JOHN LENNON: 9 October 1940 – 8 December 1980

Bill Eppridge: John Lennon on the train to D.C. February 10, 1964

The official John Lennon website

"HEROES: PHOTOGRAPHS BY STEVE SCHAPIRO"

If you are in the New Hampshire area, we highly recommend this exhibition.



Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. © All Photographs Copyright of Steve Schapiro

Lamont Gallery Presents "Heroes: Works by Steve Schapiro" Monday, December 6, 2010 - Saturday, January 22, 2011


Exeter, NH -- From Monday, December 6, 2010 to Saturday, January 22, 2011, the Lamont Gallery at Phillips Exeter Academy will present Heroes: Works by Steve Schapiro, renowned journalism and portrait photographer, in an exhibition of 60 of his photographs. An artist reception will be held on Friday, January 7, 2011, 6:30-8 p.m.; and a gallery talk will be held on Saturday, January 8, 2011, 10 a.m. The exhibition is organized by art2art Circulating Exhibitions © Steve Schapiro. The Lamont Gallery is in the Frederick R. Mayer Art Center on Tan Lane. This exhibit is free and open to the public. Please note the gallery will be closed Friday, December 18, 2010—Tuesday, January 4, 2011.

The exhibit is a collection of Schapiro’s "personally selected iconic images from his encounters with artists, writers, actors, athletes, and politicians throughout the second half of the 20th Century." Schapiro’s work ranges from dramatic images of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and the Civil Rights Movement, to portraits of Robert F. Kennedy, Jackie Onassis, Muhammad Ali, Truman Capote and Andy Warhol. His groundbreaking images of influential personalities, newsmakers, and cultural and political leaders display a modest yet remarkable presentation of his extraordinary life in photography.

Born and raised in New York City, Schapiro’s career as a notable photographer began in 1960, when he documented Arkansas migrant workers who were fighting for electricity in their camps. His photographs were published as a cover story for The New York Times Magazine, and ultimately forced the workers’ management to provide the utility, according to Schapiro’s website.

Throughout the 1960s and 1970s, he traveled throughout the U.S. as a documentary photographer, recording the changing culture and politics. During the 1970s and 1980s, besides continuing his photographic works, he created iconic movie stills for such movies as Francis Ford Coppola’s The Godfather, Martin Scorsese’s Taxi Driver, and John Schlesinger’s Midnight Cowboy. Later, Schapiro worked for such musical greats as Barbra Streisand and David Bowie, creating photography for album covers.

"As a young photographer on assignment for Life, my only ambition was that the pictures I took each day would be published in the following week’s magazine; I never thought beyond that. I could not imagine that 40 years later, so many of my subjects would remain strong, iconic figures in the world. However, as I photographed each of these ten individuals, I was aware of the life-changing effect they were having on me," Schapiro says.

His photos have been displayed on the covers of some of the world’s most well-known and well-read magazines, including: TIME, Newsweek, LIFE, Look, Sports Illustrated, Rolling Stone, People, Vanity Fair, and The New York Times Magazine.

Having to help shape an iconic American culture, Schapiro’s works are represented in many private and public collections, including: the Smithsonian Museum, Washington, D.C.; High Museum of Art, Atlanta, GA; Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY; Galerie Wouter van Leeuwen, Amsterdam, Netherlands; Hamiltons Gallery, London, England; Galerie Thierry Marlat, Paris, France; Monroe Gallery of Photography, Santa Fe, NM; Fahey/Klein Gallery, Los Angeles, CA; and Jackson Fine Art, Atlanta, GA.

Gallery hours are Mondays 1–5 p.m.; Tuesday–Saturday 9 a.m.–5 p.m.; closed on Sundays. Please note the Lamont Gallery will be closed from December 18, 2010 until January 4, 2011. For more information, contact the Lamont Gallery at 603-777-3461. For information on upcoming events, visit the Academy’s community calendar. To learn more about the Academy and its events and programs, visit our website. You may also call the PEA public events line at 603-777-4309.

