For a review of the important first night of this record-breaking sale, see my article in the March 15th newsletter at: http://www.iphotocentral.com/news/issue_view.php/109/102 .

The first part of the sale, while it set stratospheric new auction records, particularly for Steichen and Stieglitz, appeared to still be in keeping with the material and the current market. Yes, exuberance was generally the word of the day, but the bidding wasn't out-of-line yet, largely due to the extreme rarity and excellence of the images. The next day's auction was to spotlight some bidding that could only be described as extreme over-exuberance. This report will detail that second day of bidders caught up in the action.

Before I go a bit further, I can now reveal that Dan Solomon actually bought the Steichen cover image of "Balzac--the Open Sky" from the first night of this sale for his family. His wife Mary, who was a very active participant in the auction as an art consultant for numerous clients, was on the phone to a noted West Coast curator detailing the action, and was somewhat astonished when she realized that it was her husband bidding successfully on the "Steichen Balzac-The Open Sky" (lot 7). Dan had told me earlier that it felt like "the air had left the room after the Steichen "The Pond--Moonlight" had sold." He saw the $632,000 bid as a tremendous opportunity to purchase a true masterwork with the provenance of both the Met and the Gilman collections (not to mention legendary dealer Harry Lunn and the original owner, photographer Paul Haviland). He notes that this image will not be a part of his own photography collection; rather it will be treated separately as a family investment.

Considering that all the other top lots in this sale sold for approximately three times their high estimates, this lot might have brought around $2 million under other circumstances. Several institutions had focused only on "The Pond", and when they were well overbid, they had no contingency plan for the next most important Steichen in the sale. The underbidder was apparently dealer Lee Marks, who was probably bidding for collector Howard Stein, although she has been known to bid for other large clients as well. Both the auction house and the Metropolitan Museum of Art reportedly felt that this print was the second most important in the sale. Sotheby's had put the image on the front cover of the catalogue and the estimate was the second highest in the auction. But it--more than even the Pond--requires a certain level of connoisseurship so most of the well-moneyed collectors might not have recognized the importance of the piece, and most photography dealers just didn't have the money to play at this level and probably weren't prepared for a price this low--if $632,000 could be called "low".

Also I failed to note in my original report that two of the results on the first evening set new world auction records for the artists, namely Margrethe Mather's "Pierrot" at $228,000 and Margaret Bourke-White's "Gargoyle, Chrysler Building, NY" at $352,000.

As I did in the last article, I will generally limit myself to items that sold with premium for at least $35,000, although I will make a few exceptions that bear noting. All lot prices will include the buyer's premium, which at Sotheby's is 20% on the amount up to $200,000 and 12% thereafter.

The first lot, Stieglitz's "Going to the Start", a relatively common photogravure from Camera Work, should have sold for about the low estimate of $3,000, including premium. Instead it sold to a woman in a green blouse on the aisle for a whopping $7,800. This was clearly not going to be a morning of restraint and careful calculation.

Another Stieglitz photogravure, lot 41, the Hand of Man, was estimated at a too reasonable $25,000-35,000, but the $114,000 that a phone bidder plunked down for this large-format version, probably from the portfolio "The Work of Alfred Stieglitz", was more in line with reality--at least a sort of reality. A similar one sold at Sotheby's in 1999 for $107,000 (in perhaps another case of over enthusiasm), which was the previous record for the image.

Why Sotheby's would estimate this lot and so many others in this sale so low needs some examination. This auction seems to give us just one more reason not to believe that auction estimates have any value when they are so obviously being used by Sotheby's (and now Christie's--especially since the architect of this strategy, Philippe Garner, moved from Sotheby's to Phillips and then to Christie's) solely to promote rather than reflect the market. Many dealers were upset with this strategy, which more than a few felt was aimed at forestalling sales at the AIPAD show that immediately preceded the Sotheby's sale and that Sotheby's ironically was counting on to bring clients to town. They felt that Sotheby's aim was to get buyers to hold back on their purchases and instead bid at the Sotheby's auction. Considering the resounding success of both AIPAD (perhaps the best overall results ever for this show) and the Sotheby's sale, it is hard to know if this was indeed the strategy and how successful it turned out. In the battle for the minds of clients though, Sotheby's simply did a better, if somewhat misleading, job of it with these almost ridiculous lowball estimates.

When the auction house not only knows the last sales results for a specific piece but is actually the auction house making those sales, how can it honestly put on estimates that are only 10-30% of those previous results for virtually identical pieces, as Sotheby's often did with this sale? Is Sotheby's expert staff, which arguably has the most experienced and knowledgeable group in New York auction circles, so far out of tune with its marketplace? I doubt it. And over-enthusiasm of the bidders can only be a partial explanation.

My only question next is: when are clients going to realize that they are being suckered into a game where the game is stacked? But hope springs eternal. That's why we have Las Vegas and Atlantic City. Just don't ask dealers next time why they are selling things for such "high" prices when an auction house has such "low" estimates. Please understand that auction estimates have become just a marketing tool, not a real guide and do not reflect real values in any way.

