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Our curators picked
their favorite items from three of our upcoming auctions
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Nigel's Pick
Nigel Russell | Director, Photographs, New York
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In Louis Stettner's photograph Brooklyn Promenade, 1951, a man sits alone on a park bench, his head tilted back as if he's either tired or enjoying the warmth of the sun. The lower Manhattan skyline stands in the distance, providing a dramatic backdrop that contrasts with the man's quiet solitude. Stettner captures the feeling of a peaceful moment amid the fast-paced energy of New York City, highlighting the unique relationship between personal reflection and the bustling urban environment. This photograph eloquently captures both the physical and emotional landscape of New York in the mid-20th century.
Louis Stettner was an American photographer celebrated for capturing authentic and deeply human scenes of urban life. He was influenced by photographers like Alfred Stieglitz and the European traditions he encountered in Paris, blending documentary realism with poetic sensitivity. Throughout his long career, Stettner focused on portraying everyday people and moments, finding beauty and meaning in simplicity and spontaneity. His photographs often explore themes of solitude, contemplation, and the subtle interactions between individuals and their environments, earning him recognition as a compassionate and insightful observer of urban life.
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Laura's Pick
Laura Paterson | Consignment Director, Photographs, New York
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It is interesting to compare Howard Bond's exquisite photograph of The Tetons and Snake River, Grand Teton National Park Wyoming, 1980, with that of his teacher and mentor Ansel Adams', taken some 40 years earlier. Adams' image, now one of his most sought-after, was shot from above and is a dramatic tour de force — partial sunshine glints on snowcapped peaks and the wide river below, which fringed by a densely populated, darkened pine forest. Bond's image, by contrast, is captured at ground level and offers something more human-scale and, with the focus on a solitary pine tree on the banks of the river, more intimate. The drama of Bond's image lies the sky where a proliferation of scudding white clouds all but obscure the imposing Tetons below them.
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Holly's Pick
Holly Sherratt | Director, Modern & Contemporary Art
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Roger Fenton's Harbour of Balaklava, the Cattle Pier (1855) is a salt print that captures the structured activity of the British military's supply base during the Crimean War. The photograph shows horses in a pen, baskets of provisions, and a docked ship, framed by the rugged hills of Balaklava. Made using the salt paper process developed by William Henry Fox Talbot in the 1830s, the image has a soft, matte surface and warm tonal range—hallmarks of this foundational photographic method. Fenton, one of the earliest and most influential war photographers, produced hundreds of images that shifted the focus from battlefield drama to the broader mechanics of war. This photograph stands as a landmark in the history of photography—an early and deliberate use of the medium to shape
public understanding of global events
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Toshiko's Pick
Cataloguer, Fine and Decorative Arts, New York
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One of the photographs in this lot was made as a collaboration between the artist Salvador Dali and the photographer Philippe Halsman. The making of this started with Dali's envy of Picasso's iconic images of drawing with light captured by Gjon Mili. Dali told Halsman that he could do better, and he would make a sculpture in complete darkness. The photographer agreed to do it. Dali was covered with black from head to toe with a slit around his eyes, holding a white porcelain globe and a tube. While Dali moved slowly and assistants moved two spotlights to reflect upon the porcelain, Halsman opened the camera lens for the long exposure. The result was terrific - a three-dimensional sculpture in the dark - performed by Dali.
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Mya's Pick
Mya Adams | Cataloguer, Fine Arts, Dallas
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Have you ever seen one of those photos of a seal halfway submerged in water, where the top half looks perfectly normal, but the submerged body becomes hilariously distorted—almost cartoonishly disproportionate? That kind of visual absurdity is what came to mind when I saw James Balog's photograph of a polar bear, caught in a similarly goofy moment. In this image, the bear appears to be trying to beat the heat in the most endearingly clumsy way—half in, half out of the water, with limbs akimbo and an expression that borders on blissful. Balog captures a moment that is not only comically cute but also surprisingly relatable-who among us hasn't flopped into a pool in desperation during a heatwave?