Related: Steve Schapiro Exhibition review in ArtNews

            

PHOTOGRAPHY IN NEW MEXICO

Collection Center for Creative Photography, University of Aizona (76.577.30) ©2010 The Ansel Adams Publishing Trust


New Mexico magazine, the nation's original state magazine, has an article on the history of photography in New Mexico and the many galleries featuring photography in Santa Fe. The article by Wolf Schneider titled "Shoot-Out: Why the New Mexico photography scene keeps getting more competitive" opens with:

"Used to be, New Mexico's fine-art photography scene meant historic images by Laura Gilpin, Eliot Porter, and Ansel Adams - especially Adams' famed Moonrise, Hernandez, New Mexico, 1941. There was a photo gallery or two in Santa Fe. Now the city has a half-dozen galleries dedicated to photography, and two dozen more that feature photography among other arts. Fine-art photography is on the rise world-wide, with modern image making propelled by digital technology, and with prints in limited and numbered editions all the rage.

'Over the last 10 to 15 years, there's been an explosion in fine-art photography' observed Sidney Monroe, 52, who opened Monroe Gallery of Photography with his wife Michelle in Santa Fe in 2002. 'We started in New York in the eighties, when there were only a small number of photo galleries around the world' he remembers. Monroe specializes in humanist and photojournalist imagery, representing internationally known photographers such as the late Margaret Bourke-White and Henri Cartier Bresson, and selling prints for $1,000 up. Ninety percent of the images Monroe sells are still shot on traditional film. Showing the work of nationally and internationally known photographers, he observes, 'For any other city of this size, you won't get the diverse photography you will see in Santa Fe'".

Andrews Smith states "We are the leading dealer of Ansel Adams in the world", noting that Adams' prints currently sell for $4,000  and up. Way up. "Most of the great collectors are collecting photography. Its an international trend. There are more photo galleries in Santa Fe per capita than anywhere in the world."

Read the full article here, turn to pages 20 - 23 using the e-reader. Also interviewed and featured are Jennifer Schlesinger of Verve Gallery, Anne Kelly of Photo-Eye, and several others.

Eddie Adams: Untouchable Children, India, 1978

"For any other city of this size, you won't get the diverse photography you will see in Santa Fe" says Sidney Monroe of Monroe Gallery of Photography, which recently exhibited works by the late Pulitzer Prize-winning Eddie Adams.

Related: Loews Magazine: Collecting Photography

             Summer Gallery Scene in Santa Fe

PAUL McCARTNEY TO RECEIVE KENNEDY CENTER HONORS; RECOLLECTIONS OF THE 1964 CONCERT IN DC

Bill Eppridge: Beatles Fans, Washington Coliseum. Feb 11, 1964

By J. Freedom duLac

©The Washington Post
Friday, December 3, 2010; 11:21 AM


On Feb. 11, 1964, Beatlemania blasted Washington - all shrieks and Arthur haircuts and songs that nobody could quite make out.

Two nights after a hysteria-inducing appearance on "The Ed Sullivan Show," the Beatles played their first U.S. concert at the Washington Coliseum, just north of Union Station.

With "I Want to Hold Your Hand" sitting atop the American Billboard chart, 8,092 people witnessed a dozen songs performed by the band that changed everything.

Bruce Spizer, author of seven Beatles books, says the concert at the long-defunct Coliseum (now a covered parking garage) "was one of the most exciting live performances the Beatles ever gave." Apple's iTunes is streaming the concert free of charge.

With Paul McCartney returning to Washington this weekend to receive the Kennedy Center Honors, here's the tale of the 1964 visit, as told by some of the people who lived it - including Sir Paul, who spoke to us last week from London.

John B. Lynn, son of Harry Lynn, who owned the Coliseum: My father got the call asking if he'd be interested in having the Beatles. He, of course, had never heard of them. But he said yes. He brought home a box of Beatles albums and singles to give out, and my brother and I became the most popular people in school.