Lot 42 passed, the only lot of the auction to pass. But Denise Bethel reopened the lot at the end of the auction, and it sold then for an increment over the original buy-in, thus preserving the perfect 100% sold record for this auction. Los Angeles dealer Paul Kopeikin bought the image with the spirited encouragement of Dan Solomon. Dan's wife's company (Solomon Fine Art) later sold the image to a client.

San Francisco dealer Paul Hertzmann picked up lot 50, a reportedly unique portrait of Edward Weston by his lover Margrethe Mather, for more than double the low estimate at $40,800. Then Hertzmann battled fellow West Coaster Maggie Weston for Edward Weston's "Prow" (lot 51), but it was Weston who prevailed at $43,200, nearly twice the low estimate. Maggie had reportedly recharged the bank account by selling a beautiful Weston Shell for approximately $750,000 (at least that was the reported asking price) at the AIPAD Photography Show just a few days before.

The Steichen "Spiral Shell" (lot 52) was another blatant example of Sotheby's underestimation at $20,000-30,000. It tempted both astute collector Michael Mattis and Indiana dealer Lee Marks. Marks took this one for $96,000. Then Steichen's "Advertisement for Gorham Sterling" (lot 53), estimated at $10,000-15,000, sold to art consultant Lisa Jacobs for $38,400, who was on the phone to her client.

Walker Evans really shook up Sotheby's meager estimates. Lot 56, "Alabama Tenant Farmer" (Floyd Burroughs), a very good vintage print except for some indent marks on the surface, which probably could be fixed by conservation, was estimated at a silly $30,000-50,000. It soared as phones and the room bid it up aggressively. But at the end San Francisco dealer Jeffrey Fraenkel put up his paddle and took it home for $307,200--ten times the low estimate, but perhaps not really out of line on this image. The price did set a new world auction record for Evans. That was good enough for ninth place overall.

Lot 57, another Evans' print but of the "Tenant Farmer Wife" (Allie Mae Burroughs), was estimated at the same $30,000-50,000. It was being touted as a vintage print, and its provenance was from Arnold Crane. I and other dealers did not feel that this print was vintage, but instead many of us thought it was probably printed in the late 1950s or 1960s. The bright whiteness of the paper just did not look right to me. I would have tested the paper fiber on this one, even if it passed a black light test. Compared to the previous lot, this print just did not measure up. It is interesting that the Metropolitan decided to divest itself of this print instead of the Gilman version. What ostensibly was a more important image than lot 56, sold for "only" $132,000, about 43% of the winning bid on the previous Evans. The Milwaukee Art Museum was the winning bidder here.

The next lot, another Evans' image, "Bedford Village, Westchester County, NY", (Atlantic & Pacific Store) had been underestimated at $8,000-12,000 but went to the phone at $38,400. Lot 59, still another Evans ("Couple at Coney Island"), which I thought was one of the fairer estimates in keeping with the print quality, went in the midrange at $50,400 and was bought by the Milwaukee Art Museum.

Lot 65, Edward Weston's "Church, Hornitos", was bought by West Coast dealer Maggie Weston for $60,000. The next lot, Weston's "Nude on the Sand", was initialed by Weston and printed no later than 1957; but by whom? Sotheby's didn't have a definite answer, although the house surmised that Brett Weston was the "likely" printer. Estimated at $25,000-35,000, the print soared, aided by early aggressive bidding by West Coast dealer and Weston specialist Paul Hertzmann and a bank of phones. But in the end, it was Mary Solomon of Solomon Fine Art bidding for a New York collector that captured this lot at $168,000. At that price a year or two ago, you might have gotten a vintage print of this image.

The next lot (67), an Albert Renger-Patzsch image of a baboon estimated at $10,000-15,000, sold to New York dealer Peter MacGill of Pace/MacGill for $38,400.

Lot 72, Raoul Ubac's "Objects", estimated at only $8,000-12,000, became a battle between two art consultants, Parker Stephenson and Tamara Corm, in back on phones, who pushed up the bidding to $43,200, with Stephenson winning the lot.

Martin Munkacsi's Muddy Weather (lot 76) was estimated at a ridiculously low $4,000-6,000. Important Belgium collector Sylvio Perlstein braved the rain of bidders to take the lot at $38,400. Perlstein also picked up the next lot, Hannes Beckmann's wonderful "Glasses", estimated at a mere $2,000-3,000, for $18,000 (six times the high estimate).

The Milwaukee Art Museum's final bid set a new world's record for Werner Mantz at $72,000 for his "Pressa at Night" (lot 78). It had been estimated at $10,000-15,000, which I frankly thought was a fair estimate range for the print.

But if there was a lot that was underestimated, it was the next one (lot 79). A group of three photographs by Jaromir Funke were estimated at only $5,000-7,000. Clearly that range would be breached by several multiples, but even I did not expect the lot to climb to $156,000. Even with the premium added to the low estimate, that is still 26 times that estimate! Lots of people in the room on this one, but it came down to Parker Stephenson bidding with a phone in her ear, taking it against underbidder San Francisco dealer Robert Koch. Two great images (the landscape was rather mediocre), but there are other existing images of the two, so I really didn't understand this price myself. The highest priced Funke at auction before this went for under $33,000. Yes, some of Funke's large, rare and stunning photograms would sell for low six figures, but none of these three were in that kind of category in my opinion.

