The remarkable selection of photographs offered in this auction as lots 203 through 240 comes from the collection of Peter C. Bunnell (1937-2021), the pioneering curator, teacher, and photographic historian. All of the sale’s proceeds will be distributed to six institutions with whom Bunnell was associated — Rochester Institute of Technology, Ohio University, Yale University, The George Eastman Museum, The Museum of Modern Art, and Princeton University Art Museum — to establish endowments to support the study of photographic history.
Bunnell began his long career in photography as a student of Minor White’s at the Rochester Institute of Technology in the 1950s, and was recruited by White to work on the seminal periodical of artistic photography, Aperture. He joined the staff of The Museum of Modern Art in 1966 as a collection cataloguer, becoming Associate Curator and then Curator of Photography. At MoMA he curated the noteworthy exhibitions Photography as Printmaking (1968), Photography into Sculpture (1970), and the first retrospective of the work of Clarence H. White (1971). In 1972, he was hired as the inaugural David Hunter McAlpin Professor of the History of Photography and Modern Art at Princeton University.
Bunnell served as Director of the Princeton University Art Museum from 1973 to 1978, and as Acting Director from 1998 to 2000, while also being 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.
This lot was shown in Bunnell’s 1968 Museum of Modern Art exhibition Photography as Printmaking. The exhibition showcased over a century of photographic works exemplifying various approaches to printing and material exploration. Seeking to reconsider the historical differentiation between ‘straight’ imagery and the interpretative aspects of the object itself, the exhibition foregrounded the relevance of mixed media. The inclusion of this daguerreotype in the exhibition illustrates Bunnell’s holistic approach to the medium.
“The approach to photography as printmaking seeks to make the medium visible, whereas the so-called ‘straight’ approach seeks to make it invisible. By pointing out which technique has been used by each artist, it is hoped that the exhibition will provide a sense of the immense variety of photographic media that is available to him. It is also intended to show how the artist has been moved by his own inner compulsion to select a technique, integrate its expressive potential with his initial vision, and extend it though his final presentation.”
—Peter C. Bunnell
The reverse of the daguerreotype with exhibition loan label for Photography into Sculpture, Museum of Modern Art, 1970. Bunnell began his long career in photography as a student of Minor White’s at the Rochester Institute of Technology in the 1950s and was recruited by White to work on the seminal periodical of artistic photography, Aperture. He joined the staff of The Museum of Modern Art in 1966 as a collection cataloguer, becoming Associate Curator and then Curator of Photography. In 1972, he was hired as the inaugural David Hunter McAlpin Professor of the History of Photography and Modern Art at Princeton University.
Bunnell served as Director of the Princeton University Art Museum from 1973 to 1978, and as Acting Director from 1998 to 2000, while also being 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.
Provenance
Collection of Peter C. Bunnell, Princeton, New Jersey
Exhibited
Photography as Printmaking, The Museum of Modern Art, New York, March - May 1968
A Reverence for Beauty: The Peter C. Bunnell Collection, Part 2
228
Lot offered with No Reserve
Study of a Sculpted Bust of a Woman
circa 1848
Daguerreotype.
Half-plate.
Sight: 5 1/8 x 3 3/4 in. (13 x 9.5 cm)
In a modern mat; Museum of Modern Art exhibition and loan labels on the reverse of the frame.
Estimate
$1,500 - 2,500 •
Sold for $3,556
Sarah Krueger
Head of Department, Photographs
skrueger@phillips.com
Vanessa Hallett
Worldwide Head of Photographs and Chairwoman, Americas
vhallett@phillips.com
Photographs
New York Auction 4 April 2023
