The_Art_Newspaper_-_November_2016

THE ART NEWSPAPER SECTION 2 Number 284, November 2016 5

MAN ON A MISSION:

The Hermitage’s director

believes museums can

help to rebuild Palmyra

Museums

Page 20

SAN FRANCISCO:

Why the Bay Area is

the new epicentre of

photography collecting

in the US

SPECIAL REPORT

Pages 8-9

Auction | Private Sales | Christies.com

Christie’s Inc. License #1213717

IMPRESSIONIST & MODERN ART

EVENING SALE

AUCTION Ť 16 November 2016 Ť New York

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EINZIG: © MELANIE EINZIG; COURTESY OF MICHAEL HOPPEN GALLERY. UNKNOWN PHOTOGRAPHER: COURTESY OF MICHAEL HOPPEN GALLERY. NORFOLK: © SIMON NORFOLK; COURTESY OF MICHAEL HOPPEN GALLERY

In praise of the lesser-

known photographer

For the collector and dealer Michael Hoppen, big names can get

in the way of the image as compelling evidence

The London-based dealer Michael Hoppen has been

collecting photographs documenting crime scenes, zo-

ological specimens and scientiic explorations for more

than a decade. “I saw a wonderful show about eugenics,

The Beautiful and the Damned, curated by Roger

Hargreaves at the National Portrait Gallery many years

ago,” he says. “I suddenly realised there was an area of

photography that I hadn’t really considered before and

it was science. When a photographer is documenting

a crime scene or a science project, the compositional

side of images, aesthetic considerations, all of that gets

turned on its head. That is interesting.”

He has now assembled these documentary images

in The Image as Question: an Exhibition of Evidential

Photography (until 26 November). “The reason I do

shows like this, which are commercial suicide, is be-

cause I want people to think about the work on display

and not its value. When you put expensive pictures on

the wall by big names, the baggage people bring with

them when they view the images sometimes clouds

their appreciation,” he says. “I was at a wedding the oth-

er day sitting next to a very, very well-known artist who

said to me: ‘Why would you want to buy any of these

photographs? They’re not good investments because

so many of the photographers are unknown.’ And I said:

‘With all due respect, I’m prepared to bet you that in ten

or 15 years’ time, nobody will have heard of you.’ The

name of the photographer doesn’t matter. It’s about the

quality of the picture and the story it’s telling.”

Interview by Cristina Ruiz

1

3

2

MICHAEL HOPPEN’S PHOTOGRAPHIC EVIDENCE

1 MELANIE EINZIG

September 11th, New

York, NY 2001 (2001)

We have all seen thousands of pictures

of 9/11 but there’s something really

nightmarish about this one. This UPS

delivery guy must have known some-

thing terrible was happening behind

him but he’s carrying on delivering

a package regardless because that’s

his job. When I was young I always

had a terrible dream that my father

was strapped to the front of a steam

locomotive and there was another train

coming from the other direction that

was going to collide with his. He was

oblivious; I knew there was something

terrible happening but couldn’t warn

him. This photograph captures that

nightmarish feeling I had as a child.

2 UNKNOWN PHOTOGRAPHER

Murder of Brigadier

Pierre Louis Bouvet (1926)

These photos are from original French

police case iles. We have bought a lot

from dealers, markets and auctions.

They probably came from families

with policemen who took their iles

home and these were eventually

thrown away. Here you have pictures

of the body of the victim at the crime

scene. Some might say it’s incredibly

distasteful to exhibit these and I agree

that one sails close to the wind when

you display something like this. This

is a real victim of a terrible crime and

I’m acutely aware of that. On the other

hand, I think it illustrates the incred-

ibly important job photographers do

capturing crime scenes so policemen

can do their jobs. We are all incredibly

desensitised to graphic images but if

you can look at these without being

moved by them, then there is some-

thing wrong with you.

3 SIMON NORFOLK

Prison Staircase,

Auschwitz (1996)

This is so much more than an image of a

staircase; this is the staircase to the gas

chamber at Auschwitz. What I ind really

ironic about this picture is that the ban-

ister is a Bauhaus design. Hitler closed

the Bauhaus down, but when the Nazis

needed a building that really functioned

properly, they used this one with its

Bauhaus designs. Photographing places

like this is important for posterity. If we

didn’t have pictures of the concentra-

tion camps, how would we be able to

teach our children about them?