THE DENVER-BASED PHOTOGRAPHER AND DEALER CHAMPIONED PHOTOGRAPHY AS A FINE ART LONG BEFORE IT WAS COOL TO DO SO
By Rhonda Reinhart
You could say Hal Gould believed in magic, and the reason you could say that is because Hal Gould believed in photography. To him, they were one and the same. Gould believed in photography so much, in fact, that in the early 1960s, when others refused to recognize the medium as an art form, including a certain curator who vowed he would never show a photograph in the Denver Art Museum, Gould helped found the Colorado Photographic Arts Center, serving as the nonprofit’s exhibition chair. At that time, the Wyoming-born, New Mexico-raised Army veteran was making a living as a commissioned portrait photographer and dabbling in fine art prints on the side. But Gould was always a believer, and in 1979, a year before he shuttered his commercial photo studio, he opened what would become one of the most famous fine art photography galleries in the country.
Clockwise from top left: Hal Gould in the darkroom where he took great care in making the ideal print; in his office at Camera Obscura; Gould with the gallery’s associate director, Loretta Young-Gautier; the lifelong photographer with some of his own work.
Gould’s Camera Obscura Gallery drew fans from around the world to Denver and teemed with landscapes, portraits, nudes and more by 20th-century masters such as Edward Weston, Philippe Halsman, Irving Penn and Ansel Adams. Art historian and writer Michael Paglia once called Camera Obscura “a photographer’s treasure chest – crammed full not only with a dizzying array of photographs, many by some of the biggest names in the field, but by acres of supporting documents and miles of shelves of books on the topic.”
Juliette Wells, Gould’s oldest living daughter, remembers those days well. She was in high school when Gould opened Camera Obscura and could often be found answering phones at the gallery, greeting customers or working with her dad in his darkroom. She recalls Gould’s dedication – the way he showed up seven days a week without fail, even in a blizzard that shut down the city – and his willingness to spread the gospel of photography to any curious gallerygoer. “He was so generous with his time with anyone who came in the door,” she says. “It wasn’t just, ‘Is this person going to buy something?’ It was, ‘I want to share the magic of photography with these people.’ He really believed that photography was magic.”
Philippe Halsman ‘Albert Einstein,’ 1947. Gelatin silver print. 13-1/2 x 10-5/8 inches (34.3 x 27.0 cm) (image/sheet).
Photographer Loretta Young-Gautier first encountered Gould during a history of photography course at the gallery, where, as she remembers it, the entire class was instantly captivated by their “eccentric and charming” guide, who showed them print after glorious print by iconic photographers they had previously only seen in books and slides. “He was so enthusiastic about sharing this with the class. It wasn’t an inconvenience at all to him,” she says. “He was just beaming, and his sparkle of enthusiasm was contagious.” Young-Gautier would go on to serve as associate director at Camera Obscura, where, she says, every reception had one thing in common. “We did lots of parties at the gallery, and Hal’s toast was always the same: ‘To the magic of photography, without which none of us would be here today.’ I can still hear him say it, raising his glass in the air.”
When Gould closed Camera Obscura in 2011 and died in 2015 at the age of 95, a little bit of the magic died with him. But even so, his spell had been cast, and there’s no way of knowing how many people came to appreciate photography because of him. On October 1, Gould’s magic will live again in Heritage’s Photographs Signature® Auction, which features nearly 90 prints from Camera Obscura’s enviable inventory.
Sebastião Salgado ‘Kuwait (Capping a Wellhead, Greater Burhan Oilfield),’ 1991. Gelatin silver print. 11-5/8 x 17-1/4 inches (29.6 x 43.8 cm) (image), 16 x 20 inches (sheet).
“The collection Gould left behind speaks of his extraordinary passion for the medium, as well as his tireless promotion of the work of other photographers,” says Nigel Russell, Heritage’s Director of Photographs. “During the gallery’s 32-year existence, Gould held more than 250 exhibitions by emerging and renowned photographers. He was responsible for organizing Sebastião Salgado’s first solo show in America, as well as welcoming luminaries such as Yousuf Karsh, Edward Curtis, Manuel Alvarez Bravo and Imogen Cunningham to Denver.”
