“The success of our December auction, celebrating 175 years of photography, showed that there is a real appetite for top images from any era, so we are coming into March with a strong group of carefully chosen works,” says Christopher Mahoney, senior vice president and head of the photographs department at Sotheby’s. On March 31, Sotheby’s and Christie’s offer an array of classic and contemporary works in the category — the latter featuring a large-format print of one of Richard Avedon’s highly sought-after Dovima with Elephants, Evening Dress by Dior, Cirque d’Hiver (Paris), 1955. The image holds the artist record at auction, set at Christie’s Paris in November 2010, when it sold for €841,000 ($1.2 million). The iconic piece, from an edition of 50, is tagged at $300,000 to $500,000. Highlights at Phillips on April 1 include Desiree Dolron’s gothic chromogenic print Xteriors XII, 2001, from an edition of eight (est. $60–80,000). In the “Xterior” series, Dolron combines a Dutch Old Master painting aesthetic with digital technology to create prints that are painterly rather than photographic. Other offerings include the 4-part figural yet abstract Torino Installation, 2002, by Wolfgang Tillmans, estimated at $50,000 to $70,000. Works by Robin Rhode, which hit the block for the first time in the photography category, include Ballad to Ballet, 2008, a grid of nine pigment prints from an edition of six, tagged at $40,000 to $60,000. The house is clearly pushing contemporary artists who challenge the boundaries of photography. “Every year, roughly 40 percent of buyers are new to the category, and we expect a strong season,” says Shlomi Rabi, head of sales at Phillips.A version of this article appears in the March 2015 issue of Art+Auction.
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