By Stephen Perloff, The Photograph Collector Newsletter

The sale of Veronica's Revenge, the collection amassed by Baroness Lambert over the last 30 years, at Phillips de Pury & Company on November 8 and 9, not only set a record for a New York single sale of photography at $12,473,240 (virtually tying the International record set by the Jammes' collection in October 1999), but may well be judged as the crowning moment of a paradigm shift in photography and contemporary art that has been building for several years.

In a packed sales room with a standing-room-only audience of between 500 and 600 people and with 16 or so staff members on the phones or executing order bids, Phillips' chairman Simon de Pury hammered down every lot in the evening sale. (In order to make this report somewhat smaller than the Sunday New York Times, I'll report mainly on lots that sold for more than $50,000.)

Art adviser Kim Heirston grabbed the first lot, Matthew Barney's Radial Drill: Ottogate ($25,000-$35,000), for $50,400. Rosemary Trockel's dog portrait, Eliana ($20,000-$30,000), fetched the same price from a bidder in the room.

Matthew Barney's Cremaster 5: Her Giant ($150,000-$200,000) brought $265,600 from a phone bidder and his Cremaster 1: Orchidella ($120,000-$180,000) did almost as well at $254,400. Charles Ray's portrait, No ($300,000-$400,000), soared to $534,400, the second highest price of the sale.

Man Ray's portrait of Marcel Duchamp, "Rose Sélavey," one of the few "traditional" photographs in the sale, went to a phone bidder for $78,000, just over estimate. Matthew Marks eloped with Robert Gober's bride, No Title ($40,000-$60,000), for $69,600. Fellow dealer Lawrence Luhring bought back Janine Antoni's Momme ($25,000-$35,000) for $62,400.

Dealer Per Skarstedt doubled his pleasure by winning the Cindy Sherman-Richard Prince Untitled (Double Portrait) for $102,000, below low estimate. A phone bidder corrupted Thomas Schütte's Innocenti at $187,200. An order bidder prevailed in taking Matthew Barney's Envelopa: Drawing Restraint 7 (Guillotine), seven color prints in self-lubricating nylon frames, for $198,400.

A phone bidder bit on Sarah Lucas's Eating a Banana ($20,000-$30,000) for $57,600. Sandy Heller spent $60,000 for Damien Hirst's With Dead Head ($30,000-$40,000). An order bidder snagged Matthew Barney's Ottodrone (Manuel) A for $72,000, just at low estimate. A bidder in the room cleaned up Mike Kelly's No Title Nos. 1–13 (Dust)--yes, 13 photographs of dust balls--at $86,400, one of the few works well off the low estimate.

Andreas Gursky's large diptych, Athens, went for $299,200, just over the midpoint of its estimate. Doug Aitken's Turbulence, a triptych of airplane wings, climbed to $54,000, just above estimate. Felix Gonzalez-Torres's untitled work consisting of five silver prints of birds disappearing into a gray sky ($200,000-$250,000)--an elegiac comment on loss--fell short at $164,800. Roni Horn's Still Water (The River Thames, for Example), a portfolio of 15 offset lithographs, flowed to its high estimate, $96,000, a record for one lot by the artist.

Gabriel Orozco's Common Dream ($4,000-$6,000), a modest-sized Cibachrome of 11 sheep huddled in a barren field, was sheared for $23,000. Is Suicide Genetic ($15,000-$20,000) by Sarah Lucas, a picture of a grossly grungy toilet with the phrase scrawled on the inside of the bowl in blood, was cleaned up by arts reporter Josh Baer for $34,800.

Nan Goldin's touching Cookie Mueller Portfolio went to order just over high estimate at $105,600, an auction record for one lot by the artist. Likewise Gilbert & George's All also went just over high estimate to a different order bidder for $187,200. Nobuyoshi Araki's Tokyo Cube, 36 silver prints, about half nudes ($25,000-$35,000), brought $50,400.

Cindy Sherman's Untitled No. 92 ($250,000-$350,000) sold in the room to Dominique Levy for $478,400, the third highest price of the evening and a record for the artist. Richard Prince's Untitled (Three Men's Hands with Watches) was bought by Tony Meier just over high estimate at $265,600. Prince's Untitled, a close-up of a Marlborough Man's hand ($60,000-$80,000), was gloved at $187,200. Barbara Gladstone, consulting on a cell phone, rode off with Prince's Untitled (Cowboy) ($100,000-$150,000) for $288,000. She had originally sold the picture.

