In my continuing series of conversations with people who have shaped the Photographs market, I move back to focusing on the auction world. I sat down with Rick Wester, who, in addition to being a private dealer, consultant, and gallery owner, he has headed up the Photographs departments of 2 of 3 major auction houses, and has put together some of the most memorable sales of the last 40 years. I sat down to find out what it was like to be working in the wild west of the auction world during the 1990s and 2000s, and what lessons he learned during the ride.
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Episode 33: Twist Endings
Ralph Eugene Meatyard’s series of photographs featuring his family in unexpected places and costumes are hard to describe but entirely captivating. He found inspiration for a series of photographs from a book published in 1911 by Ambrose Bierce called ‘The Devil’s Dictionary.’ After handling one of Meatyard’s prints at Sotheby’s, Aimee gets to the bottom of what these two things have in common, while discovering what demons were hard at work in old printing workshops.
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Episode 32: Avery on the Log
In 1853, photographer Platt Babbitt made a chilling daguerreotype of a man named Joseph Avery, who had been stuck on a tree branch in the middle of the rushing rapids near the edge of Niagara Falls for over 10 hours. Babbitt had unknowingly created the first “action” shot in photojournalism.
In this episode, Aimee tells the unbelievable true story of a daring rescue attempt on the Niagara River, a photographer who fought tooth and nail to defend his turf, and the beginning of photojournalism as we know it.
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Episode 31: A Conversation with Leland Rice, Part II
In the second half of my conversation with curator, educator, and photographer Leland Rice, he talks about two major exhibitions that he worked on for two photographers whose work he greatly admired-Frederick Sommer and Herbert Bayer. We also talk about the important connections, or “linkages” that have existed in his life.
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Episode 30: Post-Sale Wrap Up with Aimee and Emily
Despite a raging head cold, Aimee barrels through to give you want you want: a discussion with Emily Bierman that covers the stellar results of the sale of Ansel Adams, A Legacy: Photographs from the Meredith Collection. This auction smashed records and exceeded expectations overall. We discuss white-glove auctions, the Ansel Adams market, estimates, auction development, research, and I ask Emily to define some of the quirky words we use in the department while cataloguing.
Tune in for some major inside-ball information on how we do what we do!
Aimee Pflieger loves discovering connections between seemingly disparate subjects, and pulling at the threads that photography has woven through culture since its invention.
In this podcast, she talks about photographs she’s handled during her career (as well as ones she hopes to someday), drawing out the hidden stories behind the images and illuminating the hidden histories of photography.
Ireland