Paul McCartney: We'd seen a lot of British stars come back from America with their tails between their legs. We made a promise to ourselves to not go until we had a No. 1. We were so excited to be madly popular in America, which was to us the Holy Grail because every shred of music we ever loved came from there. It was euphoric, and now we were heading to Washington on the train, which was very glamorous. And to cap it off, there was that beautiful snow.

Bill Eppridge, former contract photographer for Life magazine: We were going to fly down from New York, but a big snowstorm hit Washington. The Beatles reserved a couple of cars on the train and got tickets for the press traveling with them. I couldn't have had a better time. We all liked them. They were always looking for something to do. They had a race up and down the car, and two of them went up and over the seats and two of them crawled in the baggage racks. And then they grabbed the waiters' uniforms and served drinks.

Bill Eppridge: George wearing Train Porter's Jacket. Train to D.C. Feb 10, 1964

Lynn: My father wasn't in the habit of meeting his acts when they arrived in town. But he met the Beatles. He didn't expect the crowd - especially on a snowy day.

McCartney: It was unbelievable, a great sort of validation of the whole thing. It was like: "Yeah, look! Everywhere we're going in America, it's happening!"

Tommy Roe, "Sheila" singer: In 1963, I was booked in England with Chris Montez, and the Beatles were a featured act on our tour. It was like Elvis Presley all over again. Brian Epstein, the Beatles' manager, had called my manager and put me on the Washington, D.C., show. I was really happy to do the show with them. We were all staying at the Shoreham Hotel, and I tried to hang out with the boys there, but it was pandemonium.


Al Gore, former vice president: The incredible phenomenon built on itself. The Ed Sullivan appearance just prior to their arrival in Washington was electrifying. We could scarcely believe the Beatles were coming to D.C

Reed Hundt, former Federal Communications Commission chairman: Everybody our age knew about them. How could you not? Gore and I were juniors at St. Albans. We weren't even 16 until the next month, and the Beatles were singing "she was just 17." We were thinking: Well, that's too old for us.


Ron Oberman, former Washington Star music columnist: They had a press conference at the Coliseum before the show, with all four Beatles in a boxing ring that became the stage. I asked George if he had a girlfriend. He said: "Yes, you love." I was doing one of the first regular columns on rock in a newspaper, and I was only 20, 21. The older people at the press conference didn't get it.

Roe: The concert was a big deal. It was an amazing scene. They were really catching on and everybody came to that show, either hanging out backstage and trying to become the fifth Beatle or trying to get on the bill. They kept adding people. Originally, it was just the Chiffons and me. But the Righteous Brothers [and the Caravelles and Jay and the Americans] were also there.

Lynn: My father had run one ad in the paper, and the concert sold out. They made a film and played it three months later at the Coliseum, like a closed-circuit TV broadcast, and they sold that out, too. He was so stunned that a group he'd never heard of before sold out. It was such an unusual event, and it was a windfall. He took the profit and used it to buy my mother a new Lincoln Continental convertible for her birthday. We came home from school, and he said, "The Beatles concert bought that for your mother."

Larry Sealfon, former record store clerk: I was working at Super Music in Silver Spring, and we were allocated a block of tickets to sell. But there wasn't a frenzy or anything like that. It was pretty orderly. After the concert, people came in - mostly mothers - complaining about their seats. They complained that all they got to see was the back of the Beatles.

Marsha Albert, whose request famously convinced WWDC-FM DJ Carroll James to begin playing the Beatles in 1963: The stage was in the middle of the arena and the band had to rotate around the stage. So they were only facing you a quarter of the time. The rest of the time, you were either looking at their backs or their sides. That wasn't ideal.

