EARLY ALBUMS, GROUNDBREAKING MODENRIST IMAGES, CONTEMPORARY ART FEATURED IN SWANN GALLERIES’ OCTOBER 17 AUCTION

Contemporary images share the stage with 19th-century albums, modernist portfolios and classic black-and-white photographs in Swann Galleries’ auction of Fine Photographs: Icons & Images on Friday, October 17.

Contemporary art highlights range from Scandinavian artist Simen Johan’s Untitled #137, a digital c-print of a lamb from the series “Until the Kingdom Comes,” 2006 (estimate: $9,000 to $12,000) to conservationist-photographer Nick Brandt’s remarkably intimate Lion Before the Storm I, pigment print, 2006 ($18,000 to $22,000).

There is a rare self-portrait by Moroccan artist Lalla Essaydi, Converging Territories #10, oversized chromogenic print, 2003 ($9,000 to $12,000); as well as Richard Prince’s Upstate, Ektacolor print, 1995-99 ($15,000 to $20,000); Robert Polidori’s view of houses devastated by Hurricane Katrina, 5979 West End Boulevard, New Orleans, September, Fujicolor Crystal Archive print, 2005 ($12,000 to $18,000); and images by William Eggleston, Nan Goldin, Ernst Haas, Stephen Shore, James Welling and Joel-Peter Witkin.

Featuring works by some of those artists and others is a complete copy of the BAM [Brooklyn Academy of Music] Photography Portfolio I, with 11 photographs, 1993-2000, printed 2000 ($20,000 to $30,000). Additional portfolios and groups of photographs include Hiroshi Sugimoto’s magnificent portfolio Time Exposed, with 50 plates of his sublime studies of seascapes, 1991 ($8,000 to $12,000); a selection of 17 circa 1960s images by Ralph Eugene Meatyard, printed 1977, most showing children in rural environs ($20,000 to $30,000); Roy DeCarava, portfolio with 12 stunning, hand printed dust-grain photogravures made from his poignant photographs, including many iconic images of Harlem, 1950-79, printed 1991 ($50,000 to $75,000); Paul Caponigro’s Portfolio II, eight silver prints, 1957-70, printed 1973 ($12,000 to $18,000); and André Kertész: Photographs, Volume I, 1913-1929, 10 silver prints, printed 1973 ($30,000 to $45,000).

A presentation folio with a sequence of 10 Leni Riefenstahl photographs relating to Olympic diver Marjorie Gestring at the 1936 Berlin Olympics, with elegant images of Gestring in air mid-dive, and the young gold medalist before and after her successful dives, was signed and inscribed by Riefenstahl to Gestring and dated 1937 ($12,000 to $18,000).

There is also a suite of four photographs from Bernd and Hilla Becher’s Wassertürme [Water Towers] series, ferrotyped silver prints, circa 1970s, printed circa 1980s ($10,000 to $15,000) and iconic images by modern masters including Ansel Adams, Maragaret Bourke-White, Harry Callahan, Lewis W. Hine, Horst P. Horst, O. Winston Link and Garry Winogrand.

Featured early works include Egypt Nubia and Ethiopia, Illustrated with One Hundred Stereoscopic Photographs, London, 1862 ($5,000 to $7,500); a cased 1850s half-plate daguerreotype of a seven-piece brass band clutching their instruments ($10,000 to $15,000) and a late 19th-century album of remarkably detailed images of Rio de Janeiro by Marc Ferrez ($40,000 to $60,000).

The auction will take place at 1:30 pm. on Friday, October 14.

The photographs will be on public exhibition at Swann Galleries Saturday, October 11, from 
12 p.m. to 5 p.m.; Monday, October 13 through Thursday, October 16, from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.; and Friday, October 17, from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m.

An illustrated catalogue is available for $35 from Swann Galleries, 104 East 25th Street, New York, NY 10010, and may be viewed online at
www.swanngalleries.com.

For further information on the items in this sale, and to make advance arrangements to bid by telephone during the auction, please contact Daile Kaplan at (212) 254-4710, extension 21, or via email at dkaplan@swanngalleries.com.

Live online bidding is also available via Invaluable.com.