NEW YORK, NY.- The February 12 sale of Fine Photographs celebrates the technical innovation and artistic vision that have defined the medium, from pioneering nineteenth-century work to mid-century street photography to contemporary conceptual images made with photographic techniques.
The auction opens with a selection of 70 lots from Stephen White's landmark collection, A Country Called California, featuring photographs from the 1850s to the 1960s. White's vast collection views the unique history of California through the lens of photography, and imagines this history and its people as a "dreamscape," a place that represents both our past and hopeful future as a country. Highlights range from Dorothea Lange's White Angel Breadline, San Francisco, 1934, printed before 1966 ($20,000-30,000), and Ansel Adams's images of Japanese-American internment during WWII, Benji Iguchi driving tractor, Manzanar Relocation Center, together with Benji Iguchi with squash, Manzanar Relocation Center, both 1943 ($2,000-3,000), and Manzanar Relocation Center, Inyo County, California (Manzanar from Guard Tower), 1943 ($20,000-30,000). Also featured are photographs of Yosemite by Carleton Watkins, Three Brothers, Yosemite, circa 1872 ($8,000-12,000), as well as oil on Los Angeles beaches, images featuring the full spectrum of immigrant and contributors to the state, Hollywood and much more.
Leading the sale is the rare Eudora Welty Portfolio, 1930s-40s, printed 1992, complete with 18 photographs each with Welty’s signature and edition notation ($40,000-60,000). This portfolio has only rarely appeared on the market, and this example is additionally rare for its provenance, having been gifted by Eudora Welty to the pioneering journalist Robert MacNeil. It is accompanied by a compelling letter signed from Welty.
Other highlights include Larry Clark's provocative Luhring Augustine portfolio Tulsa, 1968-71 complete with 10 photographs ($15,000-25,000), Yousuf Karsh's masterful portrait of Georgia O'Keeffe, 1956, printed before 1969 ($4,000-6,000), a rare Thomas Eakins set of seven images from the Naked series featuring a male nude figure, circa 1883 ($8,000-12,000), Lewis W. Hine's poignant Girls at Sewing Machine Showing Curvature of Spine, 1917 ($10,000-15,000), and his iconic On the Hoist, Riveter on the Empire State Building, 1931 ($10,000-15,000), Man Ray's Exposition Man Ray from Cahiers d'Art, Paris, 1935 ($5,000-7,500), Brett Weston's early modernist Market Place (La Merced Market, Mexico City), 1926 ($10,000-15,000), as well as distinctive works by Harry Callahan, Ernst Haas, Deborah Tuberville and Lalla Essaydi.