McCartney: That was the first time we'd ever played in the round. We said: "Do we have to do it?" "Yeah. We've sold tickets everywhere. You'll have to turn around." "How the hell are we doing to do that?" "Well, just do a few numbers east then shuffle around north. Then do a few numbers north and shuffle around west." We said: "What's Ringo going to do?" He had to shuffle the kit around himself. The idea that we had our backs and sides to three-fourths of the audience at any point of the show was awkward. We were used to getting them and holding them - paying attention to them and having them pay attention to us. I don't think I've done the in-the-round thing ever since.

Lynn: They wanted to fit as many people as possible in. If they had played with the stage at one end, they would've only been able to fit 6,000 or 6,500. With the stage in the middle, they could fit 8,000.


Hundt: It was mostly girls. Being from a boys school, we had never seen so many girls in one place before. I don't know that I knew for sure that there were that many girls in the world.

McCartney: It was terrific. We'd been used to it in smaller doses. But in our minds, it's only right that it should get bigger. And where better for it than America, where everything is bigger? It was very exciting, just having that many people - predominantly girls, all screaming.

Albert: The concert started with some warm-up groups, and I was relieved because I had heard about the screaming that went on in England. And I thought: "Nobody's screaming. This is going to be nice; we're going to be able to hear them." (Laughs.) When they started playing, you couldn't hear a thing. It was unbelievably loud, like white noise. I remember the policeman near me stuck bullets in his ears.

Eppridge: That's probably where I lost most of my hearing. Either there or with the Marines in Vietnam, AR-15s cracking next to my ear. I remember my ears hurting from the high-pitched screaming for the Beatles. It was absolutely piercing. If you're around six railroad train engines and they're all traveling at 100 miles an hour and they slam on their brakes at the same time - that's what it sounded like. But it was delightful.

Gore: The acoustics in the arena combined with the absolute frenzy of enthusiasm made it virtually impossible to understand a single word that they sang. You had listen carefully to get the general flow of the song, and of course, everybody knew all the words prior to the concert. We all loved their music, but clearly there were a lot of people in that crowd who loved it even more than I did because they couldn't stop screaming. I'm thrilled that iTunes now has the film of that concert, because I'll get to hear the words clearly for the first time.

Oberman: It was a short set, like 35 minutes. I was able to hear some of the songs with some difficulty. I thought they were excellent.

McCartney: I don't remember thinking we played particularly well. But looking back, time has been very kind to us. It was a cool gig.

Lynn: This is kind of gross, but somebody said - and maybe it was my father - that after the concert was over and everybody had left, you know what the smell was in the Coliseum? It was pee from all these girls who got overexcited.

Bill Eppridge: Beatles Concert, Washington Coliseum. Feb 11, 1964

Roe: This was early in the crazy rock-and-roll thing, so nobody really rushed the stage. They were rowdy and very loud, but they stayed in their seats. They hadn't realized you can go berserk at these shows. It was like polite pandemonium.

Albert: There was a large police presence there, but since everybody was so well-behaved, they didn't have much to do except stand around. But people were throwing stuff. Since we were down front, we were getting pelted with flashbulbs the size of golf balls and also jelly beans.

McCartney: We had been asked somewhere what is your favorite sweet, and we said jelly babies. So the fans took to throwing them onstage, and this had reached Washington. In England, they're soft and always in the shape of babies. What do you call them? Jelly beans. They're hard. They stung, and we're playing in the round, and they're being thrown from everywhere. It was very unsettling.

Albert: The show was somewhat disappointing. I mean, it was exciting in one way. Yeah, I got to see them. But there was all this interference - the noise, and all the stuff raining on us.

Roe: After the show was over, I drove back to the Shoreham and went to the Beatles' room, and we had a beer or two and just chatted. But it was hectic. Everybody was trying to do interviews with them. I helped Murray the K get in there and tape an interview with them.

McCartney: I'm sure we got pissed off by not being able to just enjoy ourselves and always having to answer some dumb question about this that and the other - like what toothpaste we were using. We saw ourselves as sophisticated dudes in those days and there was a little bit of irritation at the undue attention we were getting. But at the same time, we asked for it. . . . But the great thing about memories is that the good bits are the ones that tend to remain. The trip to Washington is a very romantic time in my memory.

