Create your first list.
Select an existing list or create a new list to share and manage lots you follow.
The remarkable selection of photographs offered in this online auction comes from the collection of Peter C. Bunnell (1937-2021), the pioneering curator, teacher, and photographic historian. All lots are sold with No Reserve and the proceeds will be distributed to six institutions with whom Bunnell was associated — Rochester Institute of Technology, Ohio University, Yale University, The George Eastman Museum, The Museum of Modern Art, and Princeton University Art Museum — to establish endowments to support the study of photographic history.
Bunnell met photographer Jerry Uelsmann during their student days at the Rochester Institute of Technology in the 1950s. The two went on to become lifelong friends and colleagues in the field of photography. Uelsmann’s work, which increasingly involved the practice of incorporating multiple negatives into a single print, dovetailed with Bunnell’s progressive view of photography, and the young curator included the photographer’s work in his seminal 1968 exhibition Photography as Printmaking at The Museum of Modern Art. Bunnell went on to contribute text to the Uelsmann monographs Jerry N. Uelsmann (1970); Silver Meditations (1975), and Museum Studies (1999).
“Uelsmann’s art is essentially direct rather than allusive, and his pictures appear analogous to that believable reality so fundamental to photography. But herein is the rub: Uelsmann’s interpretive vision pervades each work and causes us to ponder whether reality is really quite so true as invention.”
—Peter C. Bunnell
Silver Meditations (1975) Bunnell began his long career in photography as a student of Minor White’s at the Rochester Institute of Technology in the 1950s and was recruited by White to work on the seminal periodical of artistic photography, Aperture. He joined the staff of The Museum of Modern Art in 1966 as a collection cataloguer, becoming Associate Curator and then Curator of Photography. In 1972, he was hired as the inaugural David Hunter McAlpin Professor of the History of Photography and Modern Art at Princeton University.
Bunnell served as Director of the Princeton University Art Museum from 1973 to 1978, and as Acting Director from 1998 to 2000, while also being the Museum’s Curator of Photography throughout the entirety of his tenure. Bunnell built a broad-ranging collection of photographs at the Museum, the firsthand examination of which became a central element of the student experience in his classes and seminars. Bunnell also assembled a personal collection of photography over the course of his long career that reflects his vast and deep understanding of the medium. Begun in the 1950s, before photography galleries and dealers were commonplace, Bunnell’s collection is a deeply personal one, put together with a sense of joy and curiosity that includes both icons and lesser-known gems spanning the history of photography.
Provenance
Acquired from the photographer
Collection of Peter C. Bunnell, Princeton, New JerseyLiterature
Coleman, Jerry Uelsmann: Photosynthesis, p. 44
The Eye That Shapes: Further Selections from the Peter C. Bunnell Collection
7
Lot offered with No Reserve
Room #1
1963
Gelatin silver print.
9 x 13 1/2 in. (22.9 x 34.3 cm)
Initialed and dated in pencil on the mount; signed, titled and dated in ink on the reverse of the mount.
Estimate
$1,500 - 2,500 •
Sold for $5,670
Senior International Specialist
Worldwide Head of Photographs and Deputy Chairwoman
The Eye That Shapes: Further Selections from the Peter C. Bunnell Collection
Online Auction 25 January - 1 February 2023
1No Reserve
Minor White
Sun in Rock
Estimate $4,000 - 6,000 •
Sold for $4,032
Create your first list.
Select an existing list or create a new list to share and manage lots you follow.
2No Reserve
Minor White
Selected Nature Studies
Estimate $4,000 - 6,000 •
Sold for $5,292
Create your first list.
Select an existing list or create a new list to share and manage lots you follow.
3No Reserve
Minor White
Peeled Paint, Rochester, New York
Estimate $6,000 - 8,000 •
Sold for $9,450
Create your first list.
Select an existing list or create a new list to share and manage lots you follow.
4No Reserve
Imogen Cunningham
Selected Portraits of Photographers
Estimate $3,000 - 5,000 •
Sold for $1,197
Create your first list.
