Photography - New York / London / Paris

A few days after the close of the AIPAD Photography Show New York, the city was preparing for another week of photo events including no less than five dedicated photography auctions between 6 and 9 April.

Photography sales in May

April-May and , October-November are the key periods for the photo market in London, Paris and New York. In 2008, the strong increase in both demand and prices considerably accelerated the frequency of photography auctions.

French art market returns to form in 2006

Having missed out on the art market’s growth in 2002-2004, France is finally booming again. Turnover rose by 42% in 2006 to EUR 330 million, while volume sales advanced by 14%. Prices were up by 9% over twelve months though this is still 40% below their 1990 level.

French humanist photography

Between photo-journalism and picturesque paintings of society, humanist photography is a superb witness of people's mannerisms and customs. The core of this artistic current occurred after WWII through to the late 1960s. The photographs of Robert DOISNEAU , Édouard BOUBAT , BRASSAÏ , Willy RONIS , and others, fed the newspapers and magazines of the era …and are often reproduced today. These photographs - charged with emotion and capturing fleeting moments of everyday life - have the undeniable documentary value of authenticity, but simultaneously, via their black and white medium, express a certain aesthetic of nostalgia. Over the years, this duality has particularly attracted collectors who, today, are not frightened to pay high prices for big names in photography.

Surrealist photography market

"Begierde im Blick" (the Gaze of Desire) is the main theme of the major exhibition on surrealist photography held at the Kunsthalle, Hamburg running until 29 May 2005. An element of the surrealism movement since its beginnings in 1924, photography allowed to capture images and sensations taken from "real" life. For MAN RAY , Jacques-André BOIFFARD , Hans BELLMER , Manuel ALVAREZ BRAVO , Raoul UBAC , André KERTÉSZ , Herbert BAYER and Claude CAHUN , photography provided a way to present a surrealist vision of the world: an impossible reality.

Marathon of surrealist auctions: 4,100 lots in one sale

The extraordinary and much-envied art collection amassed by André Breton during his time at 42 rue Fontaine is coming up for auction. The collection will be broken up during the longest auction ever held (1-18 April), at Hôtel Drouot. This eagerly awaited and controversial sale is already marked in diaries round the world as a must-see by all collectors interested in fresh and historic works.

Modern photography in the spotlight 22-23 October

On 22-23 October, Sotheby’s New York will be auctioning a selection of photographs from the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York. Following on from the success of its last auction of photographs in April 2001, which generated sales of USD2.15m, Sotheby’s is hoping to raise over USD2m from the 212 lots.