T his April, Sotheby’s Photographs department marks its Golden Jubilee with a tightly-curated auction showcasing fifty iconic images by the medium’s most influential artists. The two-part sale in New York and London encompasses nearly 200 years of global photographic history, including superb examples by 19th century practitioners such as William Henry Fox Talbot, Carleton Watkins, Gustave Le Gray, and Peter Henry Emerson; prints by pioneering women artists Anne Brigman, Imogen Cunningham, and Lee Miller; modernist works by František Drtikol, Erwin Blumenfeld, and Edward Weston; exceptional post-war images by Robert Frank, Roy DeCarava, and Lee Friedlander; fashion photographs by Richard Avedon, Irving Penn, and Peter Lindbergh; and contemporary masterworks by Sebastião Salgado, Richard Misrach, Nobuyoshi Araki, and Chris Levine, among many others. Each of the fifty photographs demonstrates – in its own way and for its own time period – a significant achievement in the history of the medium.
Auction Catalogues
Auction Highlights | London
Artworks Available for Immediate Purchase
Exhibition Dates
New York | London |
Open by appointment Thursday, 15 April, 10 am to 5 pm | Open by appointment Friday 16 April, 10 am to 5 pm |
A Timeline of Sotheby's Photographs

The Will Weissberg Collection of Rare Photographs, Cameras & Related Devices

British Invasion
William Henry Fox Talbot’s The Pencil of Nature (1846) hits the auction block. In 2018, this cornerstone of photographic history is resold for a record price of $275,000 in New York .

Made in Manhattan

Italian Futurist Photographs sale

Man Ray

Approaching the New Millennium
In London, Gustave Le Gray’s Grande vague - Séte establishes a new record for the artist in the first of three auctions of the collection of Marie-Thérèse and André Jammes. Another superb print by Le Gray, 'La Vague Brisée, Mer Méditeranée No 15' (The Breaking Wave) (1857) is a highlight of the 22 April sale in London.

Collection de Marie-Thérèse and André Jammes

Dorothea Lange

Important Photographs from the Metropolitan Museum of Art Including Works from the Gilman Paper Company Collection

American Masters: From Edward Weston to Peter Beard
Peter Beard’s ‘Hog Ranch Front Lawn, Night Feeder (2:00 am) with Maureen Gallagher & Mbuno, Feb. 1987’ achieves a new record for the artist when it hammers for $277,000.

The Quillan Collection of Nineteenth and Twentieth Century Photographs

Photographs from the Polaroid Collection

A Show of Hands: Photographs from the Collection of Henry Buhl

Irving Penn

175 Masterworks to Celebrate 175 Years of Photography: Property from the Joy of Giving Something Foundation

Robert Frank: The Americans – The Ruth and Jake Bloom Collection

Bernd & Hilla Becher

Chris Levine

From Generation to Generation: Important Photographs from the Ames Family Collection

Aleksandr Rodchenko

Richard Avedon

Francesca Woodman

Digital Evolution