After seeing an advanced copy of the catalogue in L.A., I had asked Denise Bethel of Sotheby's how she could have estimated the two 1950s prints by Henri Cartier-Bresson so low ($7,000-10,000), considering that her own auction house in Amsterdam had recently sold similar prints (and one of the same image) for four times these low estimates--and this was the Met/Gilman sale! I didn't really get a clear answer. Sure enough lots 84 and 85 took off like shots out of a rifle. With dealers like Bruce Silverstein and myself bidding them up, both lots quickly passed through the estimates and on to more serious bidding. When it was done, lot 84 (Valencia) had sold to New York dealer Howard Greenberg for $48,000 and lot 85 (Seville) for $43,200 to another bidder in the room.

Another 1950s print by Cartier-Bresson of "On the Banks of the Marne" on a photography art paper was estimated at an even lower $3,000-5,000. Some of the dealers said they thought it was later, but I disagree. The print sold to Lee Marks, perhaps for Howard Stein, for a whopping $96,000. This is what happens when there are not any vintage prints available on an iconic image and a good early print comes on the market. But the price at nearly 27 times the low estimate (including premium) still seems a bit high to me.

A late-printed (1971) Paul Strand photograph of "Young Man, Gondeville, Charente" (lot 91) had been estimated at only $10,000-15,000. Ok, that was way too low an estimate. But how can anyone say that this was a bargain when it sold for nine times the low estimate (including premium) at $108,000? New York dealer Peter MacGill took this one over the underbid of New York dealer Tom Gitterman. Both appeared to be bidding for clients. Sotheby's indicates that they know of a dozen prints, including four vintage ones, of which this is not. I suspect the number is greater than that considering there were also prints made in the 1980s not counted and three vintage prints had come up in the mid-to-late 1980s at auction. But, considering what late-printed Diane Arbus prints in editions of 50 or 75 are bringing now, I guess you could claim that this is a bargain after all.

But wait, we haven't seen the most over-the-top bidding yet! The Robert Franks were still to come.

San Francisco dealer Jeffrey Fraenkel told me, "I was able to get the great Walker Evans portrait of Floyd Burroughs, but had to leave the auction early to attend the Sugimoto opening in Washington, before the Franks were sold. I left a few bids with a colleague, but was not successful with any of those." Fraenkel noted the importance of being in the room for such bidding. But he may have been one of the lucky ones for not being there and getting caught up in the action this time.

New York dealer Peter MacGill, who represents Robert Frank, said, "Concerning Robert Frank's photographs, these works were sold in a public market. For us to overanalyze what happened is not very intelligent as auctions are a transparent market."

Transparent? Ok, I can forgive Peter for being a bit reluctant to comment about the results of bidding on an artist that he represents that could only be likened to the frenzy of piranha fish attacking a side of beef. And interpreting the results would be nigh on to impossible considering the erratic quality of the bidding. But I wonder if he would have said the same thing if the prices had "dropped" at auction.

Look, Robert Frank has been on a hot streak for the last ten years, or so. I personally count myself among those of his most ardent admirers and bid often and aggressively on his images. Until this auction I was often a winner or an underbidder for much of his work at auction. At the very least, I was close when I was interested. At this auction, I barely got out of the gate. Past results seemed to have no bearing on the bidding here. And the material was genuinely mixed. Many prints had major condition problems, and when I say "major" I mean "big time". Some of the images were downright ugly, and not in a Robert Frank kind of way. Yes, there were some early, important and rare pieces that were worthy of their bids, but what about the rest? Does the name of the photographer justify buying some of his worst work at over-inflated prices, as well as his best?

Valencia, Spain, Lot 94, a 1950s print, estimated at $10,000-15,000, sold to the phone for $33,600, which was about right. Another phone got the next lot, "Horse and Cart, France", which frankly had more restoration than picture in my estimation. It had the same estimate range and sold to another phone for $31,200. If the print hadn't gotten so much conservation, I would have said that was reasonable.

Lot 96, NYC (Woman's and Horse's Legs), which was a 1947 print that was estimated at $6,000-8,000, sold to collector Sylvio Perlstein for $38,400. It had a stain running down the right side, but was still a decent vintage print, if not stunning. But hardly worth $38,400 in my opinion.

Lot 97, Robert Frank's image and word joke of a horse's behind with the title of "Hello, Mr. Brodovitch" in rather poor (I said in my note in the catalogue "Horrible") condition and estimated for what I felt was the first overestimation of the auction at $5,000-7,000, sold to London dealer Michael Hoppen, who I think usually has excellent taste, for $18,000. He later told me that he was buying it for a client, whom he had warned off the print, but who insisted on buying it anyway.

The one Robert Frank that deserved an elevated price tag, although Sotheby's only estimated it at a mere $10,000-20,000, was lot 98, "NYC, 14th Street White Tower Hamburgers". Although I could quibble with the Sotheby's date on the print (one year BEFORE the image was actually made), I did feel that the image was indeed an early print in good condition, except for some thumbnails in the margins. New York dealer Edwynn Houk picked this one up for $132,000, eleven times the low estimate but worth every cent plus a bit.

