BEVERLY, MASS.- Kaminski Auctions establishes a new photography department and announces it's first sale to be held May 16th, at 6:00pm at their auction gallery, 117 Elliott Street, Beverly, Massachusetts.
Eight images by the iconic photographer and photojournalist Arthur Fellig (June 1899-December 1968) better known as Weegee are the feature lots. Famous for his stark, black and white images of urban life in the 1940's, his work was a realistic journal of crime, suffering, and the streets of New York City. Weegee worked in film as well, with such notable directors as Stanley Kubrick. His images are highly sought after, and are found in the photography collections of the most prestigious museums in the country including the Getty museum and MOMA.
20th Century photography includes entries by Eliot Porter, Man Ray, and A.P. Rosenthal of raising the flag at Iwo Jima. There is also a large lot of photographs of Fidel Castro, and his family at leisure, once owned by fellow revolutionary Argentina Estevez. Other highlights include a Herb Ritz photograph of Denzel Washington, signed by the actor and a botanical nautilus attributed to Imogen Cunningham.
Consigned by the family of a scientist, who worked on the atom bomb, is a rare and important Manhattan Project collection of photography, letters, schematics, negatives and aerial shots of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan, images of the 1946 Bikini Atoll test, as well as a collection of Fritz Goro photographs, science photographer for Life magazine.
Vintage photographs include a wonderful and extremely rare whole plate Dag attributed to Boston photographer John A. Whipple, with Governor of Massachusetts, George S. Boutwell, 20th Governor of Massachusetts, presiding over important legislation at the Massachusetts Senate Convention. Boutwell also served in Congress representing Massachusetts during the Civil War. The image is in a black thermoplastic frame.
Other interesting lots are a half plate ambrotype of Niagara Falls by Babbitt in a scarce gutta percha case and a quarter plate ambrotype in a gutta percha case of two images of Nelson Geary, Union Solider from New Jersey. The lot includes his Honorable Discharge, military records, bibles, and two books he carried with him, along with his cemetery plot receipt.
Other notable dags include a half plate of Francis Wayland, DD, former president of Brown University with supporting documents from Harper’s Weekly.
Sale will include many dags by and attributed to Southworth and Hawes, M.A. Root, J. Black, Anson and A.P. Hart. Dags also include occupationals, prominent people, a Supreme Court justice, interesting poetic portraits, along with many tinted dags and group lots.
