1964 ARCA-SWISS 4X5 USED IN PRIME YEARS OF PHOTOGRAPHER’S ILLUSTRIOUS CAREER
Ansel Adams is one of America’s most acclaimed photographers – a great artist and environmentalist of the 20th century.
EVENT
PHOTOGRAPHS SIGNATURE® AUCTION 5272 is scheduled for Oct. 27, 2016, in New York and online at HA.com/5272. For information, contact Nigel Russell at 214-409-1231 or NigelR@HA.com.
“The legendary photographer explored more than 40 national parks in his lifetime, producing some of the most indelible images of the natural world ever made,” notes the book Ansel Adams in the National Parks: Photographs from America’s Wild Places.
Heritage Auctions is offering a 1964 Arca-Swiss 4×5 View Camera used by Adams (1902-1984) in its photographs auction scheduled for Oct. 27, 2016. It’s expected to realize at least $70,000. “Adams’ classic black-and-white images of the American West were made with large-format view cameras,” says Nigel Russell, Heritage Auctions’ director of photographs in New York. “This equipment helped to establish photography as a fine art.”
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Estimate: $70,000-$100,000
This particular camera was used by Adams from 1964 until 1968, Russell says. “Adams had several assistants. Liliane DeCock was 24 when she started working with Ansel and learning the fine art of photography and the making of master prints. She stayed with him from 1963 until 1972. He gave Liliane this camera in 1968, and she continued using it for her entire career.”
DeCock (1939- 2013) had a distinguished career herself, making a mark in the West Coast fine photography world. In her 1973 monograph, Adams described her photography as “a world of individualistic beauty and intensity.”
The auction is a rare opportunity for the public. The only other Adams-owned equipment to come to auction, Russell says, were his Hasselblad cameras, which sold in 1998 for $100,000.