If it’s true that a picture is, in fact, worth 1,000 words, then Heritage Auctions’ Holiday Online Photographs Auction is an absolute treasure trove. The event includes a group of photos of high-profile celebrities who are recognized around the world, like Muhammad Ali and Marilyn Monroe.
Less likely to draw immediate attention, but not to be overlooked, is a stunning array of photos that focus on the beauty and power of nature. Some of our favorites:
1. Toshio Shibata’s 1990 Kashima Town, Fukushima Prefecture, 1990 (est. $2,000-3,000) is a stunning image of water pouring over a dam that measures 21-7/8 tall by 17-1/2 inches wide. It is signed, dated and editioned “8/25” in pencil with the photographer’s stamp on verso.
2. The sheer power of nature is captured in Alfred Eisenstaedt’s 1948 Hurricane in the Atlantic, S.S. Queen Elizabeth Starboard, 1948 (est. $1,500-2,500), an image taken off the side of a ship in the Atlantic Ocean during a massive storm. Standing 12-3/8 inches high and measuring 8-1/2 inches wide, this 1979 gelatin silver image is signed and editioned “3/50” in ink on recto, and titled and dated in pencil with the photographer’s stamp on mount verso.
3. Aaron Siskind’s 1954 Martha’s Vineyard (est. $1,000-2,000) captures a dramatic structure of rocks that are built up in a man-made wall-like formation. This 16-3/4-by-22-inch gelatin silver image is signed, titled and dated in ink in margin recto.
4. The only image among these selections that is not printed in black and white greyscale, Eliot Furness Porter’s 1988 Bear Tooth Mountain, Twin Lakes, Montana (est. $1,200-1,800) is another beautiful image that demands the viewer’s attention because of dramatic snow-covered mountains in the background and the rich, blue sky reflecting in the water. Standing 14 inches tall and measuring 17-3/4 inches wide, the image is signed in pencil on mount rector, and titled in ink with the photographer’s stamp on mount recto.
5. George A. Tice’s 1970 Oak Tree, Holmdel, New Jersey (est. $1,000-1,500) is a simple shot of a tree, yet stunning in the detail shown in the tall glass around the tree, the blossoms on the tree itself and even the vines that cover much of the tree’s trunk and branches. The gelatin silver image measures 10-38 by 13 inches, and is signed in ink on mount recto and titled and dated in pencil on mount verso.
Written by: Steve Lansdale