Modern-Day Collectors Snap Up Vintage Travel Photographs - Brief Article

SPECIAL REPORT--A new trend is emerging among modern-day collectors--a love affair with the photographs taken from Victorian-age world explorations. These century-old ethnographic photographs are emerging more strongly now in the marketplace, both at auction and at art, antique and photography fairs. They depict diverse cultures in such historically romantic places as China, Japan, Egypt, Australia, India, South America and an equally-foreign American West.

"There was always an aspect of adventure and heroism to travel and exploration photographs," said Daile Kaplan, photography specialist and vice president at Swarm Galleries auctioneers in New York. "Making photographs in tropical conditions, or jungle conditions, or desert Conditions are very difficult circumstance. The desert may have been 120 degrees. You look at these period photographs, and they are so beautiful, and then you have to realize how heroic it all was."

A Historical Perspective

The period commencing with Queen Victoria's ascension to the throne in 1837 and continuing until the beginning of the World War I in 1914 was marked by a fundamental materialism. The Victorians were captivated by the vast new territories and colonies being explored by brave heroes, by the objects and exotic flora and extraordinary peoples they were discovering. History, nature, symbolism and romantic sentiment were the thematic threads woven into the fabric of Victorian society.

The Victorian era has also been nicknamed the "Age of the Collector." Along with art works, it was considered desirable to maintain and document a collection of rare and unusual plants--often imported or brought home from their own travels to exotic places in the world. Photography in particular became the passion of the masses. In 1888, former bank clerk George Eastman developed the Kodak box camera, pre-loaded with a 100-exposure film roll, and untrained amateur photographers began to take snapshots of their own families and adventures. But for years before that and after, professional photographers traveled the world, often accompanying exploration and government survey teams, to document the indigenous people and places they encountered.

Frances Frith photographed the Middle East and Egypt during the Age of Exploration. Timothy O'Sullivan helped survey Panama and the southwestern U.S., and Edward Muybridge traveled to Guatemala. Herbert Ponting aimed his camera in Japan, creating an album of work that sold at a Swann auction in February for $130,000. And of course there's Edward Curtis, who famously photographed the American West and also traveled to Alaska where he captured images of the Inuits. Kaplan observed, "These were professional photographers who were lured by exotic adventure."

Today's Market

The period ethnographic and travel photographs available to dealers and collectors today cover a broad range of places. Some are stark, others romantic.

For instance, Alison Holland, a photography dealer in Sydney, Australia, has been licensed by her government's historical archives to market selected photographs depicting Australian Aborigines. She selected these works from the collection of the 19th century photographer John William Lindt, who played an important role in the development of photography in Australia while he worked in the Outback at Grafton, an agricultural colony with about 2,500 settlers. Between 1876 and 1894, Lindt took pictures of the stern-faced settlers, but he also photographed Aborigines, trying to show their culture as it was before European contact. According to Holland, Lindt's "Aboriginal portraits were considered by contemporaries to be the first successful attempt at representing native blacks truthfully." Moreover, she said, "Australia is going through a tough time with reconciliation, so the interest in these works represent an important step."

In America, Edward S. Curtis began photographing Native Americans and selling these images at his Seattle studio in 1895, according to art dealer Cathy Flurry, owner of Flurry & Company in Seattle. "Curtis' romantic images appealed to the turn of the century sensibilities of many who envisioned the Indian as the heroic character of a vanishing race."

Curtis photographed many tribes throughout the West and formulated a plan, funded by J.P. Morgan, to document all of the tribes west of the Mississippi River. It took more than 30 years for Curtis to complete this project, the 20-volume set of high quality photo engravings titled "The North American Indian," which he sold for $3,000 per set. After fading into obscurity, Curtis' work was "rediscovered" in the 1970s, said Flurry, and has since risen steadily in price and collectability.

Generally, the marketplace for period ethnographic and travel photographs, said Santa Monica, Calif., photography dealer Peter Fetterman, "is small but growing."

"It's 19th century photography, which in itself is still an undervalued market compared to 20th century," explained Fetterman. "And 19th century travel photography is completely undervalued. Most of these images are still found in albums, most of which ended up in Europe because the Europeans were the leisure-class travelers. This leisure class had the time and the money to take long trips," Fetterman said, "up the Nile or to Asia or India."

Once there, these wealthy travelers would purchase already-prepared photo albums. "Professional photographers used to supply the tourists with these beautiful travelogues--souvenirs of their trips. This was the only way people could have a memory of what they had seen. And when they were back home, they would bring out these albums and show their friends--it was a way they could see these places and exotic peoples."

Today's collectors savor these images, often concentrating on a single country, or a single culture. Added Fetterman: "I have some in my own personal collection--some wonderful India portraits. And I would never part with them."

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