Select an existing list or create a new list to share and manage lots you follow.
5No Reserve
Minor White
Vicinity of Dansville, New York
Estimate $5,000 - 7,000 •
Sold for $3,780
Create your first list.
Select an existing list or create a new list to share and manage lots you follow.
6No Reserve
Harry Callahan
Eleanor, Port Huron
Estimate $2,500 - 3,500 •
Sold for $4,788
Create your first list.
Select an existing list or create a new list to share and manage lots you follow.
7No Reserve
Jerry Uelsmann
Room #1
Estimate $1,500 - 2,500 •
Sold for $5,670
Create your first list.
Select an existing list or create a new list to share and manage lots you follow.
8No Reserve
Harry Callahan
Aix-en-Provence, France
Estimate $3,000 - 5,000 •
Sold for $4,788
Create your first list.
Select an existing list or create a new list to share and manage lots you follow.
9No Reserve
Paul Caponigro
Selected Images
Estimate $3,000 - 5,000 •
Sold for $5,040
Create your first list.
Select an existing list or create a new list to share and manage lots you follow.
10No Reserve
Emmet Gowin
Toutle River Valley, Mount St. Helens
Estimate $2,500 - 3,500 •
Sold for $4,410
Create your first list.
Select an existing list or create a new list to share and manage lots you follow.
11No Reserve
Minor White
Grasses and Mist (Swamp, Mendocino, CA)
Estimate $5,000 - 7,000 •
Sold for $3,528
Create your first list.
Select an existing list or create a new list to share and manage lots you follow.
12No Reserve
Minor White
Self-Portrait, West Bloomfield, New York
Estimate $2,000 - 3,000 •
Sold for $1,890
Create your first list.
Select an existing list or create a new list to share and manage lots you follow.
13No Reserve
Brett Weston
New York City
Estimate $3,000 - 5,000 •
Sold for $3,024
Create your first list.
Select an existing list or create a new list to share and manage lots you follow.
14No Reserve
W. Eugene Smith
Man Walking in the Street, Southside, Pittsburgh
Estimate $3,000 - 5,000 •
Sold for $4,032
Create your first list.
Select an existing list or create a new list to share and manage lots you follow.
15No Reserve
Brett Weston
Brooklyn Bridge
Estimate $5,000 - 7,000 •
Sold for $7,560
Create your first list.
Select an existing list or create a new list to share and manage lots you follow.
16No Reserve
W. Eugene Smith
Gateway Center, Pittsburgh
Estimate $2,000 - 3,000 •
Sold for $2,016
Create your first list.
Select an existing list or create a new list to share and manage lots you follow.
17No Reserve
Elliott Erwitt
Las Vegas
Estimate $700 - 900 •
Sold for $1,386
Create your first list.
Select an existing list or create a new list to share and manage lots you follow.
18No Reserve
Henri Cartier-Bresson
Mount Aso
Estimate $3,000 - 5,000 •
Sold for $6,048
Create your first list.
Select an existing list or create a new list to share and manage lots you follow.
19No Reserve
Henri Cartier-Bresson
Tokyo Funeral
Estimate $5,000 - 7,000 •
Sold for $7,560
Create your first list.
Select an existing list or create a new list to share and manage lots you follow.
20No Reserve
Barbara Morgan
Martha Graham - Letter to the World (The Kick)
Estimate $3,000 - 5,000 •
Sold for $7,560
Create your first list.
Select an existing list or create a new list to share and manage lots you follow.
21No Reserve
Jacques Henri Lartigue
Selected Images
Estimate $1,000 - 1,500 •
Sold for $3,528
Create your first list.
Select an existing list or create a new list to share and manage lots you follow.
22No Reserve
Eugène Atget
Selected Images of Paris
Estimate $2,000 - 3,000 •
Sold for $3,276
Create your first list.
Select an existing list or create a new list to share and manage lots you follow.
23No Reserve
Lewis Hine
Western Union Messenger #55
Estimate $1,000 - 2,000 •
Sold for $882
Create your first list.
