the finest privately held corporate collection of
photography from the medium’s first hundred
years. Formed over the course of two decades by
the late Howard Gilman and his curator Pierre
Apraxine, the collection comprises 4,000 works
that the Gilman Paper Company began to assemble
in 1975. Finally, acquired by the Metropolitan Mu-
seum of Art in New York in 1997, the Rubel Col-
lection, assembled during the 1970s by a young
collector from California through bequests from his
relatives and judicious acquisitions, William Rubel,
added important nineteenth century examples to
their holdings. The collection of vernacular photo-
graphy amassed by New York-based collector Tho-
mas Walther, a top collector of nineteenth century
and twentieth century modern photography, adds a
unique dimension to the Met’s collection.
Many European museum photography collections
were formed by acquiring important private collec-
tions. The Sprengel Museum, Photografische Samm-
lung, Hannover features the permanent loan of the
Ann and Ju ̈rgen Wilde Collection of over 1,500
vintage photographs of Albert Renger-Patzsch,
Karl Blossfeldt, and others. Much like the Metropo-
litan, various eminent private collections partially
form the National Portrait Gallery photography
collections in London, England (Howard Coster,
Ida Kar, and Benjamin Stone) and the Maison Eur-
ope ́enne de la Photographie, (Roger The ́rond, the
legendary editor ofParis-Matchmagazine).
At the end of the century, private collections in
fact became greatly sought after, such as the collec-
tion of Richard and Ellen Sandor of Chicago, named
by the editors ofArt & Antiquesmagazine as one of
‘‘America’s Top 100 Private Collectors.’’ Robert
Drapkin, an oncologist based in Tampa Bay, Flor-
ida, has a distinguished general photography collec-
tion, as does Miami-based Martin Margulies, within
a general contemporary collection. Susie Tompkins,
founder of the Esprit Clothing company based in
San Francisco, is an avid collector of photography,
concentrating on works by female artists. William
Lane, a businessman who is based in Boston, has put
together a notable collection of American modernist
photography. New York attorney Joel S. Ehrenk-
ranz and his wife Anne are typical of contemporary
art and contemporary photography collectors in
their involvement in a museum, in this case the
Whitney Museum of American Art.
In Europe, Baron and Baroness Philippe and Mar-
ion Lambert of Geneva, Switzerland, are acknowl-
edged as top contemporary art collectors who focus
primarily on photography. Their collecting of the
medium began with the purchase of a work by the
Swiss-born Robert Frank; it now features most of
the top contemporary artists who use photography,
such as Cindy Sherman or Jeff Wall. As in the past,
many contemporary photography collectors become
associated with institutions; in the case of the Lam-
berts, they are involved in the Metropolitan Museum
of Art, New York, as well as supporters of the
Centre d’Art Contemporain in their home town. At
the end of the century other top contemporary
photography collectors include Manfred Heitung, a
businessman with interests in New York and
Amsterdam, Paris-based industrial designer Chris-
tian Duc, and German industrialists Rainer and
Ursula Blickle, who have also established a founda-
tion for contemporary art and photography.
Top private collections, however, are often sold
at auction and thus dispersed, as was the distin-
guished collection of Dutch-born attorney Bert
Hartkamp, sold at Sotheby’s, or the works of La ́s-
zlo ́Moholy-Nagy, acquired by artist and educator
William Larson through personal relationships to
form the single largest holding by the seminal
photographer in private hands.
Another phenomenon of late twentieth century
private collecting is the celebrity collection. Lon-
don-based pop musician Sir Elton John has
amassed a major photography collection in the
last years of the century of over 2,500 works. The
collection has been shown at the High Museum in
Atlanta, where he maintains a home. Graham
Nash, of the rock group Crosby Stills and Nash,
parlayed his amateur interest in photography into a
major collection and established Nash Editions, a
fine art publisher specializing in digital production.
MargaretDenny
Seealso:Archives; Art Institute of Chicago; Corp-
orate Collections; Levy, Julien; Museum of Modern
Art; Museums; Museums: Europe; Museums: United
StatesFurther Reading
Blessing, Jennifer, Kirsten A. Hoving, and Ralph, Rugoff.
Speaking with Hands: Photographs from the Buhl Collec-
tion, New York: Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation,
2004.
Hill, Paul, and Thomas Cooper, eds.Dialogue with Pho-
tography. New York: Farrar, Strauss, and Giroux,
1979.
Jammes, Andre ́. ‘‘On Collecting Photographs.’’ InThe First
Century of Photography: Nie`pce to Atget, From the Col-
lection of Andre ́Jammes. Chicago: The Art Institute of
Chicago, 1977.
Travis, David.Photography in Chicago Collections. Chi-
cago: The Art Institute of Chicago, 1982.PRIVATE COLLECTIONS