Richard Avedon, Dovima with elephants, Evening Dress by Dior, Cirque d'hiver, Paris, 1955.
Estimate €600,000–900,000
Richard Avedon is considered one of the most important fashion photographers in the history of photography. This image appeared for the first time in Harper's Bazaar in September 1955 after Avedon was sent to Paris by Editor Carmel Snow to photograph the fall couture collections. A series of 15 of his photographs were selected to illustrate a piece entitled 'Carmel Snow's Paris Report'. The most famous photograph from this series is Dovima with Elephants.
This photograph is an important piece of fashion history as the evening dress worn by Dovima is one of the very first creations of a nineteen-year-old Yves Saint Laurent who was the new assistant of Christian Dior.
Richard Avedon
Andy Warhol and members of The Factory, 1969
Estimate €30,000–40,000
From left to right: Paul Morrissey, director; Joe Dallesandro, actor; Candy Darling, actor; Eric Emerson, actor; Jay Johnson, actor; Tom Hempertz, actor; Gerard Malanga, poet; Viva, actress: Paul Morrissey; Taylor Mead, actor; Brigid Polk, actress; Joe Dallesandro, Andy Warhol, artist.
Wolfgang Tillmans
Park Work I, Park Work II, Park Work III, 2000
Estimate €80,000–120,000
Wolfgang Tillmans' interest in photography as a medium goes beyond the camera. In 1998, he introduced abstraction into his work, moving into a new realm of visual language. Three of his unique works executed in 2000, Park I, II and III, belong to the artist's studies in the behaviour of light and color. His time spent working in the darkroom led to beautiful prints such as these in which, through a rich palette and deep tones, he achieves a sense of disassociation from the real world.
Alex Prager
Hazelwood #2 (After Steven Siegel), 2014
Estimate €20,000–30,000
Alex Prager is an American photographer and film director well-known for works which reference cinema. This photograph taken in a low angle shot illustrates perfectly the hyper realist aesthetic of the old Hollywood that we can find in Prager’s works.
Constantin Brancusi
Vue d'atelier, circa 1923
Estimate €30,000–50,000
This image shows some of Brancusi's most important works. The focus is on the bronze in the center, the Danaïde. The background reveals a wide column of the Door of Kiss in Târgu Jiu garden while in the foreground, on the right, we can see the head of Leda rising from the marble blocks and a rare French Little Girl. This rare print of the studio of Constantin Brancusi is unique. A work in the collection of Centre Pompidou shows the Danaïde scultpture from a different angle.
Man Ray
Electricité, 1931
Estimate €20,000–30,000
Électricité is one of the most acclaimed of Man Ray’s works. It was originally a set of ten rayograms that the artist created for the Parisian Electricity Company (CPDE) to promote the domestic use of electricity. Man Ray showed how electricity could be a modern topic. The portfolio was intended to be distributed by the company to its managers and best clients.
Robert Frank
Elevator, Miami Beach Hotel, 1955
Estimate €60,000–90,000
Elevator, Miami Beach Hotel is one of the rarest photographs from The Americans. It is believed that no other print of this image has appeared at auction. The Bloom Collection print is further distinguished by its impressive size, and by the fact that it shows a greater expanse of the negative than published versions. The image made an impression upon Jack Kerouac, who concludes his introduction to The Americans as follows: 'And I say: That little ole lonely elevator girl looking up sighing in an elevator full of blurred demons, what's her name & address?'
Robert Mapplethorpe
Untitled (Patti Smith), circa 1973
Estimate €10,000–15,000
After their encounter in 1967, Patti Smith and Robert Mapplethorpe continued to maintain a strong relationship as lovers and artistic associates. Patti has been very often photographed by Mapplethorpe as a muse, a model and a rock icon.
Sohei Nishino
Diorama Of Paris, 2009
Estimate €30,000–50,000
In his spectacular compositions, Nishino associates photographs, collages and typographies to create dioramas of urban landscapes. Inspired by Ino Tadataka, a Japanese cartographer from the 18th century, his creations reinvent the cities he visited.
André Kertész
Cello study, 1926
Estimate €400,000–600,000
Directly from the private collection of André Kertész, it is believed that this print is one of three or four made by the photographer from the negative at the same time in 1926 while living in Paris on Boulevard Montparnasse. According to Kertész, this is one of the his favourite images from Paris. It is certainly also one of the most representative images of modern photography.
Sotheby’s Photographies sale in Paris on 9 November features standout pieces by such established artists as Constantin Brancusi, Richard Avedon, Andy Warhol and Wolfgang Tillmans. It includes early daguerreotypes from Rome, a surrealism section with works by Hans Bellmer, Man Ray and Claude Cahun and a contemporary photography section that includes works by Alex Prager and Hiroshi Sugimoto. Click the image above to view the slideshow.