The multitude of creative procedures and aesthetic possibilities offered by photography are reflected in the works on offer, whose creators are undoubtedly synonymous with success and international prestige.
Since its invention in 1839, photography has become a fundamental communication tool for society, but also a key element in the future of fine arts. However, its consideration and value as an artistic practice in its own right evolved and consolidated as photographic procedures and techniques advanced.
Thus, while at the beginning the daguerreotype was created as a tool for science, later it was the element that freed pictorial practice once and for all from its mimetic function until it became, during postmodernism, the ideal medium to turn any object into a fetish.
From the first black and white images to the digital revolution, each step and each stage in the history of photography has left an indelible mark, not only as a testimony of the most significant historical events, but also as a fundamental element in the construction of our popular imaginary.
Both in the field of photojournalism and in the field of advertising, fashion and the star system, photography has managed to connect in a direct way with the viewer, questioning him from an artistic sensibility capable of moving us to the point of making us participants of the multiple realities that make up the world.
Through the protagonists of our auction, the universe of aesthetic and conceptual possibilities that encompass photographic techniques, whose historical and artistic relevance catapulted them into the world of galleries, museums and collectors, reaching the status of modern icons.
PHOTOJOURNALISM
In this field, the career of Henry Cartier Bresson, known as “the eye of the century,” is a lucid example of the diversity of implications intrinsic to photography.
Despite his successful beginnings as a photojournalist, Bresson evolved towards a type of photography dominated by the simple subjects of everyday life, following the principle of “capturing the moment” that had guided his career and that we can see in the tender snapshot in which he immortalized the French painter Henri Matisse at his villa in the Alps.
Steve McCurry achieved unparalleled transcendence with his portrait of “The Afghan Girl”.
The tragedy hidden in her eyes touched the soul of the whole world and became a milestone in the history of documentary photography.
FASHION PHOTOGRAPHY
On the other hand, we cannot imagine fashion photography without the legacy of artists such as William Klein and Helmut Newton.
While the former revolutionized the industry by taking it out of the studio and into the street, Helmut Newton redefined the parameters of fashion photography and eroticism by focusing on female empowerment and power relations.
Both photographers have gone down in history as great references whose immense influence continues to set trends in the new generations.
PORTRAITS AND SELF-PORTRAITS
Photographic portraits have occupied a significant place in the careers of such acclaimed artists as Andy Warhol and Robert Mapplethorpe.
Many of them were commissions and include well-known figures of the American high society, as well as its intellectuals, political artists and sportsmen.
Following the same theme but with a radically different concept, we find the self-portraits of Francesca Woodman, whose hallmark is undoubtedly its intimate character.
NATURAL AND ARCHITECTURAL LANDSCAPES
Massimo Vitali found on the beaches the perfect breeding ground to carry out a study of human nature.Under a hedonistic aesthetic.
Vitali shows us an x-ray of our behavior and the way we relate to our environment.
While beaches are Vitali’s undisputed backdrop, for Candida Hofer architecture is the mainstay of her research.
Capturing the interior of solemn buildings such as museums, libraries, temples, opera houses or universities, Hofer invites us to reflect on the intimate and contemplative experience we feel when we enter their interiors.
TRANSGRESSION AND PROVOCATION
David La Chapelle and Pierre et Gilles achieved fame thanks to their work in advertising and the glamorous image they projected around the Star System.
In the case of La Chapelle, we will see how in his work he often combines his fascination with the world of celebrity with a deep exploration of spiritual themes.
The duo formed by photographer Pierre Commoy and painter Gilles Blanchard has been giving birth to some of the most controversial and provocative images of the art scene for 40 years.
Through their characteristic kitsch style, they compose a creative universe around the frivolous, ridiculous, insubstantial and even vulgar of an aesthetic past brought up to date through humor, excess and eroticism.
