The vintage photography market experienced a historic moment in 1999 when Gustave Le Gray's seascape "La Grande Vague, Sète" from 1855 sold for £507,500 (approximately $718,404) at Sotheby's in London. The sale, conducted by expert Philippe Garner as part of the André and Marie-Thérèse Jammes collection, went to Qatari Sheikh Saoud Ben Mohammed Al-Thani, now deceased, and set an unprecedented record that suddenly energized a market that had emerged timidly in the 1970s.
This landmark sale marked the triumphant return of the "primitives" – a handful of pioneering photographers who competed with ingenuity during the mid-19th century, between the time of photography's invention and its industrialization. These artists, archaeologists, travelers, and wealthy aristocrats included British photographers Henry Peach Robinson, Oscar Gustave Rejlander, Roger Fenton, and Julia Margaret Cameron, alongside French masters Hippolyte Bayard, Henri Le Secq, Félix Nadar, and Gustave Le Gray himself.
Le Gray would later surpass his own record in 2011 when his work "Bateaux quittant le port du Havre" (1856-1857) sold for €917,000 at an auction conducted by Philippe and Aymeric Rouillac in Vendôme. More than a decade later, this record remains unmatched in the vintage photography market, though it pales in comparison to modern photography prices – Man Ray's "Le Violon d'Ingres" fetched $12.4 million (approximately €11.9 million) at Christie's New York in 2022.
"When vintage photography began attracting attention and the great classical collections were formed, the competition was between about ten players with significant means and formidable advisors," analyzes expert Serge Plantureux, founder of the Senigallia Biennial in Italy. He recalls that the high prices served "a calling function," convincing old families to part with "archives they weren't taking care of."
However, the market dynamics have shifted significantly since those early boom years. "The major museums have filled their collections, and young collectors don't have the same sensitivity," observes gallery owner Françoise Paviot, pointing to the minimum attention required to appreciate physical objects born from a sum of precise gestures, all subject to the random laws of chemistry. "Henry Fox Talbot's salt prints meant nothing to me when I started. Today, having observed them extensively, I find them admirable!" adds the educator, who recently challenged her students by slipping a contemporary print by American photographer Mark Ruwedel between two works by Édouard Baldus. "Spontaneously, you can't tell the difference, even though 150 years separate them."
Expertise and education remain crucial for collectors entering this specialized market. "You need certain knowledge to distinguish a salt print from an albumen print, a paper negative from a glass negative," agrees Christophe Gœury, expert at Millon auction house, recommending regular attendance at exhibitions preceding each auction to train one's eye. "The 20th century is more accessible," adds Bruno Tartarin, whose Photo Discovery gallery boasts half a million references spanning from the medium's origins to the 1960s.
Despite the challenges, the market remains active for exceptional pieces. The sector's resilience was demonstrated when a full-plate daguerreotype from 1839 by Alphonse-Eugène Hubert, simulating "an artist's studio bric-a-brac" and estimated at €60,000-80,000, soared to €420,000 in 2022 during the sale of François Lepage's collection, the renowned dealer from the Saint-Ouen flea markets. Similarly, an albumen print of Paris catacombs taken by Nadar in 1862, which sold for €3,600 in 2011, was resold for more than double that amount in 2023.
At Paris Photo, where vintage photography's presence has shrunk considerably, the situation reflects broader market trends. While the recent closures of Lumière des Roses and Daniel Blau galleries highlight the sector's fragility, artistic director Anna Planas notes that "the presentation of August Sander's 'People of the Twentieth Century' series in 2024 underscores the importance we place on this heritage." She lists faithful heavyweights like Hans P. Kraus, Edwynn Houk, Bruce Silverstein, Les Douches, and Christian Berst, alongside newcomers Vintage (Bucharest), Vasari (Buenos Aires), and MEM (Tokyo).
The contracted market "remains active when pieces are exceptional," maintains Christophe Gœury, citing recent notable sales including a detailed album documenting the construction of the Sacré-Cœur Basilica in Montmartre by Louis-Émile Durandelle and Albert Chevojon from 1877-1901, which sold for €53,760 in 2022.
"If the image is special, it won't lose value over time," assures Barnabé Moinard, head of the 24-39 fair, where vernacular snapshots, war albums, and travel photographs are traded annually alongside Paris Photo for prices ranging from €15 to €15,000. "Unlike the contemporary photography market, the vintage photography market is not speculative," the thirty-something dealer notes, encouraging collectors to trust their emotions alone.
For collectors, understanding the technical aspects becomes crucial for authenticity and valuation. The fragility of vintage photographs – including folds, tears, dulled corners, and oxidation – actually increases their aura of mystery and serves as a guarantee of authenticity. However, experts warn against certain imperfections that betray poor conservation. "You have to be wary of prints that have fallen and lost their contrast and density," alerts Christophe Gœury. "A good vintage photograph is chocolate-colored, not piss-yellow," Françoise Paviot puts it more bluntly, distinguishing between physical alterations that can be restored and irreversible chemical alterations.
These technical vagaries provide authentication advantages that modern collectors appreciate. "It's impossible to replicate a salt or albumen print in the old way because the water content, and therefore the baths, is no longer the same," assures Christophe Gœury. This eliminates concerns about fakes and settles questions about the divide between vintage prints (contemporary to the shot, made by or under the artist's control) and later prints (executed long after the shot, sometimes after the artist's death, from the original negative) – a distinction that only begins to matter in the early 20th century with modern photography.
