The AFP is launching its first auction of around 200 photos from its collection of films, as many moments of history or photographic discoveries. It is an opportunity to acquire a unique print of an emblematic moment hitherto reserved for major international media or collective memory.
The selection for sale is made up of photographs that illustrate the news from 1944 – the date of foundation of AFP – to 1998, the beginning of the digital agency.
The works will be exhibited before the sale in various Parisian venues:
from 3 September to 3 October, the Fisheye Gallery (2, rue de l'Hôpital Saint-Louis, 75010) exhibits the “made in USA” works of Eric Schwab, AFP photographer at the end of the XNUMXs, authors featured in this sale;
from 13 September to 3 October the we are_house (73, rue du Faubourg-Saint-Honoré, 75008) will open its doors to an exhibition of forty works testifying to the diversity and quality of the agency's photographic production;
from 1 to 3 October, Galerie 75FAUBOURG (75, rue du Faubourg Saint-Honoré, 75008), will present almost all the photographs put up for auction.
News photo: from the liberation of Paris to the liberation of Mandela
scoops like photos of Che Guevara's death; from the robbery of the Crédit de la Bourse to the reconstruction of a crime scene.
Photos of scenes from everyday life: a Sunday at the Deligny pool or Coney Island. Celebrity photos: from Salvator Dali to James Baldwin. Signed photos on photographs by Eric Schwab, one of the first photographers to work for AFP after the agency was re-founded in 1944.
Each photograph, in black and white or in colour, will be offered in a single "special edition" copy:
- on silver baryta paper for manual prints made from original black and white negatives,
on silver-digital baryta paper for prints made from digital files from black and white negative scans, - on chromogenic paper for prints made from digital files from scans of color originals.
The prints will be signed and stamped by AFP, accompanied by a certificate of authenticity.
The AFP photo collection contains more than 15 million photos. The "argentica" collection is made up of 6 million images (from the 20s to 1997), of which 350.000 are documents on glass plates.
La live sale on October 3 will be held at we are_, 73, rue du Faubourg-Saint-Honoré, 75008 Paris. Founded in January 2020 by entrepreneur Eric Newton, we are_ is a hybrid place aimed at stimulating creation and innovation.
The auction catalogue, in French and English, will be searchable and purchasable on the digard.com website.
