Photographs and Photobooks Auction

Bloomsbury Auctions are delighted to announce its June 6th sale of Photographs and Photobooks. Spanning the history of the medium, the sale contains photographs from the earliest decades to the present day, with a strong selection of 20th Century photobooks.

Lovers of early photography may be intrigued by a pair of charming miniature studies of Domestic Fowl, salt prints dating from the late 1840s or early 1850s by Mary Dillwyn, the youngest sister of John Dillwyn Llewellyn, and almost certainly the first woman photographer in Wales (lot 23).

American photography is well represented throughout the sale with a collection of photographs by the American landscape master Ansel Adams, including his iconic photograph Monolith, The Face of Half Dome, 1927  (lot 25) alongside photographs by Lewis Hine, Paul Strand, Walker Evans, Bruce Davidson, Diane Arbus, Elliott Erwitt, Aaron Siskind, Stephen Shore, Ruth Orkin, Weegee, William Klein, and Garry Winogrand.

Among the celebrity portraits featured in the sale, screen icon Marilyn Monroe is portrayed in a series of lots including an oversized contact print by Bert Stern (lot 172). Supermodel Helena Christensen features not only in a photograph by Patrick Demarchelier (lot 182), but also behind the camera, as a photographer herself. Her self-portrait is included in the sale (lot 183) as well as portraits of her friends Bono and REM lead singer, Michael Stipe. Close-up shots of Angelina Jolie and Nicole Kidman by photographers Michael Thompson and Herb Ritts are also on offer.

Other photographers with works include Roger Fenton, Marc Ferrez, Anton Giulio Bragaglia, Dora Maar, Jeanloup Sieff, Cecil Beaton, Eadweard Muybridge, Bruce Weber, Martin Parr, Luigi Ghirri, Jack Smith, Frank Horvat, Alexander Rodchenko, Horst P Horst, Miles Aldridge, Bert Stern, Herb Ritts, Bettina Rheims, Michel Dweck, and many more.

The sale will be held on Friday 6th June at Dreweatts & Bloomsbury Auctions’ saleroom in London’s Mayfair. All works will be on public view from Sunday 1st June until the day of the sale with a late viewing until 8pm on Thursday 5th June. The illustrated catalogue is available to download or view online at www.bloomsburyauctions.com