THIS WEEK'S HOT TOPIC
For generations, photography has been considered the little sibling of painting, prints, and sculpture. It’s not hard to argue that this is still the case, at least from a money perspective. The medium has come a long way artistically, but its market still pales in comparison to its kin.
Research shows that, in recent years, photographs have been selling at auction at increasingly higher rates, yet the total values for these sales are declining. This pattern is part of a longer, more telling trend. According to a 2025 Artnet study, the photography auction market went from a total of $113.4 million in 2005 to just 116.9 million in 2024. If this trajectory evinces a sense of market resilience, it also indicates a long, steady process of devaluation.
This is not encouraging, to say the least, and it tempts easy speculation about what’s behind it all. Perhaps it’s because the photograph is no longer thought of as a special thing. What was once a miracle of chemistry and light is, today, just another form of digital detritus. Notably, the photo market peaked at around $230.5 million in 2014—the last gasp before social media really took over our lives.
Or maybe it's because there are no more great photographers. How could there be, in what MoMA curators once called our “Ocean of Images”? Even if there are, is the market drop disincentivising us from finding them?
But amid the waves, there are signs of encouragement too. According to ArtTactic, the average price of photographs at auction rose by 20% last year, while nearly a third of lots sold above their low estimate. The photo market may look meager compared to those of painting, sculpture, and prints, but it is following a familiar pattern at the top: more and more, the name of the game is quality, not quantity.
3…THINGS TO KNOW ABOUT COLLECTING PHOTOGRAPHY
1
Photographs from original negatives usually fetch much higher prices than prints made secondarily, or after the photographer’s death. So-called “lifetime” prints—photographs printed by the artist during their life—are generally worth more on the market. The image, dimensions, and printing technique of a posthumous print may be near-identical (or sometimes of even better quality, as with Neil Selkirk and Diane Arbus) to photographs printed during an artist’s life, but the gravitas of an artist printing their own work, in their own studio, from their own negative, holds more weight as an art object. Did you ever read Walter Benjamin's "The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction”? The essay elucidates why the market reveres an original over a copy.
2
Edition size isn't everything. It's easy to assume that a photograph printed in an edition of three must be more valuable than one printed in an edition of 10, but the market isn't that simple. A young photographer fresh out of a prestigious MFA program may choose to produce an edition of three with one artist's proof, but that alone doesn't justify a higher price. An artist's broader market, institutional recognition, and pricing history all carry just as much, if not more, weight. Take Wolfgang Tillmans, whose studio has frequently produced editions of 100 for photographs exhibited in major shows. Depending on the image and its dimensions, these prints can