Photographs: what are auction value?
An invisible psychological ceiling was boldly smashed this past year (2022) in the auction market for photography. For the first time, a photograph sold at auction cleared the $10M mark in May, and then the same threshold was breached again by another photograph later in November.
The previous auction record for a photograph was well under $5M, so these two outcomes felt altogether unexpected and frame-breaking.
And while the two vintage prints in question, the first a 1924 print of Man Ray’s Le Violin d’Ingres (see photo under) and the second a 1905 print of Edward Steichen’s The Flatiron, were undeniably iconic photographic rarities, their sales beg the larger question of whether we have seen a seachange in the way the market for photography functions, and whether in particular crossover collectors of Surrealism and Contemporary Art will now be more willing to pay top dollar for key photographs.
The ArtTactic Report calcule that total Photography sales at Sotheby’s, Christie’s and Phillips came in at $74.5 million in 2022, up 25% from 2021. The high-end of the Photography market (lots sold above $100,000) saw a significant boost in 2022 with sales totals up by 46%, and average prices rising by 49%.
The lower end of the photography market (less than $5,000) saw a significant boost in sales, up 74.3%
This is the highest priced photography lots at auction in 2022 (artist/price): Man Ray $12,412,500; Edward Steichen $11,840,000; Helmut Newton $2,340,000; Barbara Kruger $1,562,500; Richard Prince $1,131,000; Richard Avedon $970,800; David Wojnarowicz $937,500; Cindy Sherman $882,000; Richard Prince $724,500.
The good news is that medium-low edition photographs, i.e. from 50 to 200 multiples (copies), cost from one hundred to a thousand times less, i.e. from 400 to 2,000 euros, depending on the format and the fame of the author. But if there are no collecting intentions, the cost can go down to 50-100 euros, for the unnumbered editions.
The previous auction record for a photograph was well under $5M, so these two outcomes felt altogether unexpected and frame-breaking.
And while the two vintage prints in question, the first a 1924 print of Man Ray’s Le Violin d’Ingres (see photo under) and the second a 1905 print of Edward Steichen’s The Flatiron, were undeniably iconic photographic rarities, their sales beg the larger question of whether we have seen a seachange in the way the market for photography functions, and whether in particular crossover collectors of Surrealism and Contemporary Art will now be more willing to pay top dollar for key photographs.
The ArtTactic Report calcule that total Photography sales at Sotheby’s, Christie’s and Phillips came in at $74.5 million in 2022, up 25% from 2021. The high-end of the Photography market (lots sold above $100,000) saw a significant boost in 2022 with sales totals up by 46%, and average prices rising by 49%.
The lower end of the photography market (less than $5,000) saw a significant boost in sales, up 74.3%
This is the highest priced photography lots at auction in 2022 (artist/price): Man Ray $12,412,500; Edward Steichen $11,840,000; Helmut Newton $2,340,000; Barbara Kruger $1,562,500; Richard Prince $1,131,000; Richard Avedon $970,800; David Wojnarowicz $937,500; Cindy Sherman $882,000; Richard Prince $724,500.
The good news is that medium-low edition photographs, i.e. from 50 to 200 multiples (copies), cost from one hundred to a thousand times less, i.e. from 400 to 2,000 euros, depending on the format and the fame of the author. But if there are no collecting intentions, the cost can go down to 50-100 euros, for the unnumbered editions.