Jeff Koons' Moses, a framed Nike poster of the NBA star, scored at $78,000, almost double the high estimate. Paul McCarthy's Propo Object: Donald Duck, a large Cibachrome of the easily frustrated film and TV star ($15,000-$20,000) brought more than any image of that other Donald, $98,400, from a bidder in the room who didn't have a number. ("We know you very, very well," de Pury approved.)

Mike Kelly's Ahh...Youth, a series of eight large color portraits of stuffed animals with one human portrait mixed in ($150,000-$200,000), went to a phone bidder at $411,200, the fourth highest price and a record for the artist. Then Richard Prince's Untitled (Girlfriend on Motorbike) ($60,000-$80,000) roared off at $332,800, again returning to Barbara Gladstone.

Cindy Sherman's Untitled Film Still No. 55, went well over high estimate at $98,400. Likewise her Untitled Film Still No, 20, at $60,000.

Gerhard Richter's Self Portrait Standing Three Times, 17.3.1991 (six unique hand-painted silver prints, $80,000-$120,000) sold well over estimate at $265,600. Thomas Struth's Kunsthistorische Museum III, Wein ($70,000-$90,000) brought $136,800. A bit later his Stanze di Raffaello II, Roma ($100,000-$150,000) sold for $153,600. Louise Lawler's Monogram—Arranged by Mr. and Mrs. Burton Tremaine ($40,000-$60,000) set a world record for the artist at $125,600.

Another Gursky, Union Rave, clambered to its high estimate, $232,000. Peter Fischli and David Weiss's Wursterei Portfolio went to a hungry order bidder at $164,800, almost double the high estimate. Then their Stiller Nachmittag (The Quiet Afternoon), a portfolio of 11 works ($60,000-$80,000), unbalanced expectations as it set a record for the artists at $243,200. Sigmar Polke's unique untitled portfolio of 14 silver prints of arrangements of everyday objects also almost doubled its high estimate at $142,400.

Jeff Wall's An Octopus sold just over high estimate at $265,600. Andreas Gursky's diptych, Cairo ($100,000-$150,000), crowded to $198,400. Bernd and Hilla Becher's Tipples from Small Mines in East Pennsylvania (15 prints) toppled just over estimate at $102,200. Another Becher of nine Cooling Towers (Wood) ($40,000-$60,000) was on fire as photography dealer Lee Marks scorched the room at $176,000. One of only about a dozen photography dealers and collectors in the room, Marks often bids for former Dreyfuss head Howard Stein.

Thomas Ruff's Haus Nr. 411 ($30,000-$40,000) closed at $74,400. And Gursky's Fortuna Düsseldorf, of players on a soccer field, scored at just below high estimate, $209,600.

A phone bidder made a reservation for Sam Taylor-Wood's Wrecked, a Last Supper homage, at $142,400, the high estimate. John Baldessari's Three Types of Light almost doubled its high estimate at $131,200.

The last piece of the evening proved to embody everything about the sale: Barbara Kruger's huge untitled work (I Shop Therefore I Am). Estimated at "only" $80,000-$120,000, it validated its buyer's existence by commanding $601,600, needless to say, the top price of the sale and a record for the artist.

After more than two hours to sell 65 lots--so intense was the bidding--the audience burst into applause.

The next morning there were only about 100 people in the room, but the phone bank was as full as the night before. Again bidding was active--it took three hours to sell the remaining 115 lots--and every lot was sold.

Matthew Barney's Cremaster 1: Goodyear Chorus, an updating of Busby Berkeley, kicked just over high estimate, $187,200. His Cremaster 2: Loughton Ram, a rather handsome beast, was sheared below low estimate at $54,000. Robert Gober's No Title (a mousetrap set amid some ferns) snapped to $69,900.

Cindy Sherman's Untitled No. 223 (Madonne) collected $114,000, while her Untitled No. 147 brought $60,000. Sherman's Untitled Film Stills, No. 50 and No. 49 both sold over high estimate, at $57,600 and $54,000 respectively. Richard Prince's Untitled (Fayy) ($60,000-$80,000) was less successful at $54,000.

Mike Kelly's Color and Form brought $57,600. Gabriel Orozco's Gato en la Jungl (Cat in the Jungle)--a can of cat food placed amidst cans of string beans--nearly quadrupled its high estimate to $26,400. And his group of seven Cibachromes soared to two-and-a-half times the high estimate, $117,600.

