Heritage Photo Auctions – October 2024

Whenever I get a notice of an upcoming photo auction from Heritage Auctions, I make a beeline to the site and spend one or two hours browsing through the collection. Not that I can afford to bid on those masterpieces but because I truly enjoy looking at, and seeing photographs. Especially the works of many I admire.

Heritage Photo Auction, October 1, 2024

A new auction of photographs is coming to Heritage Auctions starting on October 1, 2024. There are great samples from a variety of genres of photography, from well-known names as well as lesser-known ones. But they all offer the great joy of looking at photographs and going back in time. You will see works by masters like Edward Weston, Philippe Halsman, Irving Penn, and Ansel Adams. And, many are rather small prints, like 4×6 inches or thereabouts.

Allow me to give you a few tips as they are not readily visible.

• When you first visit the auction site, bookmark it as you will likely return
• Then, download a PDF version of their catalog; the link is close to the bottom of the page under “Other Information.” Look for “View or download Printable Catalog” and you are ready to open the PDF in the browser or download it to your computer.
• If you click on the blue Browse All Items button close to the top of the page, you will get a sequential presentation of the photographs. If I want to see one a little larger and learn more about it, I click on the middle mouse button (on Windows) and open it in a new tab.
• When you view the information about the photograph, its condition, and other tidbits, if you click on the image it will open in a zoomable overlay where you can study different parts of the piece.

Some Works That Spoke To Me

The collection has many photographs, and it is hard to pick a favorite. Instead of sharing a favorite, I thought I would share some with my connection to them.

All visuals are “Imaged by Heritage Auctions, HA.com.” I was granted permission to download, downsize, and use them in this post.

Click on the images to see them larger, uncropped, and read their titles.

Came Face-to-Face With My Inspiration

Let me start with Hiroshi Sigumoto’s Tyrrhenian Sea 1990-1991. When I wrote a recent article on visiting local parks I used a picture of the Atlantic Ocean as the lead image. Little did I know I would come face-to-face with my inspiration in a week or so! I was inspired by this work that I had seen many years ago. Imitation is the strongest form of flattery! I recalled his photograph, this one in fact, while processing my infrared version. I thought it was a simple and effective way of expressing the ocean’s vastness.

Before AI There was Jerry Uelsman

Ueslmann created many surreal photographs using his natural intelligence (NI?). I saw some of his works in the collection showing a nude floating by the beach and him tipping his hat to Man Ray by imitating his Rayograph ideas and combining multiple images in one print. Remember that these were done in the darkroom not digital alterations in vogue today.

Francesca Woodman

Francesca Woodman had a short tragic life some of which was spent in Rhode Island. She went to the Rhode Island School of Design and lived in Providence for some time. Unfortunately, she ended her life at a very young age. When I saw these photographs I wondered if she intentionally photographed herself in despair and envisioned her transition. In a way, she was screaming for help, silently.

Berenice Abbott, Cinematic Reveal

When I saw Abbot’s photograph of Manhattan, I was drawn to a couple of street lights and the horse-drawn cart parked along the horseless carriages.

As I kept exploring the buildings in the view, the ones I first did not notice gradually emerged, as if it was a cinematic reveal. It was a slow theatrical appearance of the two buildings in the center, and the store sign “Mac Lac Shellac.”

You may experience cinematic reveal in other photographs but this was a good opportunity to mention it and enjoy one of Abbots’s photographs.

Paul Strand, Lusetti Family

I used Paul Strand’s famous Family photograph as the lead image, which I have seen many times with equal enjoyment. The placement of the family members along the wall with the matriarch in the door frame implies the family hierarchy. It also depicts the hardship they had to live through.

Strand spent several months at Luzzara and has many other photographs from that time along with the Lusetti family portrait. The one on the auction site seems to be one of at least two views he photographed. I found an almost identical version on the MIA website without the son in the door frame.

Conclusion

Looking, seeing, and studying photographs gives me great joy. I enjoy it almost as much as creating my own. And, they are also a great source of inspiration, as well as occasional imitation!

And, if you happen to come across André Kertész’s Melancholic Tulip while you browse the auction collection, you may want to study it and compare your impressions with an article I wrote about it almost ten years ago.

Now, visit the auction site and enjoy great photographs!

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