For much of the past year, in my rounds through gallery shows and art fairs, I have anecdotally heard rumbles about slowing demand for photography, about much of photography being “out” at the moment, and other muted tales of woe, but without looking at the private sales books of gallery owners, it’s difficult to get a feel for just how much of a slowdown was actually occurring, and whether it was driven by broad economic malaise or something more intrinsic to the medium. And as the year passed, in tracking the auction data from sale to sale, I had an ... Read more at Collector Daily.

The photography lots included the contemporary art sales at Christie’s in London last week generally met expectations. The top lot Andreas Gursky print sold within its estimate range, and the overall Buy-In rate for photography came in below 12%, leading to Total Sales Proceeds for photography (of roughly £735K) that tallied up near the top end of the aggregate pre-sale estimate range.... Read more at Collector Daily.

The news from the sale of the collection of former Microsoft founder Paul Allen last week at Christie’s have been all over the headlines, with the $1.5B of proceeds from the Evening sale alone and the $100M+ outcomes for the paintings by Seurat, Gauguin, Cezanne, Klimt, and Van Gogh garnering most of the attention. But for the photography market, the result for the Edward Steichen 1904 print of the Flatiron building was quite a bit more intriguing. Against an estimate of $2M-3M, the print soared to an outcome of $11.84M, taking second place on the all time list of highest ... Read more at Collector Daily.

JTF (just the facts): A total of 14 color photographic works, generally framed in light wood and unmatted, and hung against white walls in a series of three gallery spaces and the entry area. The following works are included in the show: 10 inkjet print and Diasec, 2018, 2020, 2021, 2022, sized roughly 120×81, 120×93, 120×94, 80×161, 84×160, 94×133, 94×161, 94×181 inches, in editions of 6 1 inkjet print, 2020, sized roughly 30×25 inches, in an edition of 12 1 inkjet print diptych, 2020, each sized roughly 30×25 inches, in an edition of 12 1 chromogenic print, 2020, sized roughly ... Read more at Collector Daily.

While there were no photography lots included in any of the evening sales at Christie’s in London last week (20th/21st Century: Shanghai Evening, 20th/21st Century: London Evening, and The Art of the Surreal Evening), the photo works on offer in the Post-War and Contemporary Art Day Sale performed quite well. The top lot Andreas Gursky image found a buyer within its range, and a recent Anne Collier print more than quadrupled its high estimate. With just a few passed photo lots, the Total Sales Proceeds for photography (of roughly £530K) came in just above the top end of the aggregate pre-sale ... Read more at Collector Daily.

Large scale German photography has gone through a soft patch of late, so it was interesting to see an Andreas Gurksy stock exchange image jump back up into view at Sotheby’s recent Contemporary Art auctions in London, with a sale just under £500K. But the other (actually higher estimated) Gursky print also on offer didn’t sell, which dampened the overall results. With just nine lots of photography available across the two sales, a nearly 45% Buy-In rate for photography made the results more susceptible to lumpy swings, and when the dust settled, the Total Sale Proceeds for photography (of roughly ... Read more at Collector Daily.

It was an uneventful run for the photography included in Phillips’ 20th Century & Contemporary Art sales in New York last week. With no photography lots in the Evening sale, most of the photo lots were relegated to the Afternoon session, where the top lot Andreas Gursky Pyongyang II diptych found a buyer within its estimate range. With a photographic Buy-In rate near 39% and no positive surprises, the Total Sale Proceeds for photography (of just under $1M) fell below the low end of the aggregate pre-sale estimate range.... Read more at Collector Daily.

In 2019, we reported the results from 51 auctions from around the world, providing data on a wide range of specialist photography and photobook sales as well as contemporary art auctions that included a significant percentage of photographic lots. In the slideshow below, the top ten highest priced photography lots sold at auction in 2019 are shown in descending price order, with image details, pre-sale estimates, realized prices, and venues/dates as background (images courtesy of Phillips, Sotheby’s, Christie’s, and Grisebach, in varying sizes). While it is altogether possible that there were photographs (or sets of photographs) in other secondary auctions that ... Read more at Collector Daily.

The photography lots at Christie’s recent Post War and Contemporary Art auctions in London generally met expectations. While the top lot Andreas Gursky print sold below its estimate range, the Buy-In rate for photography was just over 15%. With a couple of positive surprises, the Total Sales Proceeds for photography covered the low end of the aggregate pre-sale estimate range.... Read more at Collector Daily.