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.

Against the backdrop of a relatively weak auction season for photography, the Photographs sale last week at Phillips in New York generally met expectations, which might be deemed a success in this environment. The top lot William Eggleston tricycle found a buyer within its estimate range, and although the overall Buy-In rate creeped up over 25%, a number of positive surprises helped to balance the numbers. In the end, the Total Sale Proceeds (of roughly $4.5M) came in just above the low end of the aggregate pre-sale estimate range.... Read more at Collector Daily.

JTF (just the facts): A total of 29 large scale color photographs, framed in white and unmatted, and hung against white walls in a series of five connected gallery spaces. All of the works are pigment prints, made c1970-1973 and printed recently. Physical sizes are roughly 45×65 inches (or the reverse), with a few inches of variation between images, and all of the prints are available in editions of 5+2AP. (Installation shots below.) A comprehensive 3-volume monograph of this body of work was published in 2021 by Steidl (here). Clothbound hardcover volumes in slipcase, 31.5 x 32 cm, 652 pages, ... Read more at Collector Daily.

JTF (just the facts): A group show containing a total of 60 photographs and photobooks by 34 artists, variously framed and matted, and hung against white and yellow walls in a series of rooms on the second floor of the museum. All of the works on view are recent acquisitions/gifts or part of the museum’s permanent collection. The following works are included in the show: Roger Mayne: 1 gelatin silver print, 1956 Saul Steinberg: 1 gelatin silver print with applied media, 1950 John Cohen: 1 gelatin silver print, 1959 Don McCullin: 1 gelatin silver print, 1965 Walker Evans: 1 gelatin ... Read more at Collector Daily.

Weakness among the top lots at the recent online Photographs sale at Sotheby’s in London ultimately dampened the overall results. The top lot Man Ray print failed to sell, as did two other high priced offerings (from Hans Bellmer and Wolfgang Tillmans), and with just a few low priced positive surprises on hand to balance the missing proceeds, the tally just didn’t add up. In the end, the Total Sale Proceeds came in at roughly £675K, below the low end of the aggregate pre-sale estimate range.... Read more at Collector Daily.

With more than 400 lots on offer, the Fine Photographs sale at Swann last week was a high volume affair. A horizontal variant of Dorothea Lange’s Migrant Mother took the top lot honors, and with a total of 17 positive surprises to help amplify the momentum, the Total Sale Proceeds (of roughly $1.4M) came in above the low end of the aggregate pre-sale estimate range.... Read more at Collector Daily.

The summary statistics from the Photographie sale at Grisebach in Berlin last week would have us believe that nothing much out of the ordinary occurred at this sale. The overall Buy-In rate topped 42%, the top lot found a buyer within its estimate range, and the Total Sale Proceeds (of roughly €575K) came in just above the low end of the aggregate pre-sale estimate range. Where things got interesting was in what we call the “positive surprises”. These are the lots that for some reason perform much better than expected, doubling (or more) their high estimate. In this sale, while the ... Read more at Collector Daily.

The Photographs sale at Bonhams in New York earlier this week (which took place online) provided another data point on the health of the recovering secondary market for photography. In this case, the results offered a few new insights. First, when the reserves are kept firm, the weakness in the market manifests itself in a lot of passed lots, especially for lesser material. Here, that tallied up to an overall Buy-In rate of over 55%. And second, higher priced lots, again particularly those works that are less significant, continue to suffer from softness. Here, the top tier lots both passed, ... Read more at Collector Daily.

As more in-person auctions shift to quarantine friendly online-only affairs, we will soon have more data about what is really happening to the secondary market for photography during the pandemic. At WestLicht in Vienna last week, we saw solid sell through (with an overall Buy-In rate less than 30%), but soft prices (with only 28% of lots finding buyers in or above their estimate ranges) – so this single data point tells us the market is functioning and still liquid, but demand is weaker, driving prices down. But since there were no top price tier lots in this sale, these ... Read more at Collector Daily.