Amor Revealed, 2007 (the curve of a hip, reminiscent of a nude by Ruth Bernhard), and Hephaestus, 2008 (a frontal pose like a Greek god). And overall, with no pun intended, I expect these works will age extremely well.

Rating: ** (two stars) VERY GOOD (rating system described here)

Transit Hub:

• Review @FT (here)
• Artist statement @Conscientious (here)
• Book review @5B4 (here)

Sally Mann, Proud Flesh

Through October 31st

Gagosian Gallery
980 Madison Avenue

New York, NY 10075