Friday October 21the Gamma Rapha Keystone photo agency will offer photography enthusiasts an auction not to be missed. For the occasion, 320 lots will be put up for sale at the Hôtel Drouot.
A century of history in pictures
Throughout these archive images, it is a century of unfolding history. The precious photographic collection of the independent French agency allows political, artistic or sports personalities to rub shoulders on silver paper. Many shots that have become legendary and rewarded with photographic prizes were born thanks to the members of the agency.
One thinks in particular of the raising of the flag in Iwo Jima immortalized in 1945 by Joe Rosenthal (Keystone) and awarded a Pulitzer Prize (one of these period prints is estimated between 1000 and 1500 euros). At Rapho they are authors who have become the figureheads of humanist photography, Robert Doisneau, Willy Ronis, Sabine Weiss Where Rene Maltetewhich contribute to the success of the agency founded in 1933.
A threefold view of the world
The richness of these archives can be explained both by the talent of its member photographers and by the unique organization of the agency. Triple structure, Gamma Rapha Keystone is also one of the first agencies to have adopted an international scopesetting up its offices from Berlin to New York via London or Paris.
Made up of 3 entities, it has promoted the photography in all its forms bringing together its salaried photographers at Keystone, illustration authors at Rapho and sending talented photojournalists to Gamma. The latter will allow them to be credited and to get out of their status as “image workers”. All will have a great freedomfreeing itself from taboos to bring back images on all subjects before entrusting them to the agency’s integrated development laboratory.
Keystone will gain independence after the Liberation. The archives of the agency spared by the war, it will keep its photographic collection to which it will devote itself definitively from 1980. These are now more than 15 million imagesincluding many delicate silver prints that make up this heritage distributed in France by the Gamma Rapha Keystone agency, which also manages the Gamma collection.
The 320 lots for this auction were selected under the supervision of two experts, Maître Yann Le Mouël and Charlotte Barthélemy.
Among the photographers whose prints will be on sale, we find Dominique Berretty, Denis Brihat, Jean-Philippe Charbonnier, Charles Ciccione, Michel Desjardins, Lily Franey, Hervé Gloaguen, François Le Diascorn, Jean-Pierre Leloir, René Maltête or even Jean- Louis Swiners.
The auction of prints from the Gamma Rapha Keystone fund will be held on Friday, October 21 at 2 p.m. at the Hôtel Drouot in Paris. A public exhibition makes it possible to discover these exceptional images from the Wednesday preceding the sale.
Useful information :
Gamma Rapha Keystone Auction
Friday, October 21, 2022 – 2 p.m.
Drouot Paris
9 rue Drouot 75009 Paris
Public exhibitions are organized on Wednesday October 19 from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m., Thursday October 20 from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. and Friday October 21 from 11 a.m. to 12 p.m.
A selection of photos is also exhibited on screen at the Nikon Plaza99 boulevard Raspail in Paris.
We would like to thank the author of this short article for this awesome material
Gamma Rapho Keystone goes to auction on October 21