Sotheby’s Photographs Auction Results, May 2018

It has been a big week for photography auctions with sales from the big three auction houses. Sotheby’s Photographs auction commenced at 3:30pm in London with 72 lots on offer including work from big names like Helmut Newton, Irving Penn, and Peter Beard as well as colour photography from William Eggleston, Steve McCurry, and Desiree Dolron. 

The most expensive sale was a portfolio of Richard Avedon prints (Avedon/ Paris) which surpassed it’s original estimate of £150,000-£200,000, selling for £237,000. David Yarrow’s 78 Degrees North, Salvard, Norway 2017 (featured and above) also surpassed its estimate of £18,000-£25,000 by selling for £81,250, followed by Helmut Newton’s Saddle I, Paris, 1976 which surpassed its £30,000-£40,000 estimate and sold for £57,500.

Several Irving Penn portraits sold for over £50,000, as did work from Nobuyoshi Araki and Peter Beard. The auctions brought in a sales total of £1,307,250 and was the first of two photography auctions held by Sotheby’s this month, the second (Photographs Online, an online auction) runs from 18th-29th May.

View all lots and results from this auction at Sotheby’s web page here.