The Expert Eye

Ralph Eugene Meatyard's series of photographs featuring his family in unexpected places and costumes are hard to describe but entirely captivating. He found inspiration for a series of photographs from a book published in 1911 by Ambrose Bierce called ‘The Devil's Dictionary.' After handling one of Meatyard's prints at Sotheby's, Aimee gets to the bottom of what these two things have in common, while discovering what demons were hard at work in old printing workshops.

In 1853, photographer Platt Babbitt made a chilling daguerreotype of a man named Joseph Avery, who had been stuck on a tree branch in the middle of the rushing rapids near the edge of Niagara Falls for over 10 hours. Babbitt had unknowingly created the first “action” shot in photojournalism. In this episode, Aimee tells the unbelievable true story of a daring rescue attempt on the Niagara River, a photographer who fought tooth and nail to defend his turf, and the beginning of photojournalism as we know it.

In the second half of my conversation with curator, educator, and photographer Leland Rice, he talks about two major exhibitions that he worked on for two photographers whose work he greatly admired-Frederick Sommer and Herbert Bayer. We also talk about the important connections, or “linkages” that have existed in his life.

Despite a raging head cold, Aimee barrels through to give you want you want: a discussion with Emily Bierman that covers the stellar results of the sale of Ansel Adams, A Legacy: Photographs from the Meredith Collection. This auction smashed records and exceeded expectations overall. We discuss white-glove auctions, the Ansel Adams market, estimates, auction development, research, and I ask Emily to define some of the quirky words we use in the department while cataloguing. Tune in for some major inside-ball information on how we do what we do!

In this long awaited second interview with former Chairman of Sotheby's Photographs, Denise Bethel, she and Aimee talk about her long career at Sotheby's and the many treasures she handled, challenges she faced, and things she learned.

This is the first part of a conversation between Aimee Pflieger and Leland Rice on May 19, 2024. Here, he details his first exposure to photography, his experiences both as a student and as an instructor, and finally the genesis and execution of the first major American exhibition of László Moholy-Nagy's photographic work. This groundbreaking exhibition and accompanying catalogue of gathers around 75 of the artist's photographs and photograms and traveled to 21 venues in 4 years, through the summer of 1979.

How important are names? How important are titles of photographs? In this episode Aimee identifies 3 major ways that things become mistitled and how they can make a significant difference in the ways images are viewed using examples by Henri Cartier-Bresson, Josef Koudelka, Robert Capa, and George Hoyningen-Huene.

In this episode, Aimee sits down with Susan Kismaric, who started working in the photography department at the Museum of Modern Art in 1976 after a stint at the LIFE Picture Collection. She has curated a host of exhibitions and published several books, including her most recent on Garry Winogrand's color work. Listen in on this captivating conversation that covers Susan's earliest involvement with photography, her memories of MoMA in the 1970s and 80s, and what it was like to work closely with some of the greatest photographers of our time.

In this episode, Aimee discusses Roy DeCarava's lyrical photographs with Saul Robbins, who was DeCarava's studio assistant during graduate school. We talk about one photograph in particular that encapsulates the photographer's masterful printing style as well as his efforts to communicate his personal experiences.

Denise Bethel joined Swann Galleries in 1980, soon after photographs auctions were inaugurated in New York.  After a decade at Swann, she moved to Sotheby's in 1990, where she rose from senior specialist to Chairman of the Department in her 25 years there. At Sotheby's, she set records in a host of categories, among them the record for any photographs auction worldwide, at $21.3 million, in December 2014. She orchestrated the sales of no less than eight of the eleven classic photographs that have sold at auction to date for over $1 million or more, and she wielded the gavel for all of them. One of these, Edward Steichen's "The Pond, Moonlight," at $2.93 million in 2006, is still the world record for any classic photograph at auction. In this episode, Denise and I discuss the first half of her auction career at Swann Galleries, here in New York City.  She transformed what was then known as Photographica sales into Photographs auctions, impacting the way people think about buying and collecting photographs.  This is the Expert Eye.

The layers within this story are many: Director James Cameron drew a picture of a picture and then gave said picture to an actor to use as a prop in a movie about a real thing that happened but is actually completely fabricated, and he talks about a woman who actually existed but no one knew who she was although she was photographed by someone whose pictures were sometimes fabrications.

Formerly a photographer and founder of The Center for Photography in Woodstock in 1977, Howard Greenberg has been one of a small group of gallerists, curators and historians responsible for the creation and development of the modern market for photography. Howard Greenberg Gallery—founded in 1981 and originally known as Photofind—was the first to consistently exhibit photojournalism and 'street' photography, now accepted as important components of photographic art. Howard Greenberg Gallery maintains diverse and extensive holdings of photographic prints including Eugène Atget, Henri Cartier-Bresson, Bruce Davidson, André Kertész, William Klein, Gordon Parks, Edward Steichen, Paul Strand, Josef Sudek, and Edward Weston on its roster of artists. More recent additions include Edward Burtynsky, Jungjin Lee, Joel Meyerowitz, and Vivian Maier. In 2013 Howard Greenberg Gallery announced exclusive representation for the estates of Berenice Abbott and Arnold Newman. In 2018 Howard Greenberg Gallery became the primary representative of the Ray K. Metzker Archive. In 2019 Greenberg sold 447 photographs from his collection to the Museum of Fine Art in Boston. This conversation took place over Zoom in January 2023.