Staff researcher Magda Jean-Louis contributed to this report.

Bill Eppridge: John Lennon. Train to D.C. Feb 10, 1964

BORN DECEMBER 6: ALFRED EISENSTAEDT


We celebrate and remember Alfred Eisenstaedt on the 112th anniversary of his birth. We were privileged to have first met Eisie in 1986, and he inspired and informed our path as gallerists specializing in photojournalism.

Renowned as the father of modern photojournalism, Alfred Eisenstaedt’s career as a preeminent photojournalist spanned eight decades. Born in West Prussia on December 6, 1898, “Eisie”, as he preferred to be called, began taking photographs in Germany in 1914. As a pioneer in his field, “Eisie” had few rules to follow. Diminutive in stature, he worked with minimal equipment and was known for an aggressive yet invisible style of working. Regarded as an innovator of available light photography, Eisenstaedt dispensed with flash photography early on in order to preserve the ambiance of natural lighting.

He photographed throughout Europe, Africa, and the Middle East until he came to LIFE magazine in 1936. As one of the four original staff photographers for LIFE, “Eisie” covered over 2,500 assignments and created 86 covers for the magazine. Acknowledged as one of the most published photojournalists in the world, he took photographs at the first meeting of Hitler and Mussolini, of Albert Einstein teaching at Princeton, Churchill’s campaign and re-election, children at a puppet theater in Paris, Marilyn Monroe at home, and hundreds of other significant people and events around the world. He was an editor’s dream, and his work had what became known as “Eisie’s eye”. Portrait assignments became one of  his specialties, and in the process he accumulated many little-known secrets about his subjects.

“V-J Day, Times Square, 1945”, in which a sailor, elated because the war is over, kisses a nurse amidst a New York crowd, will perhaps always be Alfred Eisenstaedt’s signature photograph. Acclaimed as one of the Ten Greatest Images of Photojournalism, it reflects “Eisie’s” keen sense of spontaneity. Many books have been written about Eisenstaedt and his career; and he authored several books including: People, Witness To Our Time, Eisenstaedt On Eisenstaedt, and Remembrances. It is unlikely that anyone could have lived during the last 50 years without having been exposed to the photographs of Alfred Eisenstaedt. “Eisie” worked almost ceaselessly until his death in 1995, even photographing President Clinton and Family in 1993.

Alfred Eisenstaedt possessed the unique talent to capture a story in a single, tell-all moment. The photographer’s job, he once wrote, “is to find and catch the storytelling moment.” “Eisie” received awards and recognition far too numerous to list. His photographs have been exhibited in prestigious museums and galleries throughout the world and are in the permanent collections of many important art institutions.

Accolades continued after his death. The Graduate School of Journalism at Columbia University inaugurated the Alfred Eisenstaedt Awards for Photography. The City of New York renamed Grand Street “Alfred Eisenstaedt Place” for the occasion of a retrospective exhibition organized by Sidney S. Monroe in 1998/1999. And in December, 1999 the on-line magazine Digital Journalist named Eisenstaedt “The Photojournalist of the Century”. The career of this legendary photographer was celebrated with the exhibition “The Eye of Eisenstaedt” at Monroe Gallery July 7 – October 1, 2006.


Alfred Eisenstaedt passed away on August 25, 1995 - just 11 days after the 50th anniversary of his iconic photography "VJ-Day in Times Square".  His obituary in The New York Times was titled "Alfred Eisenstaedt, Photographer of the Defining Moment, Is Dead at 96".



Related: Alfred Eisenstaedt Master Photographer, 1983 BBC series on YouTube

New Yorker Magazine: Photo Booth: Alfred Eisenstaedt’s Century in Photographs

In March, 2010, Sidney and Michelle Monroe received the Alfred Eisenstaedt Award for Excellence in Photography "for their passion and dedication to the LIFE photographers".