Two more Paul McCarthy pictures, Propo Objects: Girl with Penis and Propo Object: Daddies, almost tripled their high estimates at $52,800 and $54,000 respectively. Another Louise Lawler, Salon Holder, estimated at only $8,000-$12,000, brought $62,400 from a phone bidder. Barbara Kruger's Untitled (You are an experiment in terror) also went over high estimate at $57,600.

Günther Förg's two prints, both titled Bauhaus, soared to three-and-a-half times its high estimate, $62,400. And his Villa Malaparte went for four times its high estimate, $33,600. Next, four prints by the Bechers of industrial machinery chugged to $57,600, again over high estimate. Thomas Ruff's large abstract Substrat 4111 nearly doubled its high estimate at $122,240, setting a record for the artist.

Rodney Graham's Paardekastanje, Millen-Rienst ($15,000-$20,000), a large upside-down leafless tree was righted for $81,600. Gary Hume's four differently colored snowmen melted at $62,400. And Fischli and Weiss's Matterhorn ($15,000-$20,000) was scaled for $84,000.

While Baroness Lambert had always thought of this as a photography collection--and her acuity in discovering so many important artists so early in their careers is to be admired--there were only a small number of photography dealers and collectors in an audience made up overwhelmingly of contemporary art dealers and collectors.

At the same time that the traditional photography market is experiencing new price levels, as witnessed by the October auctions, there is also a growing gap between what is considered "photography" and what is considered "contemporary art," this interestingly just as the reopened Museum of Modern Art has installed a Warhol and a Rauschenberg in its photography galleries and integrated Man Ray and Hans Bellmer photographs, among others, with its surrealist art. And while Cindy Sherman's Film Stills provide a focus exhibit in the photography galleries, one of her large Untitled works hangs with Wall, Gursky, and others in the contemporary art galleries. Esthetically the boundaries are dissolving; monetarily, the gap is widening.

(Copyright ©2004 by The Photo Review. My thanks to Steve Perloff and The Photograph Collector Newsletter for giving me permission to use this information. The Photograph Collector, which is a wonderful newsletter that I can heartily recommend, is published monthly and is available by subscription for $149.95 (overseas airmail is $169.95). You can phone 1-215-891-0214 and charge your subscription or send a check or money order to: The Photograph Collector, 140 East Richardson Ave, Langhorne, PA 19047.)
 

Photo LA 2005, the 14th annual Los Angeles Photographic Art Exposition will be held January 20-23, 2005 at the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium, 1855 Main St., Santa Monica, CA.

More than 80 galleries and private dealers from across the country and around the globe will participate in the largest and longest running photographic art exhibition in the West.

The photographic art, from the earliest 19th-century photographic experiments to the contemporary photography and photo-based art, will be exhibited for sale. Last year's event saw record attendance, attracting over 7,500 visitors.

The opening night reception will take place on Thursday, January 20, 2004, from 6 to 9 pm. The proceeds will benefit the Photographic Arts Council of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Tickets to the gala celebration are fifty dollars and may be purchased at the door on the evening of the event or through LACMA. To place ticket orders please call 1-323-932-5846 after Wednesday, December 15, or email eschillo@lacma.org . Additionally, order forms for tickets can be accessed via http://www.stephencohengallery.com/artfairs/PHOTOLA05/PLA2005.html and faxed directly to the LACMA Photography Dept. at 1-323-857-4792.

Collecting seminars and lecture panels will be held Friday, January 21 through Sunday, January 23.

Collecting seminar leaders include: Rick Wester, director of photographs at Phillips de Pury, Anne Wilkes Tucker, curator of photography at the Museum of Fine Arts Houston, and Mary Virginia Swanson, author and consultant for M.V. Swanson & Associates. Seminars are conducted at 9 am before the show's public hours, and are limited to 30 people. Reservations are required. Please call for a schedule of events. Tickets are $70 per seminar and include a three-day pass to Photo LA.

Lectures and panels are $10 each. On Saturday, January 22 at 10 am, this year's special panel will be "Collecting in the 21st Century". There will be a lively discussion by the panel members on the issues facing collectors at every level in today's exploding photography marketplace. The panel is hosted by Jori Finkel, noted editor and critic (Art & Auction and Art in America). The panelists include: Bruce Berman, film producer and photography collector; Dan Greenberg, businessman, philanthropist and photography collector; Joshua Holdeman, worldwide director of photographs at Christie's; Michael Wilson, film producer and writer, and founder of the Wilson Center for Photography; and Tim Wride, curator, and executive director of the No-Strings Foundation.

