Art: The Photo Boom

Collecting great art has always been a rich man's hobby, the province of the Medicis, the Morgans and the Mellons. For others, the only time the price is right, or at least affordable, is that fleeting moment between discovery and celebrity. The early part of the century, when a now famous Picasso etching could be had for $20, was one such time. The late '50s, when a Rauschenberg painting cost less than $1,000, was another. For photography that golden moment was, almost literally, just yesterday.

Consider the market history of the late Paul Strand's work. Fifteen years ago, his platinum prints sold for $125. In 1972 they were still a bargain at $1,500. Today a good Strand can go up to $12,000.

Similar stories of steep appreciation can be told about the work of almost every other major 20th century photographer: Alfred Stieglitz, Edward Steichen, Edward Weston, Walker Evans, W. Eugene Smith, Diane Arbus and Imogen Cunningham, among the dead; Harry Callahan, Frederick Sommer, Paul Caponigro, and Fashion Photographers Richard Avedon and Irving Penn, among the living. The great pictures of the 19th century are more expensive still. Last May two albums containing 100 early California and Oregon scenes by Carleton E. Watkins were sold for $198,000. "A print is amusing at $100," quips one art dealer. "At $1,000 it's art."

Many people, of course, have known that from the minute Louis Jacques Mandé Daguerre found a way to fix images on silver-coated plates in 1839. "Photography was art from the moment the first shutter clicked," insists Graham Nash, 37, a San Francisco musician (formerly of Crosby, Stills and Nash), who owns one of the largest private collections on the West Coast. But only in the past decade has the general public placed photography alongside the other major arts. The first commercially successful New York City gallery devoted solely to photographs was opened in 1969 by Lee Witkin, who is credited with helping start the boom. Only in the past two or three years have collectors been willing to lay out the large sums they have traditionally devoted to paintings, drawings or lithographs.

"When I started selling photos in 1976, I'd first have to prove to my customers that photography was an art," says San Francisco Dealer Stephen Wirtz. "Then I'd have to convince them it was an art worth spending money on. Now they say, 'Oh, dear. This is obviously art. Why didn't I do something about it earlier?' " Five years ago there were perhaps a dozen galleries in the U.S. selling photography; now there are at least 125.