PHOTO NEW ORLEANS OPENS; STEPHEN WILKES LECTURE DEC. 11

PhotoNOLA is an annual celebration of photography in New Orleans, coordinated by the New Orleans Photo Alliance in partnership with museums, galleries and alternative venues citywide. Showcasing work by photographers near and far, the festival spans the first two weekends of December. It includes exhibitions, workshops, lectures, a portfolio review, gala and more. PhotoNOLA draws hundreds of photography professionals to the city to partake in a variety of educational programs, and reaches broadly into the local community with exhibitions and events that are largely free and open to the public.

PhotoNOLA seeks to enhance dialogue around the medium of photography and further develop New Orleans as a prime destination for photography collectors, enthusiasts and professionals in the field.

The 5th Annual PhotoNOLA will take place December 2-11, 2010. A full schedule of events may be found here.

Photographer Stephen Wilkes will be sharing a selection of his personal work, including his Ellis Island collection, China series and most recent work documenting the Gulf Oil Spill on December 11. His talk will review the evolution of his fine arts career. Stephen’s photographs have been exhibited in galleries and museums across the nation and featured in the New York Times Magazine, Vanity Fair, Life, Time, London Sunday Times, and Travel + Leisure. His photographs can be found on permanent collection at The George Eastman House Intl. Museum of Photography & Film, Library of Congress, Dow Jones Collection, The Museum of Fine Arts Houston, and The Jewish Museum, New York. His most recent monograph, Ellis Island: Ghosts of Freedom was named as one of the 5 Best Photography Books by Time Magazine.

Bio: Stephen Wilkes has been highly recognized for his fine arts photography with three major exhibitions in the last four years. Margaret Loke of the New York Times writes, “Each of the rooms that he photographs with care seems to have its own luxurious color scheme. Mr. Wilkes sees pleasing palettes of impressionism in walls and ceilings of peeling paint.”

Wilkes was recognized as the 2004 Fine Art Photographer of the Year at the Lucie Awards. Wilkes has been recognized by the photographic and design industry with additional awards including the Alfred Eisenstaedt Awards for Magazine Photography, Photographer of the Year, Eastcoast, Adweek Magazine, honors in Graphis Magazine, and the award of excellence in Communication Arts. Wilkes was also featured in Communication Arts in March of 2001.

In 1999 Wilkes completed a personal project photographing the south side of Ellis Island. With his photographs and video work, Wilkes was able to help secure $6 million in funding to restore the south side of the island. The work was exhibited in April of 2001 in a one-person exhibition at The Soho Triad Fine Arts Gallery, in New York, and in 2006 at Monroe Gallery of Photography in Santa Fe. His exhibition on the exploration of the nude form in the jungles and on the lava flows of Hawaii ran in December of 2002; his Bethlehem Steel collection was exhibited in 2005; and his China series in 2008, also at Monroe Gallery of Photography.

Wilkes shoots advertising and fashion campaigns for many of the country’s leading advertising agencies and companies, including Arizona Jeans, California Tourism, New York Stock Exchange American Express, ABB, Honda, and many others. His editorial work has appeared in The New York Times Magazine, Time Magazine, and Sports Illustrated.

He began working on his own at age 15 and attended Syracuse University’s Newhouse School of Communications, graduating in 1980. In 1983, Wilkes opened his studio in Manhattan.

This lecture is generously sponsored by Canon.

Stephen Wilkes Lecture
December 11, 2010
3-5pm
Free and open to the public: Advance registration recommended
The Historic New Orleans Collection
Williams Research Center
410 Chartres Street
New Orleans, LA 70130

Registration here. Event website with more details and map here.

