What to you see when you look at a photograph? A large part of your response, for better or worse, will be dictated by the environment in which it’s seen: In an exhibition, inside a white cube or a big box; as printed matter, in a deluxe edition or in a magazine; as ephemera, in a poster or on a billboard. In every case, the intention of the photographer/curator/art director/marketer have something to add to what you take away.

If the photograph is an original print hung in an exhibition, there are still a number of variables in venues, and the intention of the photograph or his/her agent. A photographer will have a lot to say about how his/her photographs are selected and sequenced for a solo show. In a group show, the curator will go to great lengths to ensure that the theme of the exhibition is maintained throughout, with placement and adjacency determining much about how each photograph is perceived in relationship to the others.

In auction preview exhibitions, however, something else is behind the organization of the photographs. This became more evident than usual to me at the show currently on view at Sotheby’s.

The first gallery on the 10^th floor made the “big, red, and shiny” statement, with photographs at the largest size printable, including images on an African theme by Nick Brandt and Peter Beard. In the main gallery off the center of the lobby, the classics reigned, and were organized with collector interests in mind. All the Cartier-Bressons can be seen together, and are surrounded by 20^th century masters, from Brassai and Atget to Edward Weston, Berenice Abbott and Harry Callahan. And so forth. So while the purpose here is to sell photographs, the side effect is that you more easily take in the photograph on its own, unalloyed by external influences.

I became interested in portraits—and there were plenty of surprises, including the signature image for the show. A stern portrait of Piet Mondrian by Andre Kertesz, which appears at a commanding scale, printed in black and white on the catalogue and poster, turns out to be a sepia-toned contact print roughly 3 by 4 inches (with a pre-sale estimate of $30-$50K).

In the next gallery were two riveting portraits, both by notable late-20^th century photographers, which came from opposite ends of the spectrum in terms of portraying an individual. Both fairly large black and white prints, one is a formal portrait of an unidentified young man who projects a menacing sense of 70s cool. The other is a formal portrait of Andy Warhol (1928-1987), made in 1986, that presents an almost ghostly vision of the artist. In each case, it was the subjects’ eyes that stopped me. Details from each photo are followed by the entire image and the names of the photographers.






Above, left: William Eggleston, Untitled from Nightclub Portraits, 1973, printed in 2005. Right: Robert Mapplethorpe, Andy Warhol, 1986.

Sotheby’s Fall 2013 Photographs Auction takes place on Wednesday, October 2. The exhibition is open Monday (10am-5pm) and Tuesday (10am-3pm). 1334 York Avenue at 72^nd Street, NY, NY. Information.