William Klein, Coney Island, New York, 1980. Photographs New York.
William Klein
Caroline Deck, Senior Specialist
William Klein’s Coney Island, New York, 1980 [Lot 95] is a perfect 20 x 24 in. encapsulation of everything that photography can be. It’s a contact sheet showing multiple frames of snapshots taken on the busy boardwalk which he printed and then hand-painted and collaged with elements reminiscent of the posters and graffiti you’d find on the sides of buildings. It’s street photography with an urban patina. It’s black and white; it’s color; it’s figural; it’s abstract; it’s an unstaged scene but a highly organized composition. It not only shows that photography doesn’t have to have any guardrails but that when you throw out the rule book altogether, you get something incredibly creative and visually dynamic.
Edward Steichen
Edward Steichen, Radio City and Rockefeller Center, 1933. Photographs New York.
Chris Mahoney, Senior International Specialist
I believe the technical terminology for what happened when I first saw this mural-sized photograph by Edward Steichen [Lot 45] is that it knocked me out. I’d never seen a Steichen photograph this large before! And the size of it perfectly conveys the soaring architecture and vertiginous verticality of New York City. Steichen’s daring overlay of two of Manhattan’s landmark buildings — Radio City Music Hall and Rockefeller Center — harnesses the energy of the city within its dynamic abstraction. It’s like the city itself: the more you look, the more you see. Steichen knew how to pack a strong visual punch, and this monumental photograph continues to knock me out.
Hank Willis Thomas
Hank Willis Thomas, Baron of the Crossroads, 2012. Photographs New York.
Vanessa Hallett, Deputy Chairwoman, Americas and Worldwide Head of Photographs
A photograph is a record of someone’s point of view — it shows the photographer’s vantage point on one scene, at one instant in time. What thrills me about Hank Willis Thomas’ Baron of the Crossroads [Lot 162] is that he pushes past this limitation of the medium to create an entirely new and kinetically engaging kind of photographic image. Baron of the Crossroads changes as you change your point of view. Thomas used a material called Lumisty, originally intended as a light-filtering laminate for windows, to create this effect. When the Baron is looked at straight-on, he can be seen in sharp detail. When viewed from one side or the other, the image shifts and blurs, with black and white tonal values mingling, merging, and then separating as your viewpoint shifts. It’s this kind of innovation — in addition to Thomas’ eloquent commentaries on race and identity — that earned him the 2023 U.S. Department of State Medal of Arts. Additionally, in Baron of the Crossroads, Thomas shows how new concepts and materials can be applied to the photographic medium, expanding its vocabulary and keeping it fresh.
Francesca Woodman and Zanele Muholi
Francesca Woodman, Untitled, New York (N.F.430), 1979–1980. Photographs New York.
Sarah Krueger, Head of Department and Auctioneer
I love seeing connections between artists, and our auctions always present multiple opportunities to consider how different photographers, working in different times and places, address similar themes. In this sale, I was floored by the similarities between Francesca Woodman’s Untitled, New York, [Lot 153] made 1979–1980, and Zanele Muholi’s Bona, Charlottesville (9781) [Lot 161], made in 2015. Working in different centuries, Woodman, an American, and Muholi, a South African, both investigate ways of presenting the self in their work, and gender and identity are mutually on their agendas. It’s fascinating to me that the one face visible in each of these images is reflected in a mirror. And it’s thrilling to see how both photographers have woven rather complex and subtly radical ideas into compositions that are classically beautiful.
Zanele Muholi, Bona, Charlottesville (9781), from Somnyama Ngonyama, 2015. Photographs New York.
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