Related: Stephen Wilkes "Central Park: Day Into Night" and interview in Venu Magazine

55 YEARS AGO: ROSA PARKS ARRESTED IN MONTGOMERY, ALABAMA

Steve Schapiro: Rosa Parks, Montgomery, 1965

December 1, 1955 - The birth of the modern American civil rights movement occurred as Rosa Parks was arrested in Montgomery, Alabama, for refusing to give up her seat to a white man and move to the back section of a municipal bus. Her arrest resulted in a year-long boycott of the city bus system by African Americans and led to legal actions ending racial segregation on municipal buses throughout the South. Her quiet courageous act changed America, its view of black people and redirected the course of history.

"I would like to be remembered as a person who wanted to be free... so other people would be also free. "

- Rosa Parks


After her arrest, Parks she called local labor organizer E. D. Nixon to bail her out. The next day, the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., the Rev. Ralph Abernathy, more than 40 other black ministers and a white minister named the Rev. Robert Graetz formed the Montgomery Improvement Association. They organized the bus boycott that began on Dec. 5 and lasted until December 20, 1956, when a U.S. Supreme Court ruling integrated the public transportation system.

More: Official website of Rosa Parks



PHOTOGRAPHY MARKET UPDATE

Earlier this month, we posted our thoughts on the record Fall art auctions, and the corresponding "bargains" for photography by comparison.  Two articles on the photography market have recently been published that are worth noting.

Artprice.com states "Strong demand and an abundant offer: having earned a legitimate place in the history of art, photography has become a dynamic medium with a rapidly maturing and increasingly demanding market. Today the photography medium accounts for 7% of total global auction revenue generated from contemporary art and its auction revenue total has grown 1,300% since the end of the 1990s (+1,270% between 1998 and 2008) in a market traditionally dominated by painting, sculpture and drawing."

Read the full article here.
 
The Financial Times has a very informative article in today's edition, which has already been posted on several photography sites today. In case you missed it, we have it posted below.

A STRONG MARKET FOR PHOTOGRAPHS
By Francis Hodgson
©The Financial Times

Richard Avedon’s “Dovima with Elephants”


When a photograph sells at auction for $1m, the market can surely be considered healthy. The oversize print of Richard Avedon's "Dovima with Elephants", which made €841,000 ($1.12m) at Christie's in Paris last Saturday, was just one of 13 prints in that sale to achieve more than €100,000 (all prices quoted include premium). And the event achieved the still-rare accolade of being a "white-glove sale", one in which every lot finds a buyer.

This came only a matter of days after Andreas Gursky's "Frankfurt" made more than $2m in the contemporary art sales at Sotheby's in New York. It was the second Gursky to top $2m this year, following his "Pyongyang IV", which well exceeded its estimate to reach £1,329,250 in the equivalent sales at Sotheby's in London.

All this gives a pretty clear indication of a market suffering no stress at the top end. High-ticket photographs of the type so often described as "iconic" are continuing to do well, and prices are well on the way to surpassing their pre-recession levels for these items. Such photographs have become strongly branded decorative objects, safe to display in corporate buildings while still retaining a hint of daring.

It was reassuring in that context to see that Christie's did well enough with its October 7 sale in New York devoted to Joseph-Philibert Giraud de Prangey, a connoisseur's daguerreotypist, a brilliant 19th-century pioneer but undeniably obscure. Even the largest daguerreotype is tiny by the showy standards of the giant prints of today; they look fantastic but you can't exactly identify them from across an atrium. Heartening to see that such difficult objects to exhibit can still find good buyers, and the sale's total proceeds of approximately $3m showed a growing awareness of the importance of good early photographs.

The range of general photographic sales, with their more modest prices and less fierce levels of competition between high rollers, remain the domain of specialist collectors; they are still to recover pre-recession confidence levels and there are certainly bargains to be had in the general sector.

A couple of tendencies to note: the Avedon image (a 1955 fashion shoot displaying a Dior dress, and now bought by Dior) echoes a strengthening market for pictures from the magazine world. Philippe Garner of Christie's has nurtured the Gert Elfering collection, over several sales and several years, for example, which has resulted in something above $10m in sales. The most recent auction in the series, this summer, sold 67 prints by the late Jean-Loup Sieff, a magazine photographer if ever there was one, hitherto barely noticed by the market.

