NEW YORK, NY.- A Margaret Bourke-White gelatin silver print, At the Time of the Louisville Flood, Kentucky, 1937, made for "Life magazine - and probably the most famous work of Bourke-White's career - achieved $161,000 and flew past a $10,000-15,000 estimate at
Bonhams spring auction of Fine Photographs. The sale took place on April 29 at the Bonhams New York salesroom and grossed $970,650.
The sales leading print and another by Bourke-White, Fort Peck Dam, Montana, 1936, which graced the cover of "Life in 1936, both achieved new international auction records. The latter brought $149,000, past a $7,000-9,000 estimate.
The auction at Bonhams, the third largest international fine art auction house, saw another lot soar far past its estimate as well. Eadweard Muybridge's "Selected plates, from Animal Locomotion," 1871-1885, that comprised 236 collotype plates from "Animal Locomotion, An Electro-Photographic Investigation of Consecutive Phases of Animal Movement, 1887, achieved $151,400, past a $40,000-60,000 estimate. The full work included 781 plates that described, in sequential frames, diverse characteristics and activities undertaken by human beings and animals. This grouping was the most significant to be offered in recent auction history.
Another highlight of animal/wildlife photography was a Peter Beard gelatin silver print of "Orphaned Cheetah Cubs in Mweiga nr. Nyeri, Kenya," 1968, which brought $31,250.
Notable offerings also included Ansel Adams gelatin silver prints of "Moonrise, Half Dome, Yosemite Valley," 1960, which brought $33,750 and "The Grand Tetons and the Snake River, Grand Teton National Park, Wyoming," 1942, which sold for $25,000.
Additionally of note, a gelatin silver print by Henri Cartier-Bresson of Rue Mouffetard, Paris, 1954, brought $27,500 and a Hiroshi Sugimoto gelatin silver print of "Beacon, New York, 1979, took in $21,250.
The Director of Prints & Photographs at Bonhams, Judith Eurich, commented of the sale "The overall results of the sale were very good, and two vintage Margaret-Bourke White photographs reached new international auction records."