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Nigel's Pick
Nigel Russell | Director, Photographs, New York
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In Sebastião Salgado's 1981 photograph First Communion in Juazeiro do Norte, Brazil
, two young girls dressed in white gowns with angel wings stand in the foreground, their expressions solemn and contemplative. This platinum palladium print captures a moment of spiritual significance, emphasizing the innocence and devotion of the children. The photograph reflects Salgado's ability to portray the depth of human experience through simple yet powerful imagery, highlighting the cultural and religious traditions of the community in Juazeiro do Norte. This print is from The Year of Tibet Portfolio I, assembled by Richard Gere and Bill Borden in 1990, to raise funds for The Tibet Fund. This organization supports the Tibetan community in exile, focusing on cultural preservation, education, and humanitarian aid.
Sebastião Salgado, the renowned Brazilian photographer, passed away on May 23, 2025, at the age of 81. Throughout his career, Salgado was celebrated for his profound black-and-white images that documented social issues, labor conditions, and the environment across more than 120 countries. Beyond photography, Salgado co-founded Instituto Terra with his wife, Lélia Wanick Salgado, focusing on reforestation and environmental education in Brazil. His legacy continues to inspire and influence the fields of photography and environmental activism.
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Laura's Pick
Laura Paterson | Consignment Director, Photographs, New York
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In the 1930s, during the depression-era, Walker Evans toured the US documenting its people and their lives. Always a fan of vernacular imagery, he could not resist the charm of this provincial photographer's studio window and created this powerfully graphic and modern-feeling image — even in an era where the "selfie" reigns supreme. The work features fifteen rows of fifteen pictures, a total of 225 portraits overall (minus those hidden by the letters of "Studio,") and although it seems that many of the portraits were actually duplicated, the display still featured over a hundred individual faces.
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Holly's Pick
Holly Sherratt | Director, Modern & Contemporary Art
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This striking photograph by Pulitzer Prize-winning photojournalist Sergey Ponomarev, taken in November 2015, captures a Turkish cruise boat carrying around 150 migrants arriving on Lesbos Island, Greece, as EU border agents, including German Frontex officers, observe from shore. The boat's operator attempted to flee but was later arrested in Turkish waters. Part of the Pulitzer Prize-winning series for The New York Times, the image echoes Géricault's Raft of the Medusa in its composition and emotional intensity—blending documentary realism with classical resonance to depict the human cost of displacement. This photograph, along with several others in the auction, is offered without reserve, presenting a rare opportunity to acquire an exceptional work by one of today's most
acclaimed photojournalists.
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Toshiko's Pick
Cataloguer, Fine and Decorative Arts, New York
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Sebastião Salgado has just passed away recently at the age of 81. He focused on social and environmental issues throughout his photojournalism career, photographing worldwide. He was much more than a simple documentalist. He created images that tell the story in full blasting power, with contrast of light and shadow, subjects all together in dramatic composition in black and white. Here, he put the lens down to three feet in the same sandals covered with dust-two left feet on the right side and one right foot on the left side. As you pay attention to details, you will start questioning more about what was happening. What story was behind this image?
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Mya's Pick
Mya Adams | Cataloguer, Fine Arts, Dallas
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Marilyn Monroe lived her life in front of a camera, and she possessed an uncanny magic—the ability to instinctively know where the lens was and to meet it with ease and a striking photogenic presence. Most of the iconic photographs of Marilyn were taken by men: Sam Shaw, Tom Kelley, Bert Stern, and Milton Greene, to name a few.
But there was one woman behind the camera who seemed to disarm Monroe's innate awareness—Eve Arnold. With Arnold, it was as if Marilyn let go of the constant performance and simply lived. In this image, taken on the set of The Misfits, Marilyn appears deep in thought, mentally rehearsing lines for an intense scene with Clark Gable. The Misfits would be Monroe's final film before her untimely death, and Arnold's lens captured moments that feel uniquely candid.
Perhaps it was the presence of another woman that allowed Marilyn to lower her guard. Other photos Arnold captured show Monroe napping between takes, reading, or simply being playful. These kinds of intimate, unguarded glimpses into Marilyn's world are rare—but they're my favorites.
