Our next Design auction on July 13 will include a dedicated section devoted to photography. Providing the impetus to the new focus is the consignment of a very fine collection of photographs by important 20th century American and European photographers.
The single owner collection of thirty prints, amassed by an American gentleman based in Cambridgeshire during the last decade, comprises works by some of the best known photographers of the past century including Americans Ansel Adams (1902-84), Imogen Cunningham (1883-1984) and Paul Outerbridge (1896-1958) and French masters Dora Maar (1907-97), Robert Doisneau (1912-94) and Édouard Boubat (1923-99).
Many of the works betray an interest in photojournalism and in particular the sensitive images of deprivation and social inequality in the US and Europe that proved so influential in the years before and after the Second World War.
Focused on the issue of migratory labourers, hired to pick fruit and vegetables in wartime America, are silver gelatin prints Ansel Adams’ Trailer Camp Children, Richmond, California, 1944 and Marion Post Wolcott's Card game of African-American Day Labourers, Belle Glade, Florida, 1941. Both carry estimates of £2,000-3,000 each.
Ansel Adams (1902-1984)
Trailer Camp Children, Richmond, California, 1944
gelatin silver print laid on card, signed in pencil on card, with Carmel studio stamp on verso, printed c. 1974,
24 x 33.8cm
£2,000 - 3,000
Equally powerful is Dora Maar’s Barcelona street urchin, 1932 (estimate £1,000-1,500) and Édouard Boubat’s Place Maubert, Paris, 1952 (estimate £1,500-2,000).
Édouard Boubat (French, 1923-1999)
Place Maubert, Paris, 1952,
silver gelatin print, printed later c. 1970, signed in ink, signed, titled and dated verso,
34 x 23.5cm
£1,500 - 2,000
One of Mary Ellen Mark’s breakthrough images was Beautiful Emine Posing, Trabzon, Turkey - her famous shot of a girl in simple, childish clothing assuming a fashion model's pose and knowing expression taken in 1965 when she was visiting the Bosphorus as a Fulbright Fellow. “It's obviously a very seductive gesture,” she said of the girl's stance. “She's almost a woman.” Used in the first of her 18 photo books, this print is guided at £1,000-1,500.
Mary Ellen Mark (American, 1940-2015)
Beautiful Emine Posing, Trabzon, Turkey, 1965
gelatin print
29 x 19cm
£1,000 - 1,500
Should you wish to enter similar photographs or photographic collections for sale, we would be very interested to hear from you.
For valuations and consignments, please contact:
John Black
johnblack@sworder.co.uk | 01279 817778
Entries close Friday 28 May.
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20 April 2026
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16 April 2026
A remarkable group of books from the library of Professor C.J.F. Dowsett will feature in our April Books, Manuscripts and Maps sale. The collection reflects a lifetime of scholarship in Armenian, Iranian and Near Eastern studies.
16 April 2026