Regular exhibition hours for this multi-dealer show are Friday, January 21 and Saturday, January 22, noon to 7 pm, and Sunday, January 23, noon to 6 pm. Tickets are $20 for a one-day pass and $30 for a three-day pass and can be purchased at the door or through the Stephen Cohen Gallery. Readers of this newsletter can take $7 off of the one-day ticket, or $10 off of the three-day ticket by showing this page at the ticket booth.

For further information contact Stephen Cohen Gallery, 7358 Beverly Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90036, phone: 1-323-937-5525 or visit the website at http://www.stephencohengallery.com/artfairs/PHOTOLA05/PLA2005.html .
 

The special End-of-the-Year Holiday sale on I Photo Central brought to you by all five of the website's photography dealers ends on Monday, December 20, so you only have one week more to shop this wonderful sale on the website. Hundreds more items have been added to the sale. 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 December 20th. 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.

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 SpecialHolidaySale2 into the key word field. Then you can also use the other search fields, such as price range, country, date range, 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 "2". 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 $1000 (or $5000) to No Limit.

You can also find over a hundred new images up on the web site if you have not visited in the last month or so. Just go to http://www.iphotocentral.com/search/search.php and go to the drop down menu on "Time Frame of Posting" and click on "Past Month". You will see all of the great images posted up within the last 30 days, some just this week. Some of these items have even been added to the Holiday Sale.

Just make sure that you shop before the sale ends next week (Monday, December 20).
 

I am still looking for a new assistant director. The person should be located in or be willing to locate to the Bucks County area north of Philadelphia, PA, or willing to communte to this area. The ideal background should include knowledge of photography and photo history; and good people, computer and business skills. Job can be three to five days per week, but assistance at several shows during the year is required. Please send your resume and salary history by email to me at anovak@vintageworks.net .
 

The Polish photographer Wladyslaw Pawelec died on October 28 in Warsaw at the age of 81. He was not that well known in the West, but Jeff Dunas edited a book about him in 1985 (the book was called Friends of Zofia) and Pawelec has at least six other books that are available in the West. Pawelec also had many exhibitons. His daughter Dorota and son-in-law Michal own a gallery in Amsterdam (Six Images gallery http://members.ams.chello.nl/jwnini/Six%20Images/ ), and there will be an exhibiton there of Pawelec's work in January. My thanks to newsletter reader Lee James Beeley of Freyja Fine Arts for this information.
 

Christie's International has announced a new buyer's premium for the majority of the firm's salerooms. Effective January 1, Christie's current 19-1/2% buyer's premium rate on the first $100,000 will be increased by a ½% to 20% at almost all Christie's sites (exceptions are Australia and Italy, where there will be no change). Christie's buyer's premium of 12% on amounts exceeding $100,000 will remain unchanged.

At Christie's Paris the rates will increase from 17-1/2% to 20% up to the threshold of $100,000 and from 10% to 12% above the threshold of $100,000.

In Australia, the premium will remain at 19-½% on the first AUD$200,000 and 12% on the amount exceeding AUD$200,000.

All premiums quoted exclude local sales tax.

In Italy, the buyer's premium will be 24% on the first $100,000 and remains 18-1/2% on any amount over $100,000. This premium is inclusive of all local sale taxes.

There will be no changes to premium thresholds at any of Christie's sale sites, and the wine and car department premium rates will remain unchanged at all sites.
 

By Matt Damsker

UNDER ONE SKY. By Margo Davis. Foreword by Margaretta K. Mitchell. Published 2004 by Stanford General Books, an imprint of Stanford University Press. 94 pages; 60 black-and-white plates. ISBN No. 0-8047-4266-9; clothbound. Price: $65.00. Web site: http://www.sup.org .

Straightforward and sensitive to the range of the human condition, Margo Davis's black-and-white portraits have been a mainstay of American photography for decades. A former teacher at the Ansel Adams Yosemite Workshops(back when she was Margo Baumgarten), Davis' images capture their subjects unsentimentally yet with palpable affection and an emphasis on place and context.

This volume collects 40 years of her best work, with 60 superbly reproduced plates. The result is an exceptional sharpness of detail and richness of tonality to rival the originals. Indeed, it does not get any better than Davis' 2001 image of a contemplative Buddhist monk at Angkor Wat in Cambodia, his dark eyes addressing the camera and the Great Beyond all at the same time. Just as timeless is a 1970 photo of the Reverend George A. Weston in Antigua, who looks out at us from his sparely furnished surroundings with a sage serenity and from behind a white beard that gives him the look of a black Moses.

