A Year of Photography at Auction, 2017 Highlights

2017 brought a number of developments in photography ranging from announcements from technical suppliers to several recording breaking sales at auction. Here are some of the highlights of the year:

This year’s stand out moments for photography at auction include an artist record for Man Ray, whose Noire et Blanche was also the most expensive photograph to sell in 2017. There were also auction records for Wolfgang Tillmans, Irving Penn, and Peter Beard. There were several new additions to the Most Expensive Photographs sold at Auction list, including two photographs by Man Ray, and work by Gilbert & George, Andreas Gursky and Edward Weston.

MoMA audaciously sold 400 photographs from their collections, and the oldest portrait of an American president went under the hammer. Other items of interest this year included plans for V&A’s new photography gallery, and several announcements detailing the return of analogue photography.

Several photography auctions have already been scheduled for 2018 by Sotheby’s, Christie’s and Phillips, slated for spring. More information about these auctions will be posted in due time, until then a happy new year to all our readers.