Emily Bierman, SVP and Global Head of Sotheby's Photographs, comes back to chat with Aimee about the spectacular results of the Sotheby's Photographs May 1 and 2, 2023 auctions: Pier 24 Photography from the Pilara Family Foundation Sold to Benefit Charitable Organizations. Covered: Sale strategy, lot order, exhibitions, and what we learned about the Photo market in the first half of 2023.

O. Winston Link is the King of Steam Train Photography. His mastery of the medium of photography and artistry in creating night shots is unparalleled. But while he was obsessive over trains and lighting, he left a lot of details to chance when it came to what his wife and business manager was up to. What happened seems like something straight out of a Lifetime movie.

Cartleton Watkins is considered by many to be the foremost 19th century photographer of the American West. His ‘mammoth plate' prints can sell for six figures at auction. How do we rate Watkins prints when they come through the Sotheby's Photographs department? How do we judge what is a “good” and “bad” print, and what are the metrics that we use to decide? I'll give you all of the details in this episode, alongside Watkins' heartbreaking personal story.

Margaret Bourke-White was commissioned for what was to be the largest photo-mural in the world for the newly-constructed 30 Rockefeller Plaza. She worked furiously and it was unveiled in December, 1933. At the opening ceremony, what someone had done to her work would upset her so badly she omitted the whole affair from her autobiography.

In 1930 three people, Edward Weston, Lincoln Steffens, and Jack Black (not THAT Jack Black) have some life-changing experiences and their stories intersect with a woman named Ginny Williams who buys a portrait 60 years later.

In the early 2000s Alan Pflieger, a photographer in Huntington, Indiana (and my dad), acquired a huge archive of negatives from the Rickert Studio, which had been in operation from 1912 to 1986. He saved the negatives from being destroyed. My parents stored these negatives in their house for years until, through a funny series of events, they ended up making their way to the Huntington County Historical Society. A few years before and several states south, Mike Disfarmer was documenting the rural community of Heber Springs, Arkansas. When he died, his negatives were in danger of being lost forever.

Emily Bierman, SVP and Global Head of Sotheby's Photographs, chats with Aimee about the April 13, 2022 Photographs auction. Covered: estimate “Smack Down” sessions, photograph obsessions, missed opportunities, and the health of the market from two people who should know.

Lee Marks, a photography dealer and consultant, heads Lee Marks Fine Art, established in New York City in 1981 and now located in Shelbyville, Indiana. Lee has served in many roles in the photographic field, including gallery employee, writer, curator, President of the non-profit organization AIPAD, and business owner. This talk was conducted by Zoom in January 2022.

In 1914, Mary Wigman created a dance that would shatter the rules about what dance was supposed to look like. A trio of images by Charlotte Rudolph of Wigman came through the Photography department at Sotheby's recently. Aimee gets to the bottom of what these images had to do with the Suspiria remake and why everyone was so upset about modern dance.

In this episode Aimee gives you the secret five-step process for looking at Ansel Adams prints, providing lots details on Adams' signature (and unique) style, how to narrow down print dates, analyze paper, stamps, and more.

In the second half of my interview with Deborah Bell, we talk about Deborah's experiences as a private dealer, auction house specialist, gallery owner, and educator.

After 13 years as a private dealer, Deborah Bell opened her first public gallery at 511 West 25th Street in Chelsea and remained there for 10 years (2001-2011). In 2011 Bell closed the gallery in order to join Christie's New York, where she was Head of the Photographs Department for 2-1/2 years. In 2014 she re-established Deborah Bell Photographs, and in April 2015 moved to the gallery's present location on Manhattan's Upper East Side. This is the first half of an interview conducted November 2021.

What if you could send from your brain straight to a camera? In the 1960s, a man named Ted Serios and a psychiatrist named Dr. Jule Eisenbud set out to prove to the world that it could be done.

In this episode, Steven Shainberg, director of 'Fur: An Imaginary Portrait of Diane Arbus' joins me to discuss hero worship, hairy actors, and make-believe.

In this episode, I tell the story of how I got to research a very rare photograph by Diane Arbus that she took while on assignment for a magazine called Famous Monsters of Filmland. The photograph features 5 youngsters on the stoop of their rowhouse in Queens, sporting monster masks. It sold for $50,000 in 2019. Why is this photo so important? I'll fill you in.

A German Photographer named Albert Frisch was responsible for some of the first photographs taken in the Upper Amazon. Among those images are ones of a rubber tree and a man working with latex. Why is this important? Aimee gets to the bottom of our very complicated history with this special tree.

In 1939, LIFE photojournalist Hansel Mieth took a photograph that would haunt her for the rest of her life. That photograph was … of a monkey. In this episode, Aimee talks about the time she handled a print of this image and the surprising history behind it.

At the height of Polar Mania, three Swedish explorers went on the search for the North Pole by hot air balloon. This episode tells the story of what happened when documentary photographs taken by the adventurers were found in the ice, years later.

Aimee visits an intriguing exhibition at The Met and realizes that it is coincidentally connected to a print she catalogued for an upcoming auction by pioneering photographer Florence Henri.

A 1933 image of rooftops by influential British photographer Bill Brandt comes across Aimee's desk, and she tries to get to the bottom of how Brandt made this print using her mantra: Look, Touch, Think, Look (again). She nearly misses some important clues.

A photographic discovery by astronomer Sir John Herschel inadvertently influences the mad experimentation of playwright August Strindberg, leading to surprising results.