Lot 99 is the kind of print that drives dealers crazy. Clients would be telling us about all the flaws in it, from the thumbnails at the edges to the horizontal striations, to the masking tape. But it was a good image, although the high part of the range ($25,000-35,000) might have normally been about right for this pre-1976 print of Frank's "34th Street, Westside NYC". It was the phones versus the art consultants. The phone won at $90,000.

Robert Frank's Covered Car again illustrated my point about estimates that were aimed low on purpose. The estimate on lot 100 was only $20,000-30,000. The phone got a decent bargain at $60,000, underbid by New York dealer Howard Greenberg. The image has sold several times at auction for more than that.

I liked lot 101, Frank's "New Mexico (U.S. 285, New Mexico), but then so did a lot of other people. With an image date of 1955, Sotheby's felt it had been printed before 1970, but I suspect it was closer to 1960. Yes, there were thumbnails on the print, but it still was a very good early print of a superb image. The estimate of $25,000-35,000 was again very low. The $156,000 successful bid by Tamara Corm for a client was certainly not (very low). But at least this was worth bidding on.

Then there was lot 102, Frank's "Barber Shop through Screen Door", which had a reasonable if slightly low estimate of $20,000-30,000. Reasonable, because the same image in a slightly earlier print had sold at Phillips' Seagram Sale less than three years before for just a hair over $31,000. West Coast dealer Maggie Weston went after this one though, underpinned by Peter MacGill's bidding. The final price tag was $120,000--that is a 400% increase in just three years. Reasonable?

MacGill also made his presence felt on the next lot, Frank's "Trolley, New Orleans" as he underbid Mary Solomon of Solomon Fine Art. Solomon was bidding for the same New York collector who had bought the Weston "Nude on Dunes" earlier in the auction. Estimated at $25,000-35,000, Solomon, pushed by MacGill's underbid, had to plunk down $114,000 for this circa 1977 print.

A similar story for Frank's iconic "Indianapolis" (lot 104) in a circa 1977 print, which was estimated at $10,000-15,000. Here West Coast dealer Rose Shoshana of RoseGallery and German dealer Ute Hartjen of Camera Works battled it out over this motorcycle couple. Rose got to take home the prize at $102,000. A vintage print of this image sold less than two years ago at Sotheby's for $33,600. Two years later a late print of the same image sells for three times more. Reasonable?

Lot 105, another vintage Frank, probably a lot closer to the 1948 date than Sotheby's credited the print, had its estimate of $15,000-25,000, blown away by phone bidders. The $54,000 winning bid was a little high for the image, which was neither the worst in this sale, nor the best.

Where were dealers Lee Marks and Ute Hartjen when Peter MacGill and I battled over a vintage version of lot 106, "Chicago", just a few months before at Christie's fall auction? Estimated at $10,000-$15,000, the lot here soared to $60,000 (Lee Marks, the winner), which was higher than what MacGill paid for a vintage copy at $57,600 in October.

MacGill again bid up lot 107, Frank's "Andrea", which was only estimated at $15,000-25,000. By the time the bidding was through, MacGill had to pay a whopping $96,000 for this later work by Frank over the underbid.

Finally, the two groups of William Garnett prints did well, selling to phone bidders for $36,000 and $48,000 respectively.

Lisa Hostetler, assistant curator of prints, drawings, and photographs for the Milwaukee Museum of Art told me, "I am especially pleased to have been successful in such a frenzied atmosphere. The excitement in the room was palpable as the bidding ran into the stratosphere. I was particularly surprised to see the modern Cartier-Bresson prints and the modern Frank prints near the end of the auction going for so much."

Weren't we all, Lisa. Weren't we all.

(Next Issue: Christie's February Sale)
 

Sotheby's and Christie's will both collect the new artist's resale royalties (droit de suite) from the buyer, not the seller, when art is resold in London for over 1,000 pounds sterling (hammer price, including VAT). The United Kingdom adopted the new droit de suite regulations on February 14th.

The new royalty is payable on a sliding scale, from 4% to .25%, and is capped at 12,500 pounds sterling. It currently goes to living artists when their work is resold, after the deduction of expenses by the collecting agency, and is being applied throughout the European Union.

By deciding to charge the buyer rather than the seller, the London auction houses hope that the policy will encourage collectors to continue to sell in London, instead of selling in the U.S. or Switzerland, where there is no droit de suite.

Christie's noted, "The contemporary art market plays a very significant part in London's success. It is this particularly vibrant area that is most under threat of being dulled by such legislation."
 

You can now see a Special Spring Clearance sale on I Photo Central brought to you by our photography dealers. These items are available at special sale prices (from 20 to over 60% off the regular list price) for only a limited time, from now until only June 21st. Many of the items regular list prices were reduced earlier by over 20%, so the actual net reductions may be well over 40% to 80% in many instances. These are all final prices, so no other discounts apply. Shipping/insurance may also be added. After June 21st prices will revert on these items to the original list price.

