Focus on the Art photography market

The market first emerged somewhat timidly in the 1970s with small-format historical black and whites. In 1971, the American auctioneer Sotheby’s launched the first Photography Department at an international level. However, it took another 20 years for the Art Photography market to really establish itself. During the 1990s, public attitudes towards photography began to change and in 1997 Paris Photo became the first art fair dedicated exclusively to photography. It was also the era of the first large-formats, particularly those produced by the Düsseldorf School. Henceforward, the art market began to include Contemporary Photography as a legitimate artistic discipline, and the production of limited and numbered editions helped to reassure collectors. Today, faced with an exceptionally abundant offer, buyers are extremely demanding (nearly two thirds of the lots offered remain unsold) and photography has succeeded in penetrating the top bracket of the art market.

92 results above the million-dollar threshold
Since 2005, when photography generated its first 7-digit auction results¹, 91 other photos have crossed this threshold², all periods combined. The main beneficiaries of these high-end prices are Contemporary photographs (87% of the million-plus results) ahead of Historical and Modern photographs. The vitality of the Contemporary art market as a whole is fuelling a rapidly growing photography segment.

10 Contemporaries over the million-dollar line
Only ten Contemporary artists (or duos) have crossed the million-dollar line:Jeff KOONS, Cindy SHERMAN, Andreas GURSKY, Richard PRINCE,GILBERT & GEORGE, Jeff WALL, Hiroshi SUGIMOTO, Mike KELLEY,Thomas STRUTH and Piotr UKLANSKI. Half of them are American.

$9.4 million – the all-time record
The best auction price ever paid for a photograph. Only an icon of Contemporary art could generate such a spectacular³ result… Jeff KOONS, and the photograph was a self-portrait.

$6.7 million – last year’s record
The highest bid over the 2014/2015 period rewarded a Cindy SHERMAN portfolio containing 21 silver prints of the famous Untitled film still (1977) series. The portfolio elicited vigorous bidding and was finally hammered at $6.7 million on 12 November 2014 at Christie’s in New York, a new record for the American artist.

$1.8 million: Thomas STRUTH’s Panthéon
Thomas STRUTH has recently joined the 7-digit club after his Panthéon, Rome⁴ set a new personal auction record at $1.8 million in May 2015. Two years ago the same work fetched $547,000 less⁵.