collecting

Photographer Finds Ultra Rare Stieglitz Prints Hiding at Estate Sale

In December 2021, photographer Jeff Sedlik bid on an old, faded, framed print at an estate sale in Old Saybrook, Connecticut. Upon receiving it, he immediately opened the frame to examine the photo. To his amazement and delight, two identical prints were inside, and both turned out to be extremely rare classic platinum prints by Alfred Stieglitz.

Vernacular Photography: The Joy of Collecting Found Photos

As a photographer, I have been making photographs with my own cameras my entire life. From my first Kodak Instamatic camera as a child, to the Sigma film SLR that I received as a gift in high school, to my first digital camera (a Sony Mavica in 1999 or so) to my current DSLR (a Canon 5D Mark IV) — for me photography has been both a lifelong pursuit and a passion as both a photographer and an artist.

A Brief History of Ground Glass Focusing Loupes

This article is dedicated to a very helpful yet often-overlooked photographic accessory. After scouring the Web, I have only been able to find few brief entries dedicated to those devices, so I hope my writing will be found helpful by inquisitive minds interested in the history of photo equipment.

Photography and Collecting

My father was the archetypal collector. He had dozens of cameras and optical devices. Tens of thousands of LP record albums, and eventually even more CDs and DVDs. There were always books, in particular series of books. And art books. He bordered on being a hoarder, but with great taste.

A Primer on Collecting Photo Books

Revisiting my photography book collection has brought me much enjoyment during the lockdown. A dozen years ago, as the business of photography was good, I used the disposable income to start collecting. In this article, I summarize what I wished I knew back then, not only as a photographer and book collector but also from the perspective of a former art gallery owner and current publisher.

This Man Collects Mid-Century Modern Cameras

David Silver is a San Francisco-based camera collector who began collecting vintage cameras as a young man, eventually amassing over 2,300 of them. He has since developed a focus and whittled his collection down to a little over 200 of them. Here's a 5-minute video by Gizmodo that profiles Silver.

An Introduction to Collecting Vintage Photographs

In 2011, a modern-day treasure hunter was browsing through an antique shop in Fresno, California. Flipping through boxes, he came across an old photograph. An unsmiling group of men, 19th century Americans it seemed, were playing croquet in front of a wooden building in a rural setting. It was an interesting photograph. He paid $2 for it and walked out.

Four Generations of Women Captured in a Single Family Portrait

A trendy project in the photo world these days is collecting portraits of people of different ages. Photographers have photographed people of ages 0 through 100 based on location and gender, and some are doing the same project with short video portraits.

Seattle, Washington-based portrait photographer Chamonix Thurston-Rattue recently decided to start her own age collection project titled "100 Years of Beauty." Her goal is to create a portrait of a woman for each age between 0 and 100.