There are some great deals, so check them out soon at: http://www.iphotocentral.com/sale/sale.php .

If you want to do further sorts on the sale list, you can go to the Search Images page at http://www.iphotocentral.com/search/search.php and put SpringClearanceSale2 into the key word field. Then you can also use the other search fields, such as price range, country, etc. When you have all your choices made, simply hit the Search button (not the Show All Images button). When you put in the key word, you must have the capital letters in properly and no space between the words or the number "1". Also make sure you do not have any extra space after the key word. This way if you are bargain hunting, you can put in a range from $1 to $500, or if you want to focus on the top end, just put in a range from $1,000 (or $2,500 or $5,000) to No Limit.

Here is a list of some of the important photographers from the 19th-century currently on sale: Baldus, Beaucorps, Bresolin, Rev. Bridges, Atget, Berthier, Bertsch, Bourne, Braun, Cameron, Charnay, Clifford, Constant, Cuvelier, Daguerreotypes, De Clercq, Devaria, Disderi, Eakins, Emerson, Evans, Fenton, Frenet, Frith, Hammerschmidt, Hugo, Jackson, Rev. C. Jones, Langlois, Laurent, Le Secq, Loppe, Lotze, Lummis, MacPherson, Mailand, Marconi, Marville, Maxwell Lyte, Miot, Moulin, Dr. Murray, Muybridge, Naya, Negre, Pluschow, Ponti, Quinet, Robertson & Beato, Rumine, Salzmann, Savage, Simelli, Sommer, Spackman, Terris, Tripe, Vacquerie, Vallou de Villeneuve, Von Gloeden, Watkins and Whitehurst.

The 20th-century photographers in the sale include: Abbott, Albin-Guillot, Bellon, Berko, Berman, Bing, Blanc et Demilly, Bovis, Brassai, Bravo (both Lola and Manuel), Bubley, Cartier-Bresson, Coburn, Curtis, De Dienes, Demachy, Dieuzaide, Doisneau, Drtikol, Erwitt, Fassbender, Feininger, Funke, Garduno, Genthe, Gibson, Guidalevitch, Haas, Halsman, Herve, Hine, Hoff, Hurley, Imboden, Iooss, Iturbide, Izis, Johnston, Kertesz, Kessels, Kinszki, Klein, Kollar, Krull, Lange, Laughlin, Lauschmann, Leifer, Man Ray, Mantz, Masclet, McDarrah, Meyerowitz, Misonne, Modotti, Monsen, Moon, Mortensen, NASA, Newman, Puyo, Reichmann, Rene-Jacques, Riboud, Rittase, Rossler, Rothstein, Rubinstein, Ruzicka, Schall, Seeley, Siegel, Siskind, Smith, Steichen, Steiner, Stettner, Stouman, Strand, Sudek, Sudre, Suschitzky, Tolstoi, Tuefferd, Van Vechten, Webb, Welpott, Weston (Brett, Edward and Neil), White and Wyman.
 

Just a reminder that Vintage Works, Ltd. is offering for sale a limited edition book entitled: Marcus Doyle: Night Vision/Intimacies of an Unblinking Eye. Twenty-six photographs by Doyle are reproduced in full color and are accompanied by an essay by Matt Damsker.

The 32-page book is offered in a special edition, which is cloth hardbound (plus dust jacket) and slip-cased and comes with an 8 x 10 inch signed and editioned photograph and is limited to only 100 copies (ISBN 0-9771415-1-9), for a starting price of $500. The price goes up $100 for each 20 sold. A softbound edition, limited to 1,400 copies (ISBN 0-9771415-0-0), is priced at $39.95.

To quote Matt Damsker's essay: "The photographs of Marcus Doyle transform the familiar spaces and landscapes of the modern world into twilight zones--nearly surreal, almost alien, yet always recognizable for what they are…Doyle's large-format approach, with saturated colors that result from exposures as long as three hours, turns his unstaged tableaux into visions of exalted expectancy amidst man's tendency to trivialize. Indeed, it is as if these easily overlooked spaces are awaiting the arrival of nothing less than an intergalactic mother ship. But Doyle doesn't strive for any rhetorical or ironic effect, although his photographs are rich with aesthetic ironies. Photography, after all, is fundamentally about light, yet for the most part Doyle photographs darkness, painstakingly capturing the fugitive illumination that is always there yet often invisible to the naked eye. Just as ironic is the rigorous absence of human figuration, yet all of Doyle's deserted landscapes have been impinged upon by human development, urban sprawl or feeble gestures that aim to reincorporate the natural world where man has more or less rolled over it."

To view some of the images in the new book, you can go to http://www.iphotocentral.com/showcase/showcase_view.php/57/1/1 .

To order either the softbound or the hardbound copy with print directly, contact Vintage Works, Ltd. at 1-215-822-5662, or email info@vintageworks.net . During the Spring Sale on I Photo Central (now until June 21, 2006), we will waive the shipping price within the U.S. Softbound copies will ship media rate and the hardbound copies with print will ship priority mail/insured.

