Now live for bidding, The Playlist is an online benefit auction of over 100 photographs, each inspired by a song or piece of music. With bids starting at $250, this auction welcomes both seasoned and new collectors alike, and features works by established artists such as Erwin Olaf, Larry Fink, Martin Parr, Sylvia Plachy, Hank Willis Thomas, Todd Hido, and many more. This exciting event also features a selection of work by Catherine Opie, Stephen Shore, Abelardo Morell, and others, that will be offered at a live auction during Aperture’s annual benefit in New York on the evening of Monday, October 26 at Terminal 5 in New York.
Bidding will conclude at Aperture’s annual benefit on October 26. All proceeds directly benefit the Aperture Foundation’s publications, public programming, and educational initiatives. Learn more about the event here.
Erwin Olaf
VOGUE NL, Still-Life 01, 2013
Archival pigment print
6.5 x 5 in.
Opening Bid: 250 USD
The Playlist song for this photograph is “Ashes to Ashes” by David Bowie.
Erwin Olaf (b. Hilversum, 1959) is known for producing lush, large-format color prints of staged scenes that suggest complex narratives, while exploring ideas of gender, sensuality, and the history of studio photography and photojournalism. Olaf has also produced film and video installations, and has photographed advertising campaigns for companies such as Levi’s and Microsoft. He is the recipient of numerous awards, including the Johannes Vermeer Award (2011), a Lucie Award (2008), and Photographer of the Year in the International Color Awards (2006). His work is exhibited in museums and galleries around the world.
Gail Albert-Halaban
Blue Moon, 2015
Archival pigment print
5 x 7 in.
Opening Bid: 250 USD
The Playlist song for this photograph is “Blue Moon” by Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart.
Gail Albert-Halaban (b. Washington, D.C., 1970) offers us a look into the lives of strangers through furtive glimpses of their windows. Her work tackles the modern phenomenon of social distance between neighbors living in the largest cities in the world. She has exhibited internationally, and has taught at the Pasadena Art Center, International Center of Photography, and Yale University. She received her MFA in photography from Yale University.
Mike Slack
Oh! Sweet Nuthin’, 2015
Archival pigment print
Edition 1/1
5 x 5 in.
Opening Bid: 250 USD
The Playlist song for this photograph is “Oh! Sweet Nuthin’” by The Velvet Underground.
Mike Slack (b. Indiana, 1970) publishes his and other photographers’ work through The Ice Plant, the Los Angeles-based press he runs alongside Tricia Gabriel. The Ice Plant is one of the few small presses currently publishing photography books that are more sketchy manuscripts than stately monographs. When speaking of his own work he states, “I suppose the way I make pictures is similar to how I read text on a page.” His photographs have appeared in Harper’s, GOOD, The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, Newsweek, and recently in A Photographer’s Playbook, published by Aperture.
Teju Cole
Brilliant Corners, 2015
Archival pigment print
4.7 x 7 in.
Opening Bid: 250 USD
The Playlist song for this photograph is “Brilliant Corners” by Thelonious Monk.
Award-winning novelist Teju Cole (b. Michigan, 1975) is also an accomplished photographer, influenced by legendary street photographers like Eugène Atget. Cole explains, “When I go out shooting, I’m interested in catching or in being caught by the unexpected, in ‘organizing the rectangle’ as Sergio Larrain put it.” His photography has been published in Domus India, Guernica, and numerous other publications, and has exhibited in both India and the U.S. He is currently the Distinguished Writer in Residence at Bard College and a photography critic for The New York Times Magazine.
Takashi Homma
Mushrooms from the Forest, 2011
Chromogenic print
7.5 x 9.7 in.
Opening Bid: 250 USD
The Playlist song for this photograph is “In a Landscape” by John Cage.
Takashi Homma (b. Tokyo, 1962) is known for his elegantly restrained compositions and understated color palettes. He emerged in the 1990s as one of the leading photographers of his generation. After living in London, where he initially worked for the groundbreaking style and culture magazine i-D, Homma embarked on a number of personal projects, including several photobooks about Japan’s capital city—the first of which was Tokyo Suburbia (1998), and was awarded the Kimuri Ihei Commemorative Photography Award. A major retrospective of his work opened at the 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, in Kanazawa, Japan, in 2010.
Alex Webb
Miami Beach, 1989
Archival pigment print
4.6 x 7 in.
Opening Bid: 250 USD
The Playlist song for this photograph is “Call it Stormy Monday” by T-Bone Walker.
