The Polaroid Auction: A Not So Instant History (Part 5 of 5)
by Stephen Perloff
[Editor’s Note: The previous four sections of Perloff’s report comprise his detailed account of the June 21-22 auction of selections from the Polaroid Collection at Sotheby’s in New York, plus his exploration of the backstory and ramifications of the auction. In this final section of his report, he concludes his analysis. Perloff has published substantial coverage of the pre-auction controversy in The Photograph Collector, which he edits. — A.D.C.]
The Future of the Collection
John R. Stoebner, Esq.
At the moment it seems that the attempt to find a permanent home for the remainder of the collection is sincere. One hopes that the success of the auction does not allow greed to start to creep into the thinking of the creditors, or Polaroid’s bankruptcy trustee, John Stoebner. Hopefully they will not be asking for too much in return. There is little chance that another sale of remaining works would generate a fraction of the excitement or prices that this sale did. Not only has the cream of the crop been removed, but as has been shown with numerous second sales of supposedly rare material — like the second de Prangey sale of early daguerreotypes — these sales more often than not fall flat and never live up to expectations. So Stoebner should keep in mind the high costs of storage of the collection and the high costs of trying to sell anything else from it when setting a reasonable amount for purchase.
According to the statement issued by Sam Joyner, the Trustee has agreed to work with the photographers (presumably this means photographers with standing, those with work in the collection who sign on for representation) in placing the remainder of the collection. This means that those photographers will have some say in the decision, possibly even veto power.
Anne Mealhie, "Untitled," 1982
Forces are already at work to keep the part of the Collection that has resided at the Musée de l’Elysée in Lausanne, Switzerland, there and intact. William Ewing, who curated the exhibition “Polaroid in Peril!,” which ran until June 6 at the Musée de l’Elysée and was recently on view in Arles at the Espace Van Gogh as part of the Rencontres d’Arles, wrote after the sale:
“Quite a saga. I am just back from Arles where our show is a great success, beyond what I expected. People are knocked out by how fresh the material looks. Although there is nothing post-1990 in the show, it has no period feel, and the colors are as punchy as ever. The other aspect that is exciting is seeing that the works by the unknowns are every bit as exciting as the works by the names, and often more so. The strength of the collection is not the Newtons, the Warhols, the Rauschenbergs, etc., but those others who sometimes produced exquisite pieces (Ann Lovett, Rien Bazen, etc).
“This is an important point, because the Sotheby’s effect suggests there are masterpieces by the big names, and then a lot of secondary works by lesser folks. But the real force of the collection is as an archive of playful experimentation, with consequent successes and failures. And there are a lot of the former.
“My point of view is simple: I am doing everything I can to keep the European part of the collection together. That is why I organized a show first in Lausanne, and now in Arles: to galvanize public opinion and flush out potential ‘saviors.’ I remain optimistic that we’ll end up with the collection intact, but we are still not there and it could fall through. I agree with others that it would be a great loss to see it dispersed. After all, Polaroid covers a half-century, one-third of photohistory.”
Dr. Florian Kaps, courtesy bbcworldservice via Flickr
Dr. Florian Kaps of Vienna, who with The Impossible Project has accomplished the amazing feat of bringing Polaroid film back to the market, is already negotiating to keep the European Collection, numbering some 4,500 images, in Lausanne. While he had not had much communication from John Stoebner recently, Kaps just got a letter from him saying that now that the auction has been completed he is ready to continue discussions about The European Collection’s purchase.
Kaps told me that The Impossible Project has placed a binding offer for the entire European Collection and has had discussions with the new director of the Musée de l’Elysée about the best way to preserve it.
“Our aim is to keep the Collection together and present it in the best way possible along with images made on our new material,” Kaps said. “Edwin Land and Ansel Adams had a great idea with the Collection, to show the potential of the material.” Kaps is obviously eager to continue that tradition. “I want to not only protect the Collection but make it accessible for younger artists for whom instant photography has a much different meaning now in the digital age.”
Impossible Project logo
Kaps said he also offered to help find a solution for the rest of the Collection, but has received no answer yet on that offer. First he needs to close the deal on the European Collection before seeing what can be done about the rest. And, like Bill Ewing, Kaps believes that the Collection’s highest potential was not in the big names but with the many other photographers who experimented with Polaroid materials.
Who will save the American part of the Collection and where it will go are issues for the next chapter.
Part 5 of 5 : 1 I 2 I 3 I 4 I 5
[Editor’s Note: This comprehensive report by Stephen Perloff almost certainly constitutes the most detailed and substantial examination that the auction of the Polaroid Collection will receive. Because that auction functioned as the endgame in a year-long struggle, covered at length here at Photocritic International, it seemed appropriate to make it available to this blog’s readers. I thank Stephen for his graciousness in granting permission for its online publication here.
I should add that, of all my colleagues in the art and photo press, only Stephen considered the crisis of the Polaroid Collection as manifested in this auction, its backstory, and the legal and moral implications thereof, as an historic event worthy of consistent coverage, independent investigative journalism, and fearless commentary. His periodic reports and op-ed pieces on developments in The Photograph Collector, coupled with his reprints of and extensive quotations from my own posts here, have made The Photograph Collector the one print journal to have covered this historic event in depth. So I want to thank Stephen for joining me in this folie á deux, as well as for his frequent supportive words about my own efforts to track the intricate ins and outs of all this. I look forward to collaborating further with Stephen as we pursue the next chapter of this narrative, the eventual and final disposition of the remainder of the collection ― if all goes well, its permanent placement in one or more appropriate repositories. — A. D.C.]
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Stephen Perloff, by Judith Harold-Steinhauser
Stephen Perloff is the founder and editor of The Photo Review, a critical journal of international scope publishing since 1976, and editor of The Photograph Collector, the leading source of information on the photography art market. He has taught photography and the history of photography at numerous Philadelphia-area colleges and universities and has been the recipient of two grants from the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts for arts criticism. He was the recipient of the Sol Mednick Award for 2000 from the Mid-Atlantic region of the Society for Photographic Education and the first annual Vanguard Award from the Philadelphia Center for the Photographic Image in 2007.
Text copyright © 2010 by Stephen Perloff. All rights reserved. Published by permission of the author. To contact Stephen Perloff, email him at info [AT] photoreview [DOT] org.
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