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Nigel's Pick
Nigel Russell | Director, Photographs, New York
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Alfred Stieglitz's photograph Excavating-New York (1911), published in Camera Work XXXVI, clearly shows the contrast between old and new ways of working in New York City. In this image, a modern steam shovel loads dirt into old-fashioned horse-drawn carts. This scene illustrates how the city was rapidly changing, shifting from traditional methods of work to more advanced machinery and technology, highlighting a moment of significant transformation in New York's history.
Alfred Stieglitz was an important photographer who greatly influenced how photography was seen as an art form. He created and published the magazine Camera Work, which played a key role in promoting photography as equal to painting or sculpture. Through this magazine, Stieglitz shared the works of talented photographers and introduced modern art from Europe to American audiences. Photographs like Excavating-New York helped people recognize photography as an expressive, creative medium, making Stieglitz a major figure in the history of photography and modern art.
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Laura's Pick
Laura Paterson | Consignment Director, Photographs, New York
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George Seeley's photographs were included in the First American Photographic Salon in New York City in 1904, where they were spotted and admired by Alfred Stieglitz who invited him to join his Photo-Secession alongside other notable Pictorialist champions Edward Steichen, Clarence H. White and Getrude Kasebier. Seeley's work, exemplified here by his ethereally beautiful White Landscape, 1907 (from Camera Work XX), fully reflects the group's goals to elevate photography to the level of other fine arts - their romantic and idealized imagery achieved by manipulating negatives and using specific media (bromoil, gum bichromate or photogravure when intended for mass production) to create a painterly effect in soft focus.
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Holly's Pick
Holly Sherratt | Director, Modern & Contemporary Art
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Edward S. Curtis, known for his landmark project The North American Indian, spent over 30 years documenting Indigenous cultures across North America. Hamasilahl - Qagyuhl (1914) is a photogravure of a masked dancer from the Qagyuhl (Kwakwaka'wakw) people, shown during a Winter Dance ceremony. The dancer stands frontally in fur regalia and a carved mask, set against a plain background that creates a striking, almost negative-like contrast. The image emphasizes transformation and ancestral presence, with the photogravure process capturing rich textures and sculptural detail. This is one of thirteen Curtis images offered in the auction.
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Toshiko's Pick
Cataloguer, Fine and Decorative Arts, New York
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Edward Steichen, a celebrated pioneer of fashion photography and a curator who was one of the key people who introduced photography to museums, was interested in obtaining color in photography from early on. Along with then-good friend Alfred Stieglitz, he was an enthusiastic and early practitioner of Autochrome, the first practical color photography process invented by the Lumiere brothers in France in 1907. Even before that, he tried to bring color to his photographs by employing hand-toning to achieve colors. That was when he was a pictorialist, creating images in a dreamy atmosphere with light effects. You can see in this photogravure "Pastoral-Moonlight" his deep interest in color. Also, in another lot, 38113, his experimental half-tone print is in color.
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Mya's Pick
Mya Adams | Cataloguer, Fine Arts, Dallas
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This auction was an absolute joy to catalog, offering nearly three decades of experimental imagery featured in Camera Work and other publications. One piece in particular quickly became a favorite of mine: Arthur Radclyffe Dugmore's Fish. It stood out immediately—so distinct and unexpected from everything else.
In my experience, early 20th-century photographs of animals typically center on horses, pastoral farm scenes, or the occasional house cat (which I'll never say no to!). So I was genuinely surprised—and delighted—to encounter aquatic life among the selection.
Photogravure printing is a meticulous, multi-step process, and today, few specialists still practice it. This sale, to me, is a true celebration of both the subject matter in front of the lens and the extraordinary craft behind it. In our digital era, I hope this auction reignites appreciation for the artistry and effort involved in creating photogravures.
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Nigel Russell
Director, Photographs,
New York
NigelR@HA.com
(212) 486-3659
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Laura Paterson
Consignment Director,
Photographs, New York
LauraP@HA.com
(212) 486-3525
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Holly Sherratt
Director, Modern &
Contemporary Art
HollyS@HA.com
(415) 548-5921
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Toshiko Abe
Cataloguer, Fine &
Decorative Arts
New York
ToshikoA@HA.com
(212) 486-3523
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Mya Adams
Cataloguer,
Fine Arts, Dallas
MyaA@HA.com
(214) 409-1139
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