Alex Webb (b. San Francisco, 1952) is celebrated for his witty and often enigmatic photographs of life—both human and animal. Under any rubric, he would be considered a photojournalist, yet his work transcends the typical parameters of the genre. Over the past 30 years, his photographs have appeared in The New York Times Magazine, Life, Stern, and National Geographic, and have been exhibited at the International Center of Photography, in New York; Walker Art Center, in Minneapolis; and The Whitney Museum of American Art, in New York. He is a recipient of the Leica Medal of Excellence and the Premio Internacional de Fotografia Alcobendas, and has been a member of the Magnum Photos cooperative since 1976.
Richard Learoyd
Small Agnes to the Left, 2014
Camera obscura Ilfochrome print
Edition 1/1 (unique for Aperture)
50.25 x 20 in.
Est. 50,000–60,000 USD
Richard Learoyd (b. Lancashire, 1966) is a photographer who keeps traditional mediums alive. This color image was made with one of the most antiquarian of photographic processes: the camera obscura, literally translated from Latin as “dark room.” Learoyd has created a room-sized camera in which lifochrome photographic paper is exposed. The model sits in an adjacent room, separated from the first by a lens. Light falling on the subject is directly focused onto the photographic paper without an interposing film negative, resulting in an entirely grain-less and haunting image.
Learoy’s work has been included in group shows at the International Center of Photography, in New York; the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; and the National Gallery, in London, and is in public collections of the Tate Modern, in London; Victoria and Albert Museum, in London; Metropolitan Museum of Art, in New York; Yale University Art Gallery, in New Haven; and the Scottish Arts Council. This color image was made with one of the most antiquarian of photographic processes: the camera obscura, literally translated from Latin as “dark room.” Learoyd has created a room-sized camera in which the lifochrome photographic paper is exposed. The subject is in the adjacent room, separated by a lens. Light falling on the subject is directly focused onto the photographic paper without an interposing film negative. The result is an entirely grain-less image. Learoyd is represented by McKee Gallery, New York, and Fraenkel Gallery, San Francisco. He is based in London.
James Welling
Fountain, 2014
Digital Inkjet print
Edition 1/1 (unique in these colors for Aperture)
31.5 x 21 in.
Est. 15,000–18,000 USD
James Welling (b. Connecticut, 1951) created this colorful image as part of a project documenting the 2015 reopening of the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art. Welling has exhibited extensively both nationally and internationally, including James Welling: Photographs, 1974–1999, which started at the Wexner Center for the Arts in Columbus, Ohio, and traveled to the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles and Baltimore Museum of Art. In 1999, he received the DG Bank-Förderpreis Fotografie from the Sprengel Museum in Hannover, Germany. Solo exhibition venues include Regen Projects, in Los Angeles; David Zwirner, in New York; Maureen Paley, in London; Galerie Nelson-Freeman, in Paris; Wako Works of Art, in Tokyo; Donald Young Gallery, in Chicago; and Galerie nächst St. Stephan, in Vienna. Welling is a professor in the UCLA Department of Art, where he has taught for over 15 years, and a visiting professor at Princeton University. He is represented by David Zwirner Gallery in New York.
Stephen Shore
New York, New York, July 23, 2013, 2013
Chromogenic print
Edition of 8
20 x 25 in.
Est. 16,000–19,000 USD
This snapshot of bustling New York City life is captured in the signature deadpan style of American artist Stephen Shore (b. New York, 1947). A mostly self-taught and prodigal photographer, his work was purchased by Edward Steichen for the Museum of Modern Art, New York, at the age of 14. By 17, Shore was a regular at Andy Warhol’s Factory, producing important photographic documentation of the scene during its heyday. In 1971, at the age of 24, he became the first living photographer—since Alfred Stieglitz 40 years earlier—to have a solo show at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. He has had numerous one-man shows, including those at the Museum of Modern Art, New York; Kunsthalle Düsseldorf; Hammer Museum, Los Angeles; Jeu de Paume, Paris; and Art Institute of Chicago. Since 1982, he has been director of the photography program at Bard College. He is represented by 303 Gallery in New York.
Catherine Opie
Only Miss the Sun When it Starts to Snow, 2015
Pigment print
Edition 1/1 (unique for Aperture)
20 x 26.6 in.
Est. 15,000–18,000 USD
Catherine Opie (b. Ohio, 1961) studies the relationships between mainstream and counter-culture society, specializing in portraiture, studio, and landscape photography. She began her undergraduate career studying childhood education, but eventually earned a BFA at the San Francisco Art Institute. She received an MFA from the California Institute of the Arts in 1988. Her work has been the subject of several major publications and exhibitions. Opie lives in Southern California and is currently a professor of photography at the University of California, Los Angeles. She is represented by Regen Projects, Los Angeles, and Lehmann Maupin, New York.
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