A continuing trend is the presence of great photography across different saleroom sectors – the record for Cindy Sherman, for instance, was broken not at a sale devoted to photographs but at Philips' contemporary art sale, also in early November, with her "Untitled #153" (1985) achieving $2,770,500.

Photographs appear in books, too. The saleroom habitat of specialist dealers in photographic books has traditionally been Swann's. But Christie's photobook sales in London now seem a regular fixture in the calendar, and Sotheby's London book department continues to host a remarkable number of interesting early photographic books. Let the buyer beware, certainly. But let the buyer also have a good time. Photographs are never out of season.

See our Art Price Index for photography 1985-2010

PREMIERE OF STEPHEN WILKES' "CENTRAL PARK, DAY INTO NIGHT" AND VENUE MAGAZINE INTERVIEW

Monroe Gallery of Photography is pleased to premiere Stephen Wilkes' "Central Park, Day Into Night"; the latest in his new series of Day Into Night photographs. The just-opened exhibition of  photographs with a winter theme or setting, "'Tis The Season", features a 22 x 34 print of the image, and Monroe Gallery will debut a spectacular 34 x 54 print size at Photo LA January 3 - 16.

   



The current issue of Venu Magazine has an extensive and wide-ranging interview with Stephen Wilkes.

"'Sometimes I do get to places,' once remarked Ansel Adams 'when God's ready to have somebody click the shutter.' That person for our time - who thinks, feels, and "clicks" Ellis Island, the wreckage of Hurricane Katrina, Eric Clapton, Ruth Madoff, Carlos Santana, or day transferring into night in New York - is Stephen Wilkes".

To read the full article and interview, follow this link and scroll to pages 42 - 51.

ART AND MIAMI

As December looms, some of the art-world action heads to Miami, Florida. Art Basel Miami Beach takes place December 2 - 5, 2010.

Below is the official press release. And, here a link to a related article from the New York Times that calls the Fair "that bacchanal disguised as the Western Hemisphere’s most prestigious art fair".


"Art Basel Miami Beach is the most important art show in the United States, a cultural and social highlight for the Americas. As the sister event of Switzerland's Art Basel, the most prestigious art show worldwide for the past 41 years, Art Basel Miami Beach combines an international selection of top galleries with an exciting program of special exhibitions, parties and crossover events featuring music, film, architecture and design. Exhibition sites are located in the city's beautiful Art Deco District, within walking distance of the beach and many hotels.

An exclusive selection of more than 250 leading art galleries from North America, Latin America, Europe, Asia and Africa will exhibit 20th and 21st century artworks by over 2,000 artists. The exhibiting galleries are among the world's most respected art dealers, offering exceptional pieces by both renowned artists and cutting-edge newcomers. Special exhibition sections feature young galleries, performance art, public art projects and video art. The show will be a vital source for art lovers, allowing them to both discover new developments in contemporary art and experience rare museum-calibre artworks.

Top-quality exhibitions in the museums of South Florida and special programs for art collectors and curators also help make the event a special time for encountering art. And every year, a greater number of art collectors, artists, dealers, curators, critics and art enthusiasts from around the world participate in Art Basel Miami Beach - the favorite winter meeting place for the international art world."

Concurrent with Art Basel Miami Beach is Art Miami: "Known as Miami’s premiere anchor fair, Art Miami kicks off the opening day of Art Week — the first week of December when thousands of collectors, dealers, curators, and artists descend upon Miami to experience the string of contemporary and high-energy fairs that the city is known for. Distinguished for its depth, diversity and quality, Art Miami showcases the best in modern and contemporary art from 100 international art galleries and prominent art institutions."

Both Fairs include photography, and there are also several photography exhibits taking place throughout Miami during the run of the fairs. We'll be posting noteworthy developments on our Twitter feed.


Next: The 20th Anniversary Edition of Photo LA, January 13  - 16, 2011.