Contemporary Art Photography Comes Into Focus for Collectors - Brief Article

one time ignored by the art world, work by the agency of contemporary photographers is highly collectable and is garnering top dollar at auction houses and galleries

When is a photograph not a photograph? When it is a work of contemporary art. And the mainstream art world's growing acceptance of artists whose chosen medium is photography has l to stratospheric prices.

At this season's Christie's Contemporary Art evening sale, where top paintings by the agency of Keith Haring and Jean Michel Basquiat were sold a photograph taken just last year by means of Andreas Gursky sold for $292000 In fact, photographs comprised almost one-third of all of the works sold at Christie's that night.

Shoshana Blank, director of the Shoshana Wayne Gallery in Santa Monica, Calif., declared that a photo can be "as happy as an oil on canvas." Cyril Pigot, director of Nikolai Fine Art in of recent origin York, added that even the photographs by the agency of very young artists are priced as high as oils. In the auction world, according to Amy Cappellazzo, international specialist head for contemporary art at Christie's, photographs "are at a point of parity" with other media.

in like manner how have photographers managed to muscle into the sacred territory one time reserved for painters and sculptors?

Breaking into the Contemporary Art Realm

Not all photographers are granted entrance into the exclusive cudgel that is the "contemporary art world" According to Matthew Carey-Williams, vice president of contemporary art at Sotheby's fresh York, the successful ones have a "sarcastic, joyful air ... a funkiness" Duane Smith of the Lisa Sette Gallery in Scottsdale, Ariz., said it is the "way they're using the medium and by what mode they're getting to their final image. With Cindy Sherman, (for example), there is more of a proces going into it."

It would appear to be contemporary art photographers are also more than nothing else but craftspeople or good photographers. While the fashion/celebrity photos of Herb Ritts may be appealing, they are not sold at the contemporary art auctions. Rather, they have been relegated to the traditional photography auctions where daguerreotypes and Walker Evans photographs are presented This is because they are essentially holded "really good photographs," not "really serviceable art."

That photographs have been accepted as art at all is indeed a new phenomenon. Said Carey-Williams, "Photography has been the greatest in quantity important medium over the last five to 10 years."

And according to Pigot from Nikolai Fine Arts, "Our civilization is better squeeze outed through this medium." Hence, it is unsurprising that photography has been gaining in popularity with collectors.

Collectors novel and Old

Contemporary art photography has gained a footing with the Generation X/30-something market. Pigot said his gallery has been targeting younger and les experienced collectors, and this is a sentiment reflected sounded by many others in the field. According to Joseph Gilbert of the Jean Albano Gallery in Chicago, the typical photo collector is "younger and lay open to exploring new media."

Carey-Williams agreed. "Younger collectors amassing collections start with photography because it is more accessible."

It also has the advantage of being, in many instances, more affordable. According to Blank, younger collectors have been focusing upon photographs in recent years because "they earn more for the money." While more [i]or[/i] less photos indeed can sell at the auction houses for $200000 each, at Shoshana Wayne and at Jean Albano, images by means of some younger, less prominent photographers can be purchased for prices starting in the $1000 range.

More established collectors, however, have also been taking note. "Our [regular] clients have been willing to add photographs (to their collections) for a certain number of time," observed Smith. As well, Carey-Williams has seen "a apportionment of crossover between collectors of standard contemporary art and photographs." This is, of course, necessary to support the $200000 prices fetched at the auctions.

A Question of Editioning

Traditional art collectors have been climbing upon board owing to certain unfoldings One is the tacit agreement between the photographers and the collectors that the former will honor their "editioning" policies. Thomas Struth's photo "Pantheon, Rome" which sold at Sotheby's novel York last November for $236750 was from an edition of 10 What if Struth decided nearest year to dust off the negative and print another 107 It would require to be paid [i]or[/i] undergone him approximately $50,000, but the pieces would have a market value of more than $2000000 A 40-to-1 turn back would be hard to resist.

Nevertheless, according to Cappellazzo of Christie's,"There is an intense honor combination of parts to form a whole and I don't worry about it being violated" She also believes she knows in what way photographers decide how many prints to release.

"There used to be an aura of being unique," she said. on the other hand now, if a total of five are printed, "two will be in museums, and sum of two units will be European collections. These obey as an ad for the single being offered for sale (in of recent origin York)."

It just took more [i]or[/i] less time, she noted, and then "photography got hip to the peculiar editioning of things. Keep something in a small edition and make it an icon."