Swann 2009 Auction Highlights: Photographs

Swann's Photographs auctions in 2009 featured a range of diverse materials, several of which set auction records in this transitional economic climate. Rare 19th-century photographically illustrated albums, such as Francis Bedford's Photographic Pictures Made by Mr. Francis Bedford During the Tour in the East, suite of three albums, London, 1862, performed strongly. This album by Bedford (left) sold on February 19, for a record $132,000.

A rare vintage print of Ansel Adams’s image of Moonrise, Hernandez, New Mexico, 1941, from 1948, signed and inscribed by Adams (above), which sold on December 8, for $360,000, also shows the growing market for scarce American prints and icons of classical photography.

Labels: Ansel Adams, Daile Kaplan, fine photographs, Francis Bedford, photobook, photographic albums, photography