Select an existing list or create a new list to share and manage lots you follow.
24No Reserve
Henri Cartier-Bresson
Pheasants
Estimate $700 - 900 •
Sold for $1,512
Create your first list.
Select an existing list or create a new list to share and manage lots you follow.
25No Reserve
Manuel Álvarez Bravo
Striking Worker, Assassinated
Estimate $3,000 - 5,000 •
Sold for $5,670
Create your first list.
Select an existing list or create a new list to share and manage lots you follow.
26No Reserve
Manuel Álvarez Bravo
Trampa Puesta
Estimate $1,500 - 2,500 •
Sold for $1,134
Create your first list.
Select an existing list or create a new list to share and manage lots you follow.
27No Reserve
Mario Cravo Neto
Heart of Stone
Estimate $2,000 - 3,000 •
Sold for $2,268
Create your first list.
Select an existing list or create a new list to share and manage lots you follow.
28No Reserve
Laura Gilpin
Fire Ceremony, Mesa Verde National Park
Estimate $4,000 - 6,000 •
Sold for $5,040
Create your first list.
Select an existing list or create a new list to share and manage lots you follow.
29No Reserve
Barbara Morgan
Selected Photomontages
Estimate $1,000 - 1,500 •
Sold for $1,890
Create your first list.
Select an existing list or create a new list to share and manage lots you follow.
30No Reserve
Emmet Gowin
Edith
Estimate $2,500 - 3,500 •
Sold for $3,780
Create your first list.
Select an existing list or create a new list to share and manage lots you follow.
31No Reserve
Doug Prince
Selected Photographic Sculptures
Estimate $3,000 - 5,000 •
Sold for $2,520
Create your first list.
Select an existing list or create a new list to share and manage lots you follow.
32No Reserve
Ray K. Metzker
Double Frame: Atlantic City
Estimate $2,000 - 3,000 •
Sold for $1,386
Create your first list.
Select an existing list or create a new list to share and manage lots you follow.
33No Reserve
Jerry Uelsmann
Rock-Tree
Estimate $700 - 900 •
Sold for $2,772
Create your first list.
Select an existing list or create a new list to share and manage lots you follow.
34No Reserve
Naomi Savage
Selected Variants: Enmeshed Man
Estimate $2,000 - 3,000 •
Sold for $10,080
Create your first list.
Select an existing list or create a new list to share and manage lots you follow.
35No Reserve
Jerry Uelsmann
Selected Images of Peter C. Bunnell
Estimate $4,000 - 6,000 •
Sold for $2,016
Create your first list.
Select an existing list or create a new list to share and manage lots you follow.
36No Reserve
Bea Nettles
Pleasant Pasture II
Estimate $700 - 1,000 •
Sold for $5,040
Create your first list.
Select an existing list or create a new list to share and manage lots you follow.
37No Reserve
Eikoh Hosoe
Selected Images
Estimate $4,000 - 6,000 •
Sold for $5,040
Create your first list.
Select an existing list or create a new list to share and manage lots you follow.
38No Reserve
Yasuhiro Ishimoto
Selected Images
Estimate $2,000 - 3,000 •
Sold for $3,024
Create your first list.
Select an existing list or create a new list to share and manage lots you follow.
39No Reserve
Jerry Uelsmann
Selected Images
Estimate $2,000 - 3,000 •
Sold for $2,016
Create your first list.
Select an existing list or create a new list to share and manage lots you follow.
40No Reserve
Lynton Wells
Six Wizards (Italian Bellflowers)
Estimate $1,000 - 1,500 •
Sold for $4,032
Create your first list.
Select an existing list or create a new list to share and manage lots you follow.
41No Reserve
Jerry Uelsmann
Selected Images
Estimate $2,000 - 3,000 •
Sold for $2,772
Create your first list.
Select an existing list or create a new list to share and manage lots you follow.
42No Reserve
Peter C. Bunnell
Selected Images
Estimate $3,000 - 5,000 •
Sold for $1,512
Create your first list.
Select an existing list or create a new list to share and manage lots you follow.