The auction’s selection, which is the first part in a series of photographs and volumes from Gould’s collection Heritage will offer in the coming months, features extraordinary examples of work by the abovementioned photographers and by others Gould deeply admired, including Dmitri Baltermants, Lucien Clergue, Mario Giacomelli, Philippe Halsman, Man Ray, Irving Penn, W. Eugene Smith, Jerry Uelsmann, Todd Webb, and Brett and Edward Weston.
Imogen Cunningham ‘The Unmade Bed,’ 1957. Gelatin silver print, printed later by Rondal Partridge. 10-1/8 x 13-1/8 inches (25.7 x 33.3 cm) (image/sheet).
Until now, Gould’s collection had been gathering dust in storage – these prints that were made to be seen instead hidden from view. Although Wells enjoyed the idea of having her father’s life’s work close at hand, in her heart, she knew he would have wanted the pieces out in the world, where they could be experienced and appreciated by a new generation. With Young-Gautier by her side, Wells began the daunting task of sifting through her father’s vast collection, with one overarching goal in mind: “We wanted to tell the story of Hal and his legacy.”
“For me, it was nostalgic,” Young-Gautier says of the experience, “because I knew these pieces. I had spent 18 years working with Hal, so these prints were like old friends. I would remember words that he would say about specific artists and the prints themselves and how important they were.”
Man Ray ‘Le Violon d’Ingres,’ 1924. Pink-toned gelatin silver print, printed after 1968 from a copy negative. 13-1/4 x 10-1/2 inches (33.7 x 26.7 cm) (image), 14 x 11 inches (sheet).
Among the highlights in Gould’s collection is an unusual pink-toned print of Man Ray’s famous 1924 surrealist photograph Le Violon d’Ingres, featuring Jazz Age model Kiki de Montparnasse wearing nothing but a turban and violin f-holes. Gould’s acquisition of the print was also unusual. After including the image in a group show from the Royal Photographic Society, he ordered a print directly from Man Ray. Years later, in the early 1970s, the print arrived, with no invoice, note or any acknowledgment of Gould’s order.
Eugene Smith ‘Tomoko Uemura in Her Bath,’ 1971. Gelatin silver print. 7-7/8 x 13 inches (19.9 x 33.0 cm) (image/sheet).
Another striking image in the auction is W. Eugene Smith’s emotional Tomoko Uemura in Her Bath from 1971. Around that time, a disease was crippling hundreds of people in the Japanese city of Minamata, and the source of the illness had been traced to industrial pollution of the sea. Smith’s photograph, which many consider his greatest work, focuses on a mother cradling her naked daughter, whose body had been ravaged by Minamata disease. As Young-Gautier recalls, Gould never wanted to let go of this print, as evidenced by the “not for sale” sticker he initially placed on it and later by the $35,000 price tag he added.
The October 1 sale also features a number of prints by one of Gould’s favorites, Brazilian photographer and social activist Sebastião Salgado, who’s known for his photography projects focusing on human rights and humanity’s relationship with the environment. Salgado traveled the world for his work, which can be seen in prints such as Cast of Thousands, Serra Pelada, in the Gold Mine of Pará, Brazil, 1986; Kuwait (Capping a Wellhead, Greater Burhan Oilfield), 1991; Sicilia (Tuna Fishermen, Sicily), 1991; and Jade Maiwan Avenue, Kabul Afghanistan, 1996.
Hal Gould ‘Horse Corral, Valley Ranch, Wyoming,’ 1954. Gelatin silver print. 30 x 40 inches (76.2 x 101.6 cm) (image/sheet).
Gould himself makes an appearance in the auction with his Horse Corral, Valley Ranch, Wyoming from 1954. The black-and-white photograph, one of his Western scenes, is just a small representation of Gould’s output over his long life. He also specialized in portraits and travel photography and gained respect around the world for his work.
“The gallery always took most of his time, but somehow he managed to travel a lot,” Wells says. “He went to Spain when he was 78, Antarctica when he was 80 and Africa when he was 85. Some of the pieces that he did from those places are as good, if not better, than some of the greats. Someday, I hope that people can see him for who he was, not just in the development of the gallery and the promotion of photography, but also as one of the best photographers that has ever lived.”
RHONDA REINHART is editor of Intelligent Collector.