NEW YORK, NY.- Sotheby’s shared highlights from their fall auctions of important Photographs in New York. Offering over 200 exceptional works spanning the 19th through the 21st-centuries, their two sales on 3 October celebrate the expressive breadth of the medium, with works estimated from $1,000 to $500,000.

This season’s Photographs auction features masterpieces of 20th-century European Modernism by Aleksandr Rodchenko and László Moholy-Nagy; iconic American images by Edward Weston, Robert Frank, and Walker Evans; a selection of celebrity portraiture and nude subjects by Herb Ritts; and pioneering color photography by Irving Penn, Joel Meyerowitz, Stephen Shore, and Saul Leiter.

Our second annual Contemporary Photographs auction offers a wide array of photographs made in the 20th and 21st-centuries, including cameraless photographs by Wolfgang Tillmans, works by pioneering female photographers Carrie Mae Weems, Marina Abramović, Ana Mendieta, and Jemima Stehli that fearlessly address racial and gender issues, and entrancing mural-sized photographs by Richard Misrach, Massimo Vitali, and Andreas Gursky. Boundary-pushing photographs from the 1980s are represented by Ellen Carey, Robert Heinecken, and three works by East Village icon Jimmy De Sana.

Concurrent with these auctions, Sotheby’s will present a retrospective selling exhibition of works by celebrated visual artist and photographer Michael Dweck. Michael Dweck: 15 Years commemorates the fifteen year anniversary of the artist’s last exhibition at Sotheby’s, and will showcase the four major bodies of work of the photographer’s career thus far.

PHOTOGRAPHS
Auction 3 October, 2:00pm EST
The sale is led by Aleksandr Rodchenko’s Girl with a Leica (Devushka S Leikoi) (estimate $300/500,000), a signed, exhibition-sized print of one of the photographer’s most enduring images, taken circa 1932-34. An adventurous composition of rhythmic lines, abstract patterns, and extreme angles, Girl with a Leica embodies the rigorous photographic Modernism that Rodchenko pioneered. Originally from the collection of the photographer and his wife Varvara Stepanova, it is believed that no other large early print of this image has been offered at auction.

Modernism and Constructivism are further represented by László Moholy-Nagy’s dynamic Untitled (Photogram with Circular Shapes and Diagonal Line) (estimate $120/180,000), a unique photogram made in the early 1920s shortly after the photographer began experimenting with the cameraless process. Other important examples of 20th-century European photography include Pierre Dubreuil’s 'Mœurs Breugheliennes' (Les Moules) (estimate $30/50,000), a vintage print of Josef Koudelka’s Zehra (Gypsy Family) (estimate $25/35,000), and Anton Giulio Bragaglia’s and Arturo Bragaglia’s futurist masterpiece Le Rose (estimate $40/60,000).

American modernism is well-represented by several early prints by Edward Weston, including his iconic Nude on Sand (estimate $70/100,000), Pepper No. 14 (estimate $70/100,000), and ‘Wind Erosion Dunes at Oceano, California' (estimate $100/150,000), as well as an outstanding print of ‘Cement Worker’s Glove’ (estimate $15,000/25,000). Other significant photographs by Frederick Sommer, Ansel Adams, Walker Evans, and Paul Caponigro are also included.

Important 19th-century offerings include a group of 66 salt prints from the rare English printing of Egypt, Nubia, Palestine and Syria (estimate $60/80,000), Maxime Du Camp’s seminal survey of the Near East’s archeological sites taken between 1949 and 1951 on a trip with author Gustave Flaubert. Also featured is a rare quarter-plate daguerreotype of P. T. Barnum by Thomas Faris (estimate $20/30,000), the second daguerreotype of the famed showman to appear at auction in 25 years.

Among the highlights of fashion photography is Irving Penn’s 'Caviar, New York, Jan 18, 2001' (estimate $100/150,000), a delectable bird’s-eye view of the luxury food, originally commissioned for the March 2001 issue of Vogue. This photograph comes originally from the noted collection of Lars Hall (1938-2018), a longtime friend of Penn, who presented the photographer’s work in an early exhibition in Stockholm. A print of Caviar has never before been offered at auction. Also of note is a superb group of 10 lots by Herb Ritts, led by the iconic 'Stephanie, Cindy, Christy, Tatjana, Naomi' (estimate $60/90,000) and also includes portraits of Tina Turner, Denzel Washington, Michelle Pfeiffer, Richard Gere, and Kate Moss.

CONTEMPORARY PHOTOGRAPHS
Auction 3 October, 11:00am EST
Leading the auction is Andreas Gursky’s arresting panorama Gardasee (estimate $80/120,000), an important early example in the artist’s dramatic landscape pantheon. Gardasee marks the photographer’s transition from his straight landscape photography made with a large-format camera to the large-scale, digitally-altered imagery of his mature oeuvre. The Düsseldorf School is further represented by several monumental architectural studies by Thomas Ruff, Frank Thiel, and Candida Höfer, as well as a mural-sized landscape by Wim Wenders.

Cameraless photography is well-represented in the ingenious ‘Full Circle’ (estimate $25/35,000) by Susan Derges and Wolfgang Tillmans’ vibrant ‘mental picture #65’ (estimate $50/70,000), created by placing colored string lights on the light sensitive photographic paper. Although the human brain naturally struggles to find reason and narrative within an abstract image, Tillmans’ intention is simply that color and shape be used as a mode of expression, devoid of agenda.

MICHAEL DWECK: 15 YEARS
ON VIEW 29 SEPTEMBER – 2 OCTOBER
In 2003, Sotheby’s presented a large exhibition of photographs by Michael Dweck, the first such event for the photographer. The Sotheby’s exhibition showcased Dweck’s major body of work celebrating the local fishing and surfing subculture of Montauk, New York. Dweck's profound affection for the Ditch Plains community and his adept technical skill led to the publication of his first monograph, The End: Montauk, N. Y., long since out of print. Fifteen years after the first exhibition, Sotheby’s will again present the photographs of Michael Dweck in a retrospective selling exhibition, with works available for immediate private sale. In addition, two standout works by the artist, Sonya, Poles (Montauk) (estimate $50/70,000) and The Duke’s Mermaid (from Sculptural Forms) (estimate $40/60,000) will be featured in the Contemporary Photographs auction.