Date: Fri 20-Nov-1998

Publication: Ant

Author: CAROLL

Quick Words:

Photography

Full Text:

New York Photography Fair

(with 13 cuts)

By Susan and Al Bagdade

NEW YORK CITY -- Sanford Smith's inaugural New York Photography Fair opened

during an exceptionally busy week of antiques shows in New York City.

Forty-three fine art photography dealers from the United States and Europe set

up in the Puck Building in SoHo, the heart of New York's art district, on

October 16-18.

Outstanding examples of modernist masters, as well as emerging contemporary

artists of the Twentieth Century, were available along with fine

daguerreotypes, albumen prints, and salt prints from the Nineteenth Century.

Attendance was steady during the show, and most exhibitors were pleased with

the outcome.

According to Smith, "we have always felt that New York City has a need for a

major fine art photography event in the fall art season since there has never

been an important photography show in the fall. We intend to establish The New

York Photography Fair as a major international event and plan to increase the

number of exhibitors by next year's fair." This show brings together

established dealers exhibiting the major names in photography, as well as

emerging galleries with cutting edge contemporary material.

In recent years there has been much greater interest in the photography

market. Photography auctions have reported some record breaking sales, as well

as the tremendous increase in buying and selling photographs via the Internet.

Photography has become more respected as part of the larger art market and has

generated a lot of interest with the buying public.

Carol Ehlers Gallery from Chicago, Ill., experienced strong interest from

buyers with the Twentieth Century masters that it displayed by photographers

such as Walker Evans, Harry Callahan, Eugene Atget, Garry Winogrand, Bill

Christenberry, Terry Evans, and Ruth Thorne-Thomsen. We noted a Frederick

Somer vintage silver gelatin print from 1959 entitled "Paracelsus" for

$25,000. A Walker Evans, untitled New York City view, circa 1929-30, was

$7,500.

The Julie Saul Gallery from New York City deals in contemporary photography at

her gallery at 560 Broadway. It does two or three shows a year. A Sally

Apfelbaum "Bethesda Fountain #1" from 1998 was $3,000; David Leventhal's

"Black Magic" was $4,300.

From San Francisco, Calif., Scott Nichols Gallery featured Nineteenth and

Twentieth Century vintage and contemporary photographs and portfolios. A

Berenice Abbot "Trinity Church/Wall Street" dating circa 1936 was $3,800, and

a Brett Weston "Holland Canal" was $10,000.

New York's Michael Werner Gallery was showing the work of one photographer,

Augustina von Nagel, from Cologne, Germany. She started drawing in 1975;

photography became her media in 1995.

WM Fine Art, from New York City, reported doing well with artists who are

former painters and now work in photography. Photographs by Louis Brawley were

selling well at the fair. This gallery is now branching out to include

photography.

Peter Fetterman Gallery from Santa Monica, Calif., said there was a lot of

interest in works by Keith Carter and Robert Styrus. Chicago's Lallak & Tom

gallery reported selling well with works by David Seltzer, Nana Watanabe,

Joyce Tenneson, and Jock Sturges. Solomon Fine Art from Ridgway, Colo.,

featured works by Man Ray such as "When Things Dream" 1920-34 for $750, and

"Men Before the Mirror" 1920-34 for $500.

Charles Schwartz from New York City specializes in fine and unusual Nineteenth

and Twentieth Century paper and cased photographs including such subjects as

rare ethnographic works, American West, Asian, sports, and New York City. Ten

tintypes in a tramp art frame, dating circa 1870s, called "Friends" was tagged

$700. E.B. Snell's "Bob Tail, Cheyenne Indian Chief" from 1903 was a vintage

albumen print cabinet card mounted in a hand painted frame for $800.

Photographs of Louise Weber, who was the model for Toulouse Lautrec

lithographs of La Goulue from J. Kuhn, Paris, were $1,000 and $1,500.

The James Danziger Gallery from New York City reported positive response to a

lot of their works. There was interest in Annie Leibovitz, Henri

Cartier-Bresson, Cecil Beaton, and the earliest known surfing photographs by

Don James for $850 each. Leibovitz's "Michael Jordan, #23 earring New York

City 1991" was $2,000, and her "Kate Winslet" New York City, 1995 was $3,000.

Henri Cartier-Bresson's "Tivoli, Italy 1933" was $3,000 as was his "Easter

Sunday in Harlem" New York, 1947.