As many of you know, I have been blogging about our Benefit Auction for months… and now and it’s finally here! There’s still alot to do as you can see from these pics below, but it’s really been coming together. We’re thrilled about the response the Auction has gotten so far….from photo lovers as well as some ‘related’ interests’ we’ll be highlighting in upcoming posts.  In the meantime, join me for some backstage unpacking:

Shhh… be very, very quiet… auction of American painting happening about 30 feet away

One of the two colorama prints in the live auction (safely tucked away!)  awaiting hanging

One portion of the online auction contents being sorted in preparation for hanging

And don’t forget…our Online Auction is going on right now!!!

Editor’s Note: You can see the latest behind-the-scenes pics on our Sotheby\’s Benefit Auction Facebook Photo Album.

For more than 60 years George Eastman House — as the world’s oldest museum of photography— has showcased and supported the celebrated artists of photography. And now as we present the George Eastman House Benefit Auction we have asked the photo world for support and are overwhelmed by the generous response— more than 300 items from 227 donors.

The items exceed $1 million in value and include fine photographic prints, books, and some cameras, spanning 160 years of photography with work dating from 1850 to 2010. Featured are some of the finest names in photography, all worthy of consideration for the Eastman House collections and already represented in our collections. Most every process is represented, including  daguerreotypes, salted paper prints, heliogravures, photogravures, carbon, platinum, gelatin silver, dye transfer, and archival pigment prints. All items are donations; none are from the Eastman House collections.

Bert Stern, Marilyn Monroe, from “The Last Sitting” (Diamonds), 1962.

Contemporary archival pigment print mounted to board, image 20 x 24 inches, signed and dated in grease crayon on recto, signed and dated in grease crayon on verso.

Donation of the artist and Staley-Wise Gallery.  Estimate: $7,500

© Bert Stern

Due to the large size of the auction, a portion of the lots are available for bidding as of yesterday and through Oct. 7 through an online silent auction at igavelauctions.com. All of the auction items will be displayed at Sotheby’s this weekend and on Oct. 4.

A sampling of esteemed artists whose work is included in the online portion of the benefit auction— who in many cases are also the generous donor of the photograph or item—  are John Baldessari, Thomas Barrow, Marilyn Bridges, Carl Chiarenza, William Clift, Lois Conner, Marion Faller & Hollis Frampton, Roger Fenton, Mario Giacomelli, Lois Greenfield, Ron Haviv, Kenro Izu, Ed Kashi, Michael Kenna, Douglas Kirkland, Mark Klett, Mona Kuhn, David Levinthal, Danny Lyon, Nathan Lyons, Amanda Marchand, Joel Meyerowitz, Jeffrey Milstein, Eadweard Muybridge, Felix Nadar, Graham Nash, Gordon Parks, Melissa Ann Pinney, David Plowden, Christopher Rauschenberg, Marc Riboud, Willy Ronis, John Sexton, Gerald Slota, Alfred Stieglitz, Josef Sudek, Frank Meadow Sutcliffe, Larry Towell, Arthur Tress, Todd Webb, William Wegman, Brett Weston, and Garry Winogrand.

Paul Everard Outerbridge “Consciousness”. 1931

Toned vintage gelatin print

9 1/2 x 7 1/8 inches

Estimate: $100,000

A sampling from the long list of the generous donors includes Bonni Benrubi Gallery, Michael Feinstein, Fraenkel Gallery, Julie Saul Gallery, Laurence Miller Gallery, Paula and Mack Lee, Martin Margulies, Michael Mazzeo Gallery, Paul Kopeikin Gallery, Susan Spiritus Gallery, and Throckmorton Fine Art.

