gelatin

Altar Before Rotunda, by Francis Bruguière

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Lot 28. Bruguière_web13 3/8 x 10 5/8- inch gelatin silver print, hand colored, on the  original decorative 22 x 13 3/4- inch double mat, signed and dated on the print and again on the mount beneath the print. This is in the rotunda of the San Francisco Palace of Fine Arts at the time of the 1915 Panama Pacific International Exposition, printed and colored a year or so later. A masterpiece of evocative pictorialist photography, using the architectural features as a basis for something mysterious, brought out by the coloring (each print colored by hand) and lighting. This is a great example of this print.

$1750

MONSTROUS FLY

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MONSTROUS FLY. 8 1 /8 x 6 1/8- inch gelatin silver print, ferrotyped, 1930’s. A bit of a text slug adheres to the verso, along with notations in red and blue crayon. A long note in pencil in French explains that what appear to be the eyes of a monkey’s head are actually places where antennae were inserted. The real eye is at the side. There is a neat vertical slit at top left, and a minor fold in the lower left corner.

JOHN VACHON, MEXICAN WOMAN IN MICHIGAN

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35.1 JOHN VACHON, MEXICAN WOMAN IN MICHIGAN, 1941. 10 x 7 ¾- inch ferrotyped gelatin silver print, printed later by the Library of Congress, but still early (it does not fluoresce under a black light.) There is a credit stamp for “Pictures for Democracy” “A National Service of the Council Against Intolerance in America.” “John Vachon, FSA” is signed within the stamp. A strip label reads “Saginaw County, Michigan. Mexican woman living in the sugar beet area.” There are pictures on the walls behind her, a large box on the ground.

TRAIN STATION IN MEXICO, BY PETTUS KAUFMAN

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train10 x 13 ¼-inch vintage toned gelatin silver print on original large board mount, signed by Kaufman beneath the print. Lots of people in this image, looking in various directions, related to some New York street photography of the period, ca. 1940. This rewards careful viewing.

Kaufman was an American photographer. Most of his work that I have seen was made in Mexico.

Print is clean and undamaged.

$250

Having His Picture Taken by Charles “Teeny” Harris

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Charles Teeny Harris10″ x 8″ gelatin silver print with Harris’ Studio stamp on verso, ca. 1950’s. Harris (1908-1998) chronicled the life of the black residents of Pittsburgh from 1936 for the black newspaper the “Pittsburgh Courier”. His archive is now in the collection of the Carnegie Museum of Art. Graffiti on the wall “Franklin/My Love” and “Meathead”. A woman photographs a smiling man.

$900

FILM STILL BY WILLIAM MORTENSEN

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page1017page101810 x 8- inch toned gelatin silver print. This is a film still by William Mortensen from Cecil B. DeMille’s “massive biblical production.” The scene shows Victor Varconi and Majal Coleman as Pilate and his wife. Has Mortensen’s stamp on the verso. It is interesting as an example of his studio work before the wild  pictorialist photographs he is known for. The melodramatic faces of the scene anticipate some aspects of his later work.

$100 – postage paid within US, $10 to Canada

Japanese funeral arrangement by Brett Weston

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13 3/4 x 10- inch gelatin silver print, signed on the mount recto. This was selected and printed by Weston for the 1995 “Vogue of the Eye” exhibition. The characters are formed from some natural objects. Japanese employs some Chinese characters. The top two represent the name of the family of the deceased. In excellent condition.

$2200

Scene framed by building under construction, by Brett Weston

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10 5/8 x 13 1/4- inch gelatin silver print, signed on the mount recto. This was  selected and printed by Weston for the 1995 “Vogue of the Eye” exhibitions. The scene is framed by the architectural elements of the house being built across the unpaved street. This  reminds me of the 1937 Edward Weston photograph “False-Front House, Albion California”.
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$3000