I began working overtime at my office yesterday and put in my first ten-hour day of this year’s busy season. I’ll probably have to put in the same hours just about every day for the next four weeks to try to finish all of my work on time (plus some time on weekends, too).

So, that pretty much means that developing film is out of the question until I return to a normal schedule, and I won’t have much if any time for filing negatives, either. I will still try to scan some film now and then so I can post some previously unseen work of mine here. The image at the top is one from my series with Carlotta in the Nevada desert in the spring of 2006. (To be honest with you, I don’t remember if I’ve posted it here before, so please forgive me if I have.)
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I haven’t done much with my own photography the past week or so, but I did go out into Manhattan on Sunday to see a display of several hundred photos that are being auctioned off at Christie’s at Rockefeller Center this week. Sunday was going to be a day to take it easy and rest at home (well, except for doing the laundry), but when I read about the photo sale and saw the photos online at Christie’s website (click here to see them yourself), I just had to go out and see the actual prints for myself.

Unlike the auctions normally scheduled for April and October, this is one couple’s private photo collection, consisting primarily of fashion, nude and celebrity images. There were plenty of Helmut Newton photos to see, as well as a great deal of photos of Marilyn Monroe. (Regarding Newton, you really haven’t experienced his work until you’ve been in a relatively small room with several 6 ½ foot high silver prints from his Big Nudes series staring down at you.) There were also quite a few photos by Irving Penn, Richard Avedon, Horst P. Horst and Jeanloup Sieff. I bought the catalog, which is about an inch thick.

I actually met and spoke for a few minutes with the owner of the prints, Mr. Leon Constantiner. I basically thanked him for allowing the public to see his wonderful collection of photos, and we talked about a few of the photos. I specifically pointed out to him Rudolph Koppitz’s classic 1925 photo, Movement Study, which is one of my all-time favorite nude images. This is the one with a nude dancer with her back bent, highlighted in front of three other dancers dressed in black. It’s a stunning composition, and though I’ve seen it in books before, I don’t know if I’d ever seen an actual print of it.

I also remember one other thing he said to me: don’t buy art because of its investment value. If you’re going to buy something, he said, get it because you love it.
So, you can see all of the images on Christie’s website, but here below are just a few for you to see here and now. Enjoy.