FASHION PHOTOGRAPHY AT AUCTION

 Fashion photography has peppered the lots of photography sales in recent decades, mirroring the interest museums have shown in fashion photography since the middle of the 20th Century. However, the genre has seen a dramatic boom in recent years, with a number of landmark shows dedicated to the genre featured at every major auction house. Fashion photography has grown into its own, leaving behind its status as a pet interest defined by a handful of household names to gather a steady collector base for a robust and evolving canon of photographers.

When fashion photography began to appear at auction houses, fashion images were a part of much larger photography sales which contained images across several genres and time periods. Starting in the 2010’s, fashion photography began to headline the sales at major auctionhouses, including the 2014 Bonhams show “The Art of Fashion Photography” and the 2016 Sotheby’s London show “Photographs,” which heavily featured fashion photography. The Bonham’s show featured a broad range of fashion photographs from the 30’s to the 90’s, while the Sotheby’s show focused on more contemporary photographs from the 70’s to the 90’s, including images by Helmut Newton, Peter Lindburgh, and Guy Bourdain.

These shows proved to be precursors to much larger auctions which would garner press and publicity. In 2019, Christie’s auctioned “Icons of Glamour & Style: The Constantiner Collection,” which included canonical fashion photographers such as Irving Penn, Richard Avedon, and Peter Lindbergh, but also included Chris von Wangenheim and Herb Ritts, the successors of these “original” fashion photographers. The inclusion of a broader range of photographers served as a testament to the staying power of the genre, and the evolving interest of collectors. “Icons of Glamour and Style” featured icons such as Audrey Hepburn, Andy Warhol, and Lisa Taylor, for designers such as Dior, Balenciaga, and Givenchy. Despite a low economy and struggling auction season, the sale performed well and the profit was above the low estimate; the sale ultimately performed better than many that season.

On June 18, 2020, the auction “Tailor-Made: Fashion Photographs from the Collection of Peter Fetterman” opened at Phillips, describing the auction with the words: “each of the photographs in this auction encapsulates a moment of perfect elegance in an imperfect world.” The auction further expanded the range of fashion photographers at auction by including more female photographers, including Sheila Metzner and Sarah Moon. The standout sales from the auction were Melvin Sokolsky’s “Bubble Seine, Paris” which sold above estimate or $47,500, and Ormond Gigli’s “Girls in the Windows, New York City,” which sold above estimate for $52,500. These big-ticket sales testify to the increasing value of fashion photography, and the growing trust collectors have in the genre’s staying power and return on investment. 

In 2022, Christie’s auctioned the landmark Susanne von Meiss collection of 110 collectible fashion photographs from the personal collection of the journalist and entrepreneur. The lots included classic, glossy fashion photographs by Lillian Bassman, Horst P. Horst, Terry O’Neill, Norman Parkinson, Ellen von Unwerth, among many others. The photographs featured range in time period from the 1930’s to the 1990’s, including several classic fashion photographs from the ‘50s and ‘60s, and were originally taken for the likes of Vogue, Harper’s Bazaar, and Yves Saint Laurent.

Several niches within fashion photography emerge from these auctions - the Susanne von Meiss collection and “Tailor Made” feature images which are timeless, almost exclusively in the crisp, sumptuous black-and-white that defined fashion photography for decades. The colors used are vivid, saturated, and dreamlike. The photographs highlight every detail; the impeccably tailored dresses and coats, the curled and coiffed hair dos, and the recognizable features of icons like Brigitte Bardot, Marilyn Monroe, and Christy Turlington. Though the images span several decades, they are unified by an elegant style.

In contrast, “Icons of Glamour and Style” and the earlier Bonham’s and Sotheby’s shows featured images which were much edgier - Lisa Taylor with a viscous doberman shot by Chris von Wangenheim, scantily clad models shot in Helmut Newton’s signature stark style, candid celebrity shots with the grittiness of paparazzi photos, and Daido Moriyama’s tights images, among other sexy, metallic, and daring images.

Despite occupying a small niche in photography, the recent auctions demonstrate the range the genre has in appealing to collectors with different aesthetic preferences. However, the recent auctions capture another exciting element of fashion photography for collectors; the range of prices. Some pieces in these auctions sold for under $1000 while others sold for over $50,000, making fashion photography accessible to new collectors and appealing for seasoned collectors looking for coveted pieces.

In particular, the consistent high sales numbers for fashion photographs at auction demonstrate the growing trust collectors have in the value and return on investment of fashion photography. Famously, Avedon’s Dovima and the Elephants sold for $1,200,000 in 2011. “Icons of Glamour and Style” boasts $150,000+ sales for images by Herb Ritts, Irving Penn, Peter Lindbergh, and Andy Warhol. Outside of the dedicated auctions, fashion photography performs well: Helmut Newton’s “Big Nude III” broke the artist’s record and sold for over $2,000,000 in 2022.

The increasing frequency of dedicated fashion photography sales and the strong performance of fashion photography at auction overall demonstrates the solidified position the genre now has in the commercial art world. Each year, a more diverse group of fashion photographers pepper the lots of auction houses and become canonical names in the genre. At the same time, the established names garner greater interest and bids, breaking sales records. Outside of the auction world, fashion photography is more and more visible in the homes of celebrities and in galleries and museum shows. Overall, we can expect fashion photography to maintain and grow its stronghold, becoming an expected presence in art institutions across the board and increasing in value.

Jerry Hall, Vogue, 1976 02 | Norman Parkinson

Sold at Christie’s Icons of Glamour & Style: The Constantiner Collection for €27,500, €17,500 over high estimate

Lisa Taylor, Publicité pour Christian Dior, 1976 | Chris von Wangenheim

Sold at Christie’s Icons of Glamour & Style: The Constantiner Collection for €23,750, €8,750 over high estimate

Brigitte Bardot Smoking Cigar, 1971 | Terry O’Neill

Sold at Sotheby’s 2020 Photographs sale for £27,720, £7,720 over high estimate