Celebrity and Fashion Photography

Andrew Thorncraft of the Financial Times reports on photography collecting. Mentioning a recent sale held at Christie's, NY, calling it the most "superficially glamorous auction of the year." The FT article relates that fashion and celebrity photography is a growing genre for collectors and is quietly replacing early photography collecting in popularity. Over the last 20 years as the earliest examples of quality photographs become increasingly rare, collectors and collecting tastes have begun to change.

The article states how fashion and celebrity photography has become increaslingly popular, although it was not always considered a true art form. Thorncraft states Prices have fallen in the past few months but fashion remains the collecting phenomenon of the photographic market in the last two decades. When Hamiltons, the London gallery, opened in 1984 to promote fashion photography it was regarded as a vulgar upstart, but its timing was spot on: today it is the UK's leading dealer in the field.

Thorncraft reports that over the past decade or two fashion and celebrity photography collecting became more serious, Prices rose steadily as fresh collectors, usually newly enriched men in their 30s and 40s, saw photographs as the perfect, accessible, art form with which to decorate their loft apartments and minimalist homes. Entering the market was comparatively cheap. In the early 1980s, "Henrietta", perhaps the most famous image from Helmut Newton's life-size "Big Nudes" series, was being offered at Hamiltons for $5,000; this year it was changing hands for $800,000. Even more valuable is "Sie Kommen", Newton's celebrated montage for Vogue of top models posed naked and dressed, which has sold privately for $2m.

As appraisers we look at trends and what is popular and collectible in the market place. The Financial Times articles points out that there is a change in photography collecting, from the 19th century and early 20th century images to more contemporary images of celebrities and fashion photography. Throncraft states in his last paragraph For some, fashion photography is a distraction. "It is a worry when prices rise so precipitously. It becomes a fad rather than a real recognition of the importance of the objects," says Chris Mahoney of Sotheby's, which prefers to take a more scholarly approach.

There is still a ways to go for fashion and celebrity photography to be fully accepted by many connoisseurs and collectors. Yet, from an appraiser's perspective, given the recent sales and prices, contemporary and modern photography certainly is a certainly a serious area of collecting and needs to be recognized as such.

Although like most other fine and decorative art markets, the prices have recently fallen due to the overall economic concerns.

I highly recommend all readers of the AW Blog take the time to read the FT article. Click HERE to read. Also, there will be an excellent article on photography by Denise Levy in the 2009 edition of the Journal for Advanced Appraisal Studies, due in March of 2009.