Clearly, Davis wins the trust of her subjects, which seems to impart to them a relaxed and hope-borne facing toward the camera. Where the portraiture of Arbus or Avedon often located disjuncture, alienation, or anxiety, Davis' captures a common humanity, but never a saccharine one. A Nigerian Muslim holding his baby grandchild is an image of paternal pride and love that transcends its moment, just as poor Antiguan children carrying boxes of mangoes on their heads have the mischievous look of children in any schoolyard. Likewise, a sugar-cane worker in the West Indies of 1970, or a Tahitian rower wearing a militant Islamic wrap on his head in 2001, with fierce tattooing on his breast, shoulder, and arm, signal a universal quality of male pride and the dream of some better life.

As for the many images of women--whether the youthful beauty of a Nigerian Faluni girl looking off to the side with great self-possession, or the elderly Hungarian "Aunt Justica" amid the rustic wood and corn cobs of her pig farm--they covey poise and purpose in myriad ways. And Japanese girls dressed for a tea ceremony are icons of youth connecting comfortably with ancient tradition.

Davis does not often push for a virtuoso effect--most of her images capture people at mid-range, in the context of their real lives and surroundings. But when she strives for something special, she pulls it off unaffectedly, as in her beautiful portrait of a dark California girl, Anika, seen close up with her thick curly hair seeming to wave in the wind. Davis writes that she actually took the shot from above while the girl was lying on black cloth with her hair spread to the side. The photo's controlled suggestion of night and wind is nothing less than masterful, and totally unpretentious. In fact, the image serves well as the book's cover photo, a perfect emblem of Margo Davis' sharp focus on the global variety of Truth and Beauty.


NO HAIR DAY. A COLLABORATION BY ELSA DORFMAN.
Published by www.elsa.photo.net ; 2003. ISBN No. 0-9668665-0-9. Available from http://www.elsa.photo.net , 607 Franklin St., Cambridge, MA 02139-2923; Phone: (617) 876-6416; fax: (617) 492-4925; email: elsad@theworld.com . Price: $15.00 More information: http://www.nohairday.com .

A cheerful and irreverent stare-down of cancer and its impact on the female body, "No Hair Day" is photographer Elsa Dorfman's unique collaboration with three women--Debbie Dorsey, Libby Levinson, and Carol Potoff--whose struggle with breast cancer marks them but does not define them. Shot in Cambridge, MA, on the large-format Polaroid camera, Dorfman's project results in a series of somewhat theatrical yet lighthanded images that present these three women as sexy and vividly alive despite their disease.

Bald heads, wigs, reconstructed breasts--the byproducts of chemo, radiation and trauma are the props of Dorfman's photos, along with the colorfully stylish clothing that these middle-aged women wear so well. Indeed, they wear their burden exceptionally well, and Dorfman's images capture a lot of genuine camaraderie, high humor, defiant spirit, and sheer will in her group and solo portraits. Whether eating pizza together in one shot, or posing in evening wear, or standing half-naked in sisterly solidarity, Dorsey, Levinson and Potoff exude confidence and charm.

Sure, it can be disturbing to confront a bald Debbie Dorsey standing in a hospital gown, holding three huge syringes filled with red chemotherapeutic liquid, but her cocksure expression and the tilt of her hip tells us all we need to know. She is an Athena of the Antibodies, about to do battle. Similarly, Libby Levinson stands tall, radiating joy and a positive outlook, in a black business suit that suggests she's ready for "someone else's" funeral. And Carol Potoff smiles so broadly and so warmly most of the time that Dorfman's camera often nails her with her eyes squeezed shut.

"No Hair Day" gives a lot of fresh life to the documentary power of the large-format Polaroid, which increasingly takes a back seat these days to the emergence of digital photography. Dorfman reminds us how affecting these big, robust prints can be, with their rich depth-of-field, their subtle color values and their old-time studio atmosphere. Thanks in large part to the fun of Polaroid photography, "No Hair Day" is a genuine life celebration that assiduously avoids the cloying, the mawkish, the pitying, and instead delivers character and some dark comedy. The project was even filmed by Boston filmmaker Bob Burns--whose movie stills are included in this book--and has been shown on Boston public television. It is also part of the Breast Cancer Media Project. And while, sadly, Carol Potoff succumbed to cancer two years ago--her death is noted in the book's coda--thanks to Dorfman she will remain a vivid inspiration.

(Matt Damsker is an old friend who used to work for me as Editor-in-Chief on a magazine for which I was publisher. He has had extensive writing experience, including high-profile stints at the L.A. Times and Hartford Courant newspapers, during which he wrote extensively on the visual arts and on photography.)

(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.)