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• Issue #275
• Article

By Alex Novak

Photo Montage of a New Year’s Toast.

I wish all of our readers a happy holiday season and a healthy and positive New Year.

This year continued to be a tough one for most in the art and photography trade, although there were glimmers of light at the end of this year.

Christie's sale of the Maillet Daguerreotype Collection at the end of August proved highly successful (with the exception of the overpriced top five lots, which bought in). Click here for details on the auction: https://tinyurl.com/IPhotoCentral. The Daguerreian Society’s September conference and show attendance outdrew earlier larger city venues, and sales were brisk both at the Saturday tabletop show and the Society’s own auction. And the market started to finally--albeit very slowly--unfreeze.

After last year’s frozen pipes and similar sales that seemed to follow the temperature down, the reports out of Paris Photo this November seemed to indicate a more active show, even though some major dealers took a pass this year. The accompanying one-day tabletop show (24.39) on Saturday was absolutely bustling. The Fall auctions also seemed more active with fewer buy-ins and higher prices both in Paris and in New York and London. And the December Miami shows seemed to also show signs of more normal business.

The overall art market seemed to be experiencing this brief Spring blossoming in the middle of Winter. Reports from usually dour sources, such as Artnet and the Art Newspaper, were downright buoyant.

It remains to be seen if this is the start of a true turnaround in the photography market or something a little less sturdy. The various art and photo press hailed the relatively small progress as if the golden age was back. Galleries are still closing and business continues at a slow pace with the economy stuck in neutral. Lower interest rates and the reversal of Trump's tariffs, particularly on art and photography would be very welcome.

The Trump surprise tariffs on art and photography have contributed to the caution. Whether or not those expensive tariffs will withstand Supreme Court scrutiny remains to be seen. I expect they will be reversed, at least in the case of those imposed on art and photography, which is subject to a specific law passed by Congress and signed by President Bill Clinton. The US Customs own website still cites this law, despite charging shippers the illegal customs duty.

Usually the Court frowns on Presidential decrees that overturn actual laws that are on the books. The Trump tariffs came just when we were seeing some progress in Europe, as Italy had just reduced its own tariffs on art and photography, and other countries were looking to do the same. The only country that has failed to do so has been Germany, which failed to include photography when it reduced customs duties and VAT on art, claiming that photography isn’t art. Talk about a backwards nation!

Lee Marks

These last few months have also been tough on a number of photography families. We’ve recently seen long-time Association of International Photography Art Dealer (AIPAD) member, past president and past board member Lee Marks pass away after a brief battle with leukemia at Franciscan Health Indianapolis on November 15th. Amelia Marks, known as Lee, was born in Boston, MA, April 25, 1948.

After earning a BA in Art History from Connecticut College, Marks worked for eight years at Marlborough Gallery, NY, selling prints and photographs, and organizing exhibitions. Subsequently she became a private dealer.

As a consultant to Pierre Apraxine, Curator of the Gilman Paper Company Collection, she catalogued what was long considered the finest photography collection in private hands. Marks contributed the plate-notes for Photographs from the Collection of the Gilman Paper Company (White Oak Press, 1985). In 2005 the Gilman Collection was acquired by the Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY.

Beginning in 1990 and over the next 20 years, Marks was consulting curator to the collector and former Dreyfus CEO, Howard Stein, and his foundation, Joy of Giving Something (JGS). The collection spans the history of photography, from the 1840s into the 21st century.

She was a founding member of The Association of International Photography Art Dealers (AIPAD), and served for many years on its board and as its president. She also co-authored photography publications with accompanying traveling exhibitions, including The Horse: Photographic Images, 1839 to the Present (Harry Abrams, 1991); New Realities: Hand-Colored Photography, 1839 to the Present (University of Wyoming Art Museum, 1997-98); Hope Photographs (Thames & Hudson, 1998), a book and exhibition of contemporary photographs circulated to ten US museum venues, 1998 through 2001; The Hidden Presence (Ceros / Librairie Plantureux, Paris, 2005), a collection of "hidden mother" tintypes; and "The Office/In and Out of the Box," shown at the Dorsky Gallery, New York City.

