Auction 001: 20th Century Photographs

Inaugural Auction: Sunday, 28 June 2015, 16.00 GMT

Catalogue: available online for € 45
photography-auction.com

On Sunday, 28th of June 2015, Photography-Auction will hold its inaugural auction. The mission is to offer broad access to the best works of photography without restrictions on minimum consignment values and at low premiums for sellers and buyers. Our concept "Photography Only - Online Only" is unique in the current art market and brings us back what auctions historically used to be: a place where art dealers and collectors can buy at market prices instead of paying retail prices. A competitive buyer’s and seller’s premium - set at just 10% - contributes to this goal.

Truly rare and unique are the three prints from 1937 by Erwin Blumenfeld. 1937 was the year when Blumenfeld moved from Amsterdam to Paris. In 1940, he was interned in a concentration camp, because he was a Jew. In 1941, he escaped to the U.S.A., leaving two suitcases with prints and negatives to a lady whom he met on a train station. After the Second World War, he was able to recollect his suitcases, and some of those prints (lots 001, 031, 032) are now listed at our auction. Experts will recognize the resemblance of these early statue photographs with well-known later portraits he shot for Vogue and other magazines, as illustrated in the book "My One Hundred Best Photos".

Highlights include work by (former) Magnum photographers Henri Cartier-Bresson (Marseille, 1932), Robert Capa (General Montgomery in Normandy, France, 1945), Sebastiao Salgado (The Outskirts of Guatamala City, 1978) and Micha Bar-Am (Funeral at Yerka, 1968). There are six prints on offer by Philippe Halsman, including "Portrait of Marilyn, 1952" and "Salvador Dalí, Tuna Fishing, 1970".

Works of great importance are the five photographs by Will McBride (1931-2015), which he used for his ground breaking book "Show Me" (‘Zeig Mal’), a sexual education book that used to be banned in the USA.

Cuban photographers, like Osvaldo Salas, Raúl Corrales and Venancio Diaz Maique, represent quite another genre. The most remarkable work is lot 019 "2 Carretas salen al Camino" a vintage print that was elected to be the "Best Photo of Latin America" in 1949.

Numerous signed press prints from Helmut Newton, Jeanloup Sieff, Nobuyoshi Araki, Peter Lindbergh, Steven Meisel, Annie Leibovitz and Jan Saudek fall just beyond the scope of museum and gallery prints, but constitute nice collector’s items.

Featured contemporary photographers are Stefanie Schneider, Lilya Corneli, Nicola Zolin, Oleg Micheyev and Thomas Struth.

The title image of the catalogue, lot 034, is by Richard Selby (1933, London), a rediscovered master photographer who became famous in 1960s and 1970s. This large vintage print of "Bird" was the cover of his well-received book "Know Your Number". Another work by Richard Selby is "The eyes have it", signed and printed in 1979. Both prints are estimated € 1.250 - € 1.750, start bid € 750.