Once ignored by the art world, work by contemporary photographers is highly collectable and is garnering top dollar at auction houses and galleries

When is a photograph not a photograph? When it is a work of contemporary art. And the mainstream art world's growing acceptance of artists whose chosen medium is photography has led to stratospheric prices.

At this season's Christie's Contemporary Art evening sale, where top paintings by Keith Haring and Jean Michel Basquiat were sold, a photograph taken just last year by Andreas Gursky sold for $292,000. In fact, photographs comprised almost one-third of all of the works sold at Christie's that night.

Shoshana Blank, director of the Shoshana Wayne Gallery in Santa Monica, Calif., declared that a photo can be "as successful as an oil on canvas." Cyril Pigot, director of Nikolai Fine Art in New York, added that even the photographs by very young artists are priced as high as oils. In the auction world, according to Amy Cappellazzo, international specialist head for contemporary art at Christie's, photographs "are at a point of parity" with other media.

So how have photographers managed to muscle into the sacred territory once reserved for painters and sculptors?

Not all photographers are granted entrance into the exclusive club that is the "contemporary art world" According to Matthew Carey-Williams, vice president of contemporary art at Sotheby's New York, the successful ones have a "sarcastic, jolly air ... a funkiness" Duane Smith of the Lisa Sette Gallery in Scottsdale, Ariz., said it is the "way they're using the medium and how they're getting to their final image. With Cindy Sherman, (for example), there is more of a process going into it."

It would seem contemporary art photographers are also more than mere craftspeople or good photographers. While the fashion/celebrity photos of Herb Ritts may be appealing, they are not sold at the contemporary art auctions. Rather, they have been relegated to the traditional photography auctions where daguerreotypes and Walker Evans photographs are offered. This is because they are essentially deemed "really good photographs," not "really good art."

That photographs have been accepted as art at all is indeed a recent phenomenon. Said Carey-Williams, "Photography has been the most important medium over the last five to 10 years." 

And according to Pigot from Nikolai Fine Arts, "Our civilization is better expressed through this medium." Hence, it is unsurprising that photography has been gaining in popularity with collectors.

Collectors New and Old

Contemporary art photography has gained a foothold with the Generation X/30-something market. Pigot said his gallery has been targeting younger and less experienced collectors, and this is a sentiment echoed by many others in the field. According to Joseph Gilbert of the Jean Albano Gallery in Chicago, the typical photo collector is "younger and open to exploring new media."

Carey-Williams agreed. "Younger collectors amassing collections start with photography because it is more accessible."

It also has the advantage of being, in many instances, more affordable. According to Blank, younger collectors have been focusing on photographs in recent years because "they get more for the money." While some photos indeed can sell at the auction houses for $200,000 each, at Shoshana Wayne and at Jean Albano, images by some younger, less prominent photographers can be purchased for prices starting in the $1,000 range.

A Question of Editioning

Traditional art collectors have been climbing on board owing to certain developments. One is the tacit agreement between the photographers and the collectors that the former will honor their "editioning" policies. Thomas Struth's photo "Pantheon, Rome," which sold at Sotheby's New York last November for $236,750, was from an edition of 10. What if Struth decided next year to dust off the negative and print another 107 It would cost him approximately $50,000, but the pieces would have a market value of more than $2,000,000. A 40-to-1 return would be hard to resist.

Nevertheless, according to Cappellazzo of Christie's,"There is an intense honor system, and I don't worry about it being violated" She also believes she knows how photographers decide how many prints to release. 

"There used to be an aura of being unique," she said. But now, if a total of five are printed, "two will be in museums, and two will be European collections. These serve as an ad for the one being offered for sale (in New York)."

It just took some time, she noted, and then "photography got hip to the proper editioning of things. Keep something in a small edition and make it an icon."

A Word of Caution

Confidence in the explosion of the photography market isn't universal, however. Smith conjectured, "Who knows? It takes a long time. People need to keep seeing it out there; see it over and over again to really appreciate it and for it to definitely increase in value."

While photographs can go toe-to-toe with oils and sculptures, they do not always emerge victorious. Much has been made of the few outrageous prices paid for top images, but it seems that most other works are having to work to earn their suppers. There has not necessarily been a trickle-down effect.

"There has been no explosion of interest in photography," said Gilbert. Smith confirmed there has been a "steady drive" but "no big fluctuations." In the auction arena, Cappellazzo has seen a similar pattern emerging, escribing it as a "slow steady process."Perhaps the reason photography is claiming a larger share of the market is not because the works are all rising in value, but because there simply are more images in circulation. "More and more artists are coming out of school who are using the medium now. There is a tremendous number of artists who work with photography and video" said Wayne.

Carey-Williams agreed that there are "more artists using it" and, for the most part, the fruits of their labors are "less expensive." And there may be a glut not only at the mid and lower levels. "The big spenders are now very selective in their buying patterns. They have to make choices about what (they) really, really want" he explained.

"The market is growing for sure" said Cappellazzo, "but it is not that broad-based. I would not want a sale that would be 50 percent photography" Collectors who purchase art in the evening contemporary art auctions "buy when it is already a blue-chip; when it has reached a level of security in the market" she said. 

The impression, then, is of a slowly emerging market; but, then, it is just in its nascent stages. By most accounts, it has only been in existence for approximately five years. Initially, according to Carey-Williams, collectors were "not very trusting of it," then some photographers, like Struth and Gursky, "started to rock and roll." Cappellazzo agreed it only started in the mid-1990s, shortly after the Museum of Modern Art made the headlines with a major purchase of Cindy Sherman's works. In fact, she asserted that Sherman is key "in assessing the trajectory of the market" (A quick tally indicated that at last season's evening sales, equal numbers of Sherman's photographs sold below estimate, within estimate and over estimate, evidencing a certain stability.)

Taking stock of the market, it seems there is a top rung, which is only broad enough to accommodate a few lucky contemporary art photographers. There are many, perhaps too many, down below climbing their way up, but they will have to wait until the top rung widens. Many photography experts say these up-and-comers should be thankful, though--they have finally been allowed onto the same ladder as their fellow painters and sculptors.