She and her husband contributed the bulk of their photography collection to the IU Eskenazi Museum of Art in Bloomington, IN, where The Photographic Reflex: The Lee Marks and John C. DePrez Jr. Collection, celebrating more than 100 works by 80 artists, will open Sept. 10, 2026. They also made photography gifts to the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, Columbus (Ohio) Museum of Arts, Philadelphia Museum of Art, Indianapolis Museum of Art and others.

She was well loved by her fellow dealers. L.A. gallerist Peter Fetterman called her, “a wonderful, kind and gracious human being, who was always ready to share knowledge.”

And London gallerist Michael Hoppin said, “Lee was the most wonderful person--warm and always focused on what was good. She was a great friend and colleague, and we will miss her honesty and professionalism. We have lost someone very special.” I would have to agree.

Martin Parr (Courtesy of the Martin Parr Foundation).

Photographer Martin Parr, another friend who followed this newsletter with interest, also passed away recently. The British photographer died on December 6 in Bristol at the age of 74. He had reportedly been diagnosed with cancer four years ago.

Despite his brilliant English wit and his sharp takes on British life, Martin was in person always kind and a bit nerdy. He would go out of his way to help anyone he knew. While his photographs are blazing and saturated with color past any life-like representation, Martin used their full-on absurdity to puncture pompousness where ever he found it. Parr once said, "The fundamental thing I'm exploring constantly is the difference between the mythology of the place and the reality of it."

Parr was born in Epson, Surrey, England, in 1952. I will quote now from Janet Borden’s post on his passing, which was one of the best and most comprehensive bios:

Parr's early work included The Last Resort, an astounding view of the then-decaying beach town of Brighton. Lurid cheerful color was in stark contrast to the blowing trash and squalid beaches. The casual decrepitude belied a strong formal approach.

Subsequent projects included The Cost of Living, Small World, Luxury, Common Sense, Fashion Faux Parr. He produced over one hundred photo books throughout his career. In 2017, the Tate acquired his collection of over 12,000 photo books. He continued to collect.

Martin Parr became a member of the Magnum Photo cooperative in 1988. He was President of Magnum in 2013-2017. His work is included in almost all public collections throughout the world.

Parr received numerous awards, including the Royal Photographic Society Centenary Medal; honorary Doctor of Arts, Manchester Metropolitan University; and the Lucie Award. Parr was awarded an Arts Medal from the Queen in 2016, and a C.B.E. in 2021.

In 2015, Parr established the Martin Parr Foundation in Bristol, collecting and exhibiting the work of British documentary photographers, including himself.

Novak has over 49 years experience in the photography-collecting arena. He is a long-time member and formerly board member of the Daguerreian Society, and, when it was still functioning, he was a member of the American Photographic Historical Society (APHS). He organized the 2016 19th-century Photography Show and Conference for the Daguerreian Society in NYC. He is also a long-time member of the Association of International Photography Art Dealers, or AIPAD. Novak has been a member of the board of the nonprofit Photo Review, which publishes both the Photo Review and the Photograph Collector, and is currently on the Photo Review's advisory board. He was a founding member of the Getty Museum Photography Council. He is author of French 19th-Century Master Photographers: Life into Art.

Novak has published numerous photography articles and columns in several newspapers, including the Photograph Collector, Focus magazine and the Daguerreian Society Newsletter. He has been interviewed extensively on the photography art market by the Financial Times, the New York Times, the Boston Globe, the Philadelphia Inquirer, The Classic magazine, Maine Antique Digest, the Art Newspaper, Art News, Art Business News, Focus magazine, PDN, Black & White magazine, Photographie Internationale, Antiques & the Arts Online, Art Critical and the Photograph Collector newsletter, as well as by many other publications, television programs and websites, both in the USA and in France. He was quoted extensively in the book, "Collectingphotography" by Gerry Badger. He has spoken at numerous photography events and programs.

He writes and publishes the E-Photo Newsletter, the largest circulation newsletter in the field. Novak is also president and owner of Contemporary Works/Vintage Works, a private photography dealer, which sells by appointment and has sold at exhibit shows, such as AIPAD New York and Miami, Art Chicago, Classic Photography LA, Photo LA, Paris Photo, The 19th-century Photography Show, Art Miami, the Daguerreian Society, etc.