LONDON.- The London Photographs department will offer an elegant curated sale of 140 lots on Wednesday 31 October with estimates ranging from £600 to £120,000. This auction provides an amazing opportunity to acquire some of the most important and affordable works of art in the history of photography, with examples by over fifty 20th century Masters, from Irving Penn to Peter Beard. The selection demonstrates a strong focus on contemporary and architectural photography, led by the works of Trine Sondergaarde, Paolo Ventura, Candida Hofer, Philip-Lorca diCorcia and Desirée Dolron. Further highlights include portraits of distinguished 20th century male icons. The entire sale is expected to realise £750,000-1,000,000.

As well as the iconic 1950 Vogue cover by Irving Penn, key highlights of fashion photography include Vogue photographer Hans Feurer’s CameraWork portfolio 1969-1986, consisting of 11 dye-transfer prints offered as one lot (estimate: £10,000-15,000).

INSIDE OUT
Paolo Ventura’s digital chromogenic print War Souvenir No. 26 (Christmas 1944), 2005 (101.6 x 50cm.), (estimate: £5,000-7,000); and Candida Hofer’s Fundación Marcelino Botin Santander V, 2004 chromogenic print (29.6 x 22.1cm.); (estimate: £800-1,200) are two of the colour works in a surrealist-inspired section of contemporary photography this season.

SAFARI OF ELEGANCE
The sale will also offer significant works by Peter Beard and Nick Brandt including Beard’s Giraffes on the Tarn Desert for The End of the Game, Kenya, 1960 – which characterises the artist’s study of African wildlife with vigorous applications of blood (estimate: £15,000-20,000) and Brandt’s stunning over-sized archival pigment print: Elephant group on bare earth, Amboseli, 2008, (101.6 x 228.6cm.), (estimate: £15,000-20,000).

PORTRAITS OF DISTINCTION
Further highlights include a stellar array of portraits, celebrities and men of distinction, which cover all areas of intellectual activity, such as science, art and literature, and are exemplified by: Michael Cooper’s album cover of “Sergeant Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band”, 1967, (38 x 46.2cm.), the only known dye-transfer print of this image, accompanied by an illustrated pamphlet, The Making of Pepper (estimate: £40,000-60,000; David Bailey’s portrait of Nelson Mandela, 1997 (estimate: £4,000-6,000); 3 very rare vintage chromogenic prints shot by Neil Armstrong (1930-2012) for NASA, Buzz Aldrin with Lunar Module reflected in his visor, Apollo 11, July 1969 (59.2 x 49.5cm.), (estimate: £4,000-6,000); and Samuel Beckett, Hyde Park Hotel, London, 1980 by John Minihan (101.5 x 66.2cm.), (estimate: £4,000-6,000).