The remarkable selection of photographs offered in this online auction comes from the collection of Peter C. Bunnell (1937-2021), the pioneering curator, teacher, and photographic historian. In 1971, while Curator of Photography at MoMA, Bunnell organized the exhibition Photographs by Robert Adams and Emmet Gowin, marking each photographer’s first show in New York City. Of Gowin’s work, Bunnell wrote in the press release, ‘his photographs give us an intensely subjective vision of his own private world.'
Two years after the exhibition, Gowin secured a teaching position at Princeton University following the completion of his graduate studies at the Rhode Island School of Design, where he had studied under Harry Callahan. The first ‘fine art’ photographer on faculty at Princeton, Gowin proved an integral part of the art department and was regarded for his ability to articulate the evocative qualities of the medium. Gowin and Bunnell became colleagues at Princeton as Bunnell served as Director of the Princeton University Art Museum from 1973 to 1978, and as Acting Director from 1998 to 2000, and was also the Museum’s Curator of Photography throughout the entirety of his tenure.
Bunnell built a broad-ranging collection of photographs at the Museum, the firsthand examination of which became a central element of the student experience in his classes and seminars. Bunnell also assembled a personal collection of photography over the course of his long career that reflects his vast and deep understanding of the medium. Begun in the 1950s, before photography galleries and dealers were commonplace, Bunnell’s collection is a deeply personal one, put together with a sense of joy and curiosity that includes both icons and lesser-known gems spanning the history of photography.