The book is also available at these fine photography bookstores:

Libreria Kowasa
Mallorca 235
08008 Barcelona
SPAIN
http://www.kowasa.com/ .
Tel.: +34 93 487 61 37
Fax: +34 93 215 80 54
Email: info@kowasa.com .
Hours: M-Sa, 11 am to 2 pm and 5 pm to 8:30 pm

Arcana Books on the Arts
1229 Third St Promenade
Santa Monica, CA 90401
Tel: +1-310-458-1499
Fax: +1-310-458-9014
Email: order@arcanabooks.com .
http://www.ArcanaBooks.com/ .
Hours: M-Sa, 10 am to 6 pm, and Su, 12 pm to 6 pm

Michael Dawson's Book Shop
535 N Larchmont Blvd
Los Angeles, CA 90004
Tel: + 323-469-2186
Fax: + 323-469-9553
Email: orders@dawsonbooks.com .
http://www.michaeldawsongallery.com/ .
Hours: W-Sa, 10 am-5 pm, and M and Tu by appointment

D A Information Services
648 Whitehorse Road
Mitcham Victoria 3132
AUSTRALIA
Phone: +61 3 9210 7777
Fax: +61 3 9210 7788
Email: service@dadirect.com.au .
http://www.dadirect.com.au .

If you are a bookstore and would like to stock this book, please contact Alex Novak at 1-215-822-5662.
 

By Matt Damsker

JAPANESE POSTWAR PHOTOGRAPHY: HAMAYA HIROSHI, NAGANO
SHIGEICHI AND TANUMA TAKEYOSHI.
Twenty black-and-white plates. Published by Studio Equis (Paris Office); contact Helen Feustal. 120, Avenue Charles de Gaulle 92200, Neuilly sur Seine, France. Phone: +33 1 47 45 45 28; fax: +33 1 47 22 26 73; email: info@studioequis.net .

The tonic irony of post-World War II Japan is that it emerged from nothing less than nuclear holocaust with an almost cheery determination to make a new start in a new world. Indeed, the powerful desire to transcend the horror of the war and rebuild coexisted with an equally powerful sense of Japanese tradition, which had not been diminished even in a new era of Western occupation and nascent democracy. Thus, postwar Japanese photography filled a need for the renewal of the nation's image, away from militaristic propaganda and toward a Japanese essence that was reinventing itself. Fed by the rampant popularity of Japanese photo magazines, Japanese photographers were free to document their society with a fresh postwar realism. But, as Marc Feustal points out in his introduction to this small catalogue, the dominance of pulp-paper magazines as an outlet for photographer left very few exhibition-quality prints for posterity.

Thus, the collection offered here--most of these images are gelatin silver prints in limited editions of 20, printed and signed--represents three of Japan's best and most prolific postwar photographers, each capturing Japanese life in distinctive ways, with an emphasis on the culture's noble survivorship. The late Hamaya Hiroshi captures everything from children on parade in traditional garb to groups of young and old bathers at mountain spas, and his work is uniformly expressive, clean, and unfussy. For example, an image of bathers at a hot spring shrine, holding candles aloft, is a wonderful essay in available light, while his semi-nude bathers are nearly classical in form.

The naturalism of Nagano Shigeichi is similarly free and easy, as he captures the geometry and casual humanity of folks taking a lunch break on a rooftop, seen from a higher window. His shot of a young family on a holiday, children scampering against the metal grids and smokestacks of a steelworks, is an image of pure freedom in the context of postwar industrialism. And his photo of business-suited men receiving their diplomas in management portends the new era of Japanese capitalist discipline. Finally, Tanuma Takeyoshi's camera seeks the telling moments of Japanese play and a certain lost innocence--boys pretending to swordfight, a small child dressed up for a shopping trip, girls in modern dress eyeing their teen counterparts in traditional garb, and a couple going for a drive in a tiny "hand-made" Japanese car: the nation's future incarnate, motoring happily away from its past.


IMAGES OF EAST ASIA: NINETEENTH-CENTURY PHOTOGRAPHS OF CHINA,
JAPAN & SOUTH-EAST ASIA.
137 Plates; Catalogue No. 1337, published by Bernard Quartich Ltd., 8 Lower John Street, Golden Square, London W1F 9AU. Phone: +44 (0)20 7734 2983; fax: +44 (0)20 7437 0967. Email: rareboooks@quartich.com ; Website: http://www.quartich.com .

This recent catalogue from Bernard Quartich Ltd.'s trove of rarities displays a fine range of Asian imagery, beginning with wonderful views, posed dignitaries, and picturesque Cantonese images attributed to The Firm from the late 1800s, all of seemingly fine quality and a distinctive purplish tone. They were likely printed and sold by Afong's Studio. There's also a first and only edition (only 45 were apparently printed) of John Thomson's photo-illustrated book, "Foochow and the River Min," an oblong folio with 80 carbon print photos that reveal Thomson's iconic compositional touch in depicting everything from wooded temples to junks majestically floating in the harbor.

Images from Japan include classic albumen prints by Felice Beato, capturing street life along the Tokaido Road and in Odawara, as well as an album of 50 hand-tinted Beato prints. In addition, there are wonderfully subtle hand-tinted prints–including an ethereal view of Mt. Fuji–by Kusakabe Kimbei also featured. Rounding out the catalogue are several works from French Indochina (Cambodia and Vietnam), Indonesia, and the Philippines, including Woodbury & Page's fine documentations of Java, Balinese dancers, and other exotica.


Matt Damsker is an author and critic, who has written about photography and the arts for the Los Angeles Times, Hartford Courant, Philadelphia Bulletin, Rolling Stone magazine and other publications. His book, "Rock Voices", was published in 1981 by St. Martin's Press. His essay in the book, "Marcus Doyle: Night Vision" was published this past November.

(Book publishers, authors and photography galleries/dealers may send review copies to us at: I Photo Central, 258 Inverness Circle, Chalfont, PA 18914. We do not guarantee that we will review all books or catalogues that we receive.)
 

After hearing about several bad experiences in French restaurants from friends and having numerous people ask me about good places to eat at in Paris, I decided to put together a quick list of restaurants that I have eaten at with pleasure. The bad ones are NOT on the list. Consider it an emergency list for when you go to the auctions in Paris, Paris Photo, FIAC, or even to the open air market in Bievres in June. Even better yet, just go on vacation and enjoy yourself.

For the complete list of Paris restaurants and some other helpful hints when going out to eat in Paris, just click on the following: http://www.iphotocentral.com/collecting/article_view.php/15/18/1 , which can be found on the I Photo Central website under the Collecting Issues and Resources section.
 

I have just started to collect blogs on photography. If you don't know what a blog is, well…

According to the Computer Desktop Encyclopedia, a blog, which derives from a shortened version of web log, is "a web site that contains dated entries in reverse chronological order (most recent first) about a particular topic. Functioning as an online newsletter, blogs can be written by one person or a group of contributors. Entries contain commentary and links to other web sites, and images as well as a search facility may also be included. Although some blogs invite feedback and comments from visitors, Internet newsgroup discussions, which started long before the web, tend to be more question-and-answer oriented."

I guess that on the Internet my E-Photo newsletter can be considered a blog.

After having my own personal blogs--one "devoted to cultural and political nonsense" (http://culturalhypnotism.blogspot.com/ ) and the other wine (http://vineyardramblings.blogspot.com/ )--which I rarely keep up unfortunately because of all the work that goes into this newsletter, I have grown to appreciate the insightfulness, creativity and spontaneity of some blog authors, not to mention all their hard work. So here is the deal: if you have a blog that regularly deals with photography from some perspective of the collecting market (rather than a photographer's personal blog or photography tech stuff), let me know (just email the URL of your blog to info@iphotocentral.com ) and I will list you on our links pages under the new category of "blogs". To get to I Photo Central's Other Photo Links Page, just click on: http://www.iphotocentral.com/links/links.php . I would certainly appreciate a link back to our home page at http://www.iphotocentral.com if you could, but that is not crucial. What is crucial is if your blog has something to add to the photo collecting community.

My first listing under the category, which triggered this article in the first place, is entertaining and definitely opinionated, and I sometimes find myself in utter disagreement with the author Mike Hoeh. But what a fun ride! Hoeh calls his blog "Modern Art Obsession", or MAO for short (as in Chairman Mao). He subtitles the blog "Where the Pursuit of the Collection IS the Obsession". Mike primarily focuses on the contemporary art photography market in an off-beat and don't-take-me-serious way that I do find refreshing. His cross-outs are a real hoot (you'll see what I mean). The blog is located at: http://www.modernartobsession.blogs.com/ .
 

By Wm. B. Becker

I was devastated to learn about the death of Heinz K. Henisch, my mentor and friend of 35 years.

Heinz was a warm and truly benevolent man whose life story would make a wonderful movie. Indeed, his first book of memoirs, "First Dance in Karlsbad", is filled with vivid accounts of what life was like for an assimilated Jewish family living in Neudek, Czechoslovakia as Hitler was on the rise. The family's escape to England was a dramatic episode, the result of a strange, amazing twist of fate. In England, Heinz found a welcoming environment at the University of Reading, where he earned his Ph.D. in Physics and met the love of his life. His career ultimately brought him to the United States and a faculty appointment at the Pennsylvania State University.

Together with his wife Bridget, a medieval scholar and culinary expert, Heinz began collecting photographs. They also opened a small but successful independent publishing house, The Carnation Press. Even before we met in person, a box of sample books arrived--including the collected letters home of a Civil War soldier, and their surprise best-seller, the story of a chipmunk in their garden, written by Bridget and illustrated with photographs by Heinz. Soon, they invited me to write the introduction to the Carnation Press facsimile edition of Levi Hill's 1856 "A Treatise on Heliochromy", the first book ever devoted to color photography. This was a heady assignment for a college freshman, but it launched me on one of the most significant research projects of my life.

Heinz was a tall, imposing man with a gentle voice and a courtly bearing befitting a scientist internationally known for his work on topics like semiconductor contacts and crystal growth in gels. His scientific and technical works were published by Oxford and Cambridge. At least one book has been in print for an astounding 35 years, with the latest edition published just last summer.

Despite the gravitas of Heinz's credentials, he had a keen sense of humor, often making jokes about his attempts at art or his efforts to play the piano. He once played a recording of a classical piece that he'd performed in the Henisch living room. I didn't quite recognize it and asked who composed it. "Chopin-hauer," he answered. Another time he came to my rescue when I was confronted with a large fiery-orange blossom floating elegantly in Bridget's homemade gazpacho. It was a beautiful garnish, but I wasn't sure whether to remove it from the soup before dipping in. "If you don't know what to do with that," Heinz said, "watch me and do exactly as I do. Pick it up like this…(I did, carefully grasping the stem)…now, hold it here (I did, holding it over my head)…and do this (at which point he tilted his head back, opened his mouth and dropped in the flower). I followed suit, but only after the fact did he assure me that it was a nasturtium, and harmless to eat.

Heinz's travels as a visiting lecturer and consultant to business often allowed him to meet with photo-historians as well as scientists, and he developed a network of independent scholars who shared his interests in early photography. This led to the establishment of "History of Photography: An International Quarterly", published by Taylor & Francis of London. (Heinz claimed that he considered but ultimately rejected a title in Latin for the journal: Oudadate Pix.) He edited this journal from 1977 to 1990, publishing original research from dozens of important writers.

Beginning in 1974, Heinz began teaching a History of Photography course at Penn State, accepting an appointment from the Department of Art History while retaining his duties as Professor of Physics. He remained on the Art History faculty for nearly 20 years. When he started, few schools offered classes in the history of photography and only three universities in the United States had graduate programs in the subject.

In 1991, following Heinz's departure from "History of Photography: An International Quarterly", he was celebrated with a festschrift, a particularly pleasant academic tradition that results in a volume of collected papers contributed by various scholars, in honor of a colleague. "Shadow and Substance: Essays on the History of Photography in Honor of Heinz K. Henisch", edited by Kathleen Collins, is a fitting tribute to Heinz's wide-ranging interests; it contains 51 essays by leading photographic historians--including, it can now be revealed, contributions written pseudonymously by Bridget and by the honoree himself!

After his retirement from teaching in 1993, Heinz seemed to be busier than ever. He and Bridget collaborated on three books, published by Penn State University Press: "The Photographic Experience, 1839-1914: Images and Attitudes" (1994); "The Painted Photograph, 1839-1914: Origins, Techniques, Aspirations" (1996); and "Positive Pleasures: Early Photography and Humor" (1998).

Even taken alone, "The Photographic Experience", at 462 pages and with 500 illustrations, is a significant achievement. It marked the culmination of three decades of collecting and research and significantly broadened the field of inquiry with its careful consideration of what came to be called "vernacular photography." Loaded with the patented Henisch wit and charm, the book shows how the newly-invented medium of photography quickly invaded every facet of people's lives--as photography was reflected in literature, poetry, music, fashion and the popular press. And the illustrations were equally wide-ranging--in addition to familiar images, "The Photographic Experience" features photographs of a neoclassical artwork sculpted from butter, a woman wearing a high-fashion hat that looks like a camera, and President Theodore Roosevelt's portrait framed in an outhouse seat.

"The Photographic Experience" had been the title of an exhibition of images from the Henisch Collection, guest-curated by Heinz and Bridget, and presented at Penn State's Palmer Museum of Art in 1988. Photographs from the collection again went on public view beginning in 2000, when the University opened the B. & H. Henisch Photo-History Collection Room in the Pattee Library. The small room features changing exhibits, all drawn from the thousands of images the University Libraries acquired from Heinz and Bridget in 1995.

Somehow, in the midst of all this activity, the Carnation Press managed to publish Heinz's first volume of memoirs, First Dance in Karlsbad, in 1993. Focusing on his childhood and adolescence in the Sudetenland just prior to the Nazi invasion of 1938, the book was widely acclaimed and later published in both German and Czech editions. A second, slimmer volume of memoirs, covering his college years in Britain, his academic career, and his great romance with Bridget, followed two years ago.

Even in his 80s, Heinz was not one to rest on his (considerable) laurels. Last year, he finally made the transition to digital photography, and shortly before his passing he put up a new exhibition of his prints in their home gallery. "He was so very excited about this new work," Bridget told me, "he said he was starting to see things he had never really looked at before, like wonderful patterns in the silhouettes of trees."

And that was Heinz: always looking at the world in a deeper way, always excited about his discoveries, always sharing something of himself. What a loss--but what a great privilege to have known him.


(A noted historian of photography whose research has been published in "American Heritage"," History of Photography: An International Quarterly" and other forums, Bill Becker is also a television producer and writer whose work has been honored with four EMMY® awards. He is the author of Brady of Broadway, a one-man play about the photographer Mathew Brady that's been performed at the Smithsonian Institution and other venues. His Internet project ( http://www.photography-museum.com ), the American Museum of Photography, is, as he puts it, "A Museum Without Walls…for an Art Without Boundaries." Its predecessor, Photography's Beginnings: A Visual History, made its debut on the World Wide Web nearly 10 years ago.)