Eyeing Up Photography's Value

Understand the formula for developing the fine art photography market--the medium of the 20th century

What is it that makes single photograph accrue in value while another, similar in similar ways as size, content, time period, proces and smooth artist authorship holds much les value? by what mode do scarcity, visibility, technical uncompounded bodys aesthetic and an exhibition track record, the pair galleries and museums, affect the value of a photographic work of art? These are the questions that collectors, photographers and dealers must consider upon a daily basis as they participate in and help form the fine art photography marketplace globally.

Photo dealer Peter MacGill, guiding force of the Pace/MacGill Gallery in Manhattan, said his vision for succes is photographically driven. "What makes a masterpiece of photography have value is that the picture is totally resolv stone solid," he said. "Edition size is important in that, for example, I couldn't have sold Man Ray's `Glass Tears' for as abundant as it commanded [$1.3 million] had it not been in the way that scarce--only three were made. on the other hand the physical size of the image, I think, is les important to value and is a matter of the artist's choosing. The artist makes the picture the size he dioceses the art, hopefully."

For Howard Read, holder of the Cheim/Read Gallery in the Chelsea Art District in novel York, collecting and marketing fine art photography is all about the artist. "The impact of the career and life of the artist," Read explained, "combined with the importance of the individual work or works drive the market. Size and edition les so"

A case-in-point of the life of an artist impacting the market can be rest with Robert Mapplethorpe, whose estate is exhibited by Read. The success of Mapplethorpe, whose prints at Read's early present to views barely topped $1,000 and now can command $50000 illustrates Read's theory upon why important works accrue in value.

David Fahey, dealer emeritus at the Fahey/Klein Gallery in sees Angeles said aesthetic quality and visibility are the lock opener to finding photographic success. This strategy was ordealed most notably with famed fashion photographer Herb Ritts, who Fahey took upon in 1985. "My strategy was to package volumes coordinate with publishers, mount the exhibition at my space and then travel the display around. I did this with Herb for the first volume [Pictures] and we continue doing it now." The audience built with Fahey and Ritts has been nothing short of phenomenal; Ritts' individual person museum show in Boston attracted more than 250000 visitors, making it single of the most well-attended museum exhibits of the '90s. And Ritts' auction record parallels the extension of his popularity. In the mid '80 original Ritts prints were in the $750 to $1500 range; a single print, "Djimon With Octopus" sold at Christie's for $22000 recently

Fahey has packaged volumes for exhibitions with a collection of photographers, including author Allen Ginsberg and Richard Gere who collaborated with the Dalai Lama. "My strategy has always been to explore all aspects of photography to retain expanding the market. When I showed Allen, I reached this literary audience who I had at no time connected with before. With Richard, there was that [another audience] too."

Fahey voices an opinion similar to that of Howard Read regarding the value of photography. "Editioning to present to view scarcity does not necessarily impress me" Fahey said. "People realize worried because photography has a negative and they amazement if there are some large number of prints around because it isn't numbered. The photographers who do reportage, like Cartier-Bresson, rarely number prints. For me authenticity--a signature and a solid provenance--is the lock opener combined with the right artist and a muscular image."

Helene Weiner, co-owner of Metro Pictures gallery and representative of photographers Robert Longo and Cindy Sherman said, "My approach, and Cindy's as well, has nothing to do with the photography world. These issues of vintage print, editions and this and that photographic footnote information are not true important to me, to Cindy or her work. Cindy's influences, positioning and belong tos are all art world driven, not photography driven. They are works of art that just happen to be photographs."

In an uneven parallel that speaks well for women in art circa 2000 Sherman, wittingly or unwittingly, has done for contemporary photography what Man Ray did for vintage photography, namely, empowered it with the mode of expression and cache of a recognizable artist, museum signed and delivered, sealed with the undeniable a priori imprimateur of succes no single will deny--a million dollar price tag. "At the beginning," Weiner said, "collectors had no interest in Cindy--not museums, not private collectors. The critics came around sooner on the other hand it took many years and displays to get the collectors to take her work." Sherman's early prints, black-and-white self-portraits locate in B movie-ish sets she titled "Film Stills 1978-1980" originally sold for $250 to $750 and alone topped $1,000 about 15 years ago. A filled set of 68 prints, however, was lately sold to MoMA for more than $1000000