Abacus
Antique Dealers: Art Photography’s Developing
Image
Art
photography has finally come into its own as a ‘fine
art’, having long been overshadowed by an old-world
artistic focus on painting and sculpture. Swelling
ranks of new collectors are aggressively acquiring
photographs, from vintage photos to cutting-edge digital
images, setting new auction records annually and continually
redefining fine art. But photography’s fight
for acceptance in the modern art world has been a
long time in coming.
Visions
of the world have been preserved for posterity since
1839 via a process called photography. That year,
Louis Daguerre and William Henry Fox Talbot discovered
that an image would remain on a metal plate or piece
of paper after allowing sunlight to react with the
light-sensitive chemical qualities of silver. This
discovery led to further development that eventually
brought modern photography to life.
Photography’s
advocates envisioned a new art medium able to reproduce
the subject matter in exact detail. But photographers
and their new-age equipment were swiftly put to utilitarian
and commercial use, providing a rapid and inexpensive
means of recording history through press photographs,
family pictures and criminal evidence.
Throughout
the 20th century, lenses, apertures, speed and camera
construction became the variables that created a photographer’s
distinctive style. New photographic processes allowed
more aesthetic experimentation as the century progressed.
Technological advances in camera equipment merged
with creative influences and styles to create new
possibilities for photographic artists.
Museums
and fine art galleries in the mid-1900s were reluctant
to place photography on equal par with painting and
sculpture, as it was considered a mechanical procedure
and was relegated to the Industrial sections of expositions.
Although people understood that photography was an
art of some kind, it wasn’t considered collectible
and most serious photographers made their living selling
reproduction rights for their pictures to newspapers
and major corporations.
But
changes in art appreciation led to the growth of art
photography by the late 1970s. Photographers learned
the tricks of modern art from their counterparts in
the traditional arts and set about building a body
of work that was unlike anything from the past. Photographers
such as Ansel Adams, Nan Goldin and Adam Fuss continually
surprised art critics with vision and innovation in
works over the course of the 20th century.
By
the end of the 1980s, photographers found themselves
increasingly welcome at gallery showings and upscale
museums. The 1990s marked a period of renewal for
art photographers as their work moved from museums
into popular culture. Posters, calendars and magazines
were responsible for many collectors’ first look
at works by Adams and Annie Liebovitz. But this cursory
appreciation grew as buyers interested in the varying
aesthetics of photography began to spend money on
original works.
Hype
for contemporary photography in 2000 seems to be at
a peak. A spring auction at Sotheby’s netted
double the estimates for most of Paul Strand’s
work. But the “classics,” including work
by Alfred Stieglitz, Charles Sheeler and Andre Kertesz,
are still solid investments. The top price for a work
of photography was paid in October 1999 at Sotheby’s
London for a nineteenth century photograph: Gustave
Le Gray’s “Grande Vague-Sete” sold
for US$840,500.
Established
photographers of the twentieth century are also consistently
good investments. Photos by Tracey Moffat, Vik Muniz
and Sally Mann are among the most highly valued, selling
for $5000 to $20,000, but there is also an increasing
number of talented photographers on the rise whose
work sells for $500 to $5000.
It
is difficult to imagine the world without photographic
art. After a century and a half of development, the
medium has finally taken steps towards acceptance
as fine art as photographs find a home in museums
and galleries. And in a market build on reputation
and demand, this once utilitarian art form stands
to command ever-higher prices from collectors.
