Leitz Photographica Auction Thursday June 20, 2024
A rare 66-year-old Leica MP2 black paint camera from 1958 recently sold for €1.56 million, or $1.68 million, at the 44th Leitz Photographica Auction in Wetzlar, Germany. Leica made only 27 MP2 cameras, and just six of them were made in the black paint version, notes PetaPixel. In addition to the MP2, a 1931 Leica I Mod A. Luxus camera in original gold-plated and leather-covered condition, one of only a few such luxury models existing and never restored, sold for €288,000 ($311,470) after being estimated at €240,000 to €300,000.
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MACK Books Thursday June 20, 2024
First published in 1996, Richard Billingham’s Ray’s a Laugh “is one of the most significant photobooks of the turn of the twentieth century, as well as a cornerstone work of the Young British Artists generation,” notes Mack, which is now republishing the book. The collection of images depicting Billingham’s often chaotic parental home in the Midlands of England, under the heavy effects of alcoholism and poverty, was both widely acclaimed and decried as deeply disturbing when it first appeared, notes The Washington Post.
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ARTnews Thursday June 20, 2024
Michael Stout, the president of the Robert Mapplethorpe Foundation, estimates that the late photographer left behind approximately 14,000 prints, made from around 2,000 negatives, as well as a smaller number of sculptural objects and Polaroids. Today, 15 galleries around the world manage the sales from the estate based on their respective geography. And, notes Art News, Mapplethorpe’s work has been more popular than ever in recent years. The first quarter of 2024 has so far seen four solo gallery exhibitions for the photographer.
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Albertina Museum Thursday June 20, 2024
Three decades into his career, photographer Gregory Crewdson is reflecting on his work in a major retrospective at the Albertina museum in Vienna, Austria, notes CNN. The exhibition, which runs through Sept. 8, brings all of Crewdson's series together (minus his commercial work) for the first time. Since the mid-1980s, Crewdson has been using the backdrop of small American towns and film sets to create, like a film director, technically brilliant and colorfully seductive photographs that focus on human isolation and the abysses of society, notes the museum.
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