The live auction at Sotheby’s New York begins at 7 p.m. Monday, Oct. 4. Work is included  by artists such as Berenice Abbott, Ansel Adams, Louis Faurer, Benedict Fernandez, Todd Hido, Horst P. Horst, Eikoh Hosoe, Gertrude Kasebier, Sally Mann, Nickolas Muray, Paul Outerbridge Jr., Sebastiao Salgado, Southworth & Hawes, Edward Steichen, and Edward Weston. Subjects of the featured photographs include Marilyn Monroe, Frido Kahlo, John F. and Jackie Kennedy, Audrey Hepburn, Martin Luther King Jr., Coco Chanel, Auguste Rodin, and New York City sites, plus a Kodak Colorama art-directed by Norman Rockwell.

Sotheby’s New York has generously opened its doors to us and at the podium during the live auction will be Denise Bethel, vice president and director of the photographs department at Sotheby’s. And two Eastman House trustees have led the charge: Manfred Heiting, chairman of the George Eastman House Benefit Auction Committee, and Susan Robfogel, chairman of the George Eastman House Board of Trustees.

The members of the Honorary Committee for the Eastman House auction are Joree Adilman, Deborah Bell, Bruce Berman, Janet Borden, Jeff Bridges, Peter Bunnell, Francesca Calderone-Steichen, David Friend, Howard Greenberg, Paul Hertzman, Susan Herzig, David Knaus, Peter MacGill, Michael Mazzeo, Mark McKenna, Bill Mindlin, Richard Menschel, Robert Morton, Stephen Perloff, Jill Quasha, Ira Resnick, Susan Spiritus, Lauren Wendle.

The late Joanna Steichen, who donated a signed self-portrait of husband Edward Steichen, had graciously agreed to serve as the chairwoman of auction’s Honorary Committee prior to her unexpected passing in July. The auction is dedicated in her memory.

For more than two years at Eastman House we have been gathering donations from collectors, photographers, gallerists, and dealers worldwide. The challenge of the recession has required the Museum to employ new fiscal ventures, such as this auction.

So, why is it important to support George Eastman House? Auction proceeds will help the Eastman House maintain its extensive collections of photographs, camera technology, motion pictures, and related literature, totaling more than 4 million objects. This benefit will help ensure continued growth of resources that foster research and study into one of the world’s most historically significant collections, as well as the world-renowned schools of photographic and film preservation. Also benefiting will be the National Historic Landmark house and gardens.

This is an auction for everyone, with no reserve, where one can bid hundreds of dollars to six figures. You can bid online, by phone, by mail, or in person with us in New York. We invite you to take part and alongside us celebrate photography and George Eastman House.

Colorama #553 on disaply in Grand Central Terminal from August 15-September 22, 1988. Photogrpahy by Norm Kerr.

As we enter the last month of our Colorama exhibition at the Museum, we’d like to share some of the stories people have sent us about their own connection to these images— and the times they captured (and manufactured) of a by-gone era. Over the next four weeks, we’ll be blogging some of our favorites entries to close out the exhibit. Our first is from David Spiro, Director of Public Relations and Development of Rochester’s Blackfriars Theatre:

While I have been living here in Rochester for the past eleven years, I am Brooklyn born, Bronx raised, and Grand Central Terminal (GCT) is without a doubt still my favorite building in NYC, hands down. I spent many a time passing through the building for one purpose or another, and every time I go home to visit my family (my mother still lives in the Bronx neighborhood where I was raised) I always try to take the time to go into Manhattan to soak in the energy that only it can offer, visit some of my favorite eateries, and of course take the time to walk through GCT. The Colorama is very much an important part of my memories.

I think the thing that stands out most is the summer of 1979. My aunt was able to get me a summer job working at the property tax office in Brooklyn, repossessing little old ladies houses. (Okay, no I didn’t really do that, as I was just doing basic clerical work.) Most of the time, I took the #6 train from Pelham Bay station in the Bronx, and changed at Grand Central Station for the #4 into Brooklyn. (It’s important to note that “Grand Central Station” refers to the subway station, While GCT refers to the actual terminal above it. )

Once or twice a week however, I would take the express bus from my Bronx neighborhood into Manhattan, get off at the 42nd Street and 5th Avenue stop, and then walk the few blocks to Grand Central to hop the #4. Coming into GCT via the 42nd Street entrance, with the Park Ave. viaduct overhead was my favorite approach. It led you directly to the main concourse area of the terminal where you could look up at the magnificent ceiling with the constellations in their gold painted glory overhead. There was the famous GCT clock, the main meeting place for so many people, as well as it’s information booth below it, guiding customers to their proper Metro-North train, and during that time, to their Amtrak train.

If you looked to the right, there it was: The Colorama. If it wasn’t the biggest picture in the world, it sure should have been. The pictures would vary every few weeks, from nature, to cityscapes, to people, but the thrill was always wondering what would come next? I always had to pass underneath it to get to the part of the subway platform I need be at, and always marveled at it, wondering how they were able to blow a picture up that enormously? It was also, as its name suggest, bathed in the most glorious saturation of color. One always saw tourists gawking in amazement, and taking pictures of a picture.

While the restoration of GCT was very welcome as it opened up the main concourse to more natural light, the removal of the Colorama (as well as the old clapboard flip-style train arrival/departure board) was a sad event. To hear that it is being donated to the Eastman House was joyous to read, and here’s hoping it goes on prominent display. You can be sure that this Bronx boy will be among the first on line to see it.

Don’t forget to check out our Colorama Story Facebook page for videos of the Colorama photographers, models, and friends sharing their memories (coming Sept. 24th), to browse images from the exhibition, and to post your own story.

Eastman House formally opened its latest exhibition last night at the 1285 Avenue of the Americas Gallery. 60 from the 60s: Selections from George Eastman House features 10 of the most significant photographers from the 1960s. Dr. Alison Nordström, curator of photographs for Eastman House and of this exhibition, led media and invited guests on a tour of the exhibition.

Dr. Alison Nordström

From left to right:  Bonnie Gordon, John Pfahl, Colin Thomson, Marvin Kitman, and Ben Fernandez on tour with Dr. Nordström

The exhibition also celebrates the 50th anniversary of the 42-story building at 1285 Avenue of the Americas. The Skidmore, Owings & Merrill-designed building, constructed in 1960, sits on Sixth Avenue between 51st and 52nd streets in Manhattan— right across from Radio City Music Hall.

DISSENTERS, 1967, by Benedict J. Fernandez. George Eastman House collections

That same decade also saw many new photography styles come to life— collage, street photography, photojournalism coverage of riots. The 60-print exhibit from the Eastman House archive explores each of these styles through photographers who were just beginning to create a name for themselves as well as established artists then in the midst of successful careers. They include Harry Callahan, Benedict J. Fernandez, Hollis Frampton, Betty Hahn, Robert Heinecken, Mary Ellen Mark, Roger Mertin, Arnold Newman, Aaron Siskind, and Garry Winogrand.

The selection reveals high modernism at its apogee happily co-existing side by side with burgeoning postmodernism: Arnold Newman was well-known for his commercial and art photographs, while Harry Callahan’s street portraits and beautifully framed architectural views had enormous influence on his students and contemporaries. Robert Heinecken appropriated photographs to create his collage-like works, while Benedict J. Fernandez was embedded in the protest movement, creating powerful reportage that presented both sides of some of the most volatile issues of the time. Street photographer Garry Winogrand captured the essence of the period with his surreal images at a time when Aaron Siskind had shifted away from his documentary style of the 1930s toward abstractions of graffiti and images that flatten the photographic plane.

60 from the 60s is on view through Feb. 18, 2011.

At the Museum, we maintain nearly 200 different herbaceous perennials in the gardens. A herbaceous perennial is a winter hardy plant that dies back to the ground each year and lives more than two years. In late summer, we collect seed from some and divide others to maintain a healthy collection— and tomorrow participants spend three hours in my garden class learning how it’s done.

Here’s a look at some examples from around our grounds:

Campanula-carpactica

Gaillardia-x-grandiflora

Lobelia-cardinalis

Lobelia-syphilitica

In the following two weeks, students will also be learning about pruning of woody plants and year-end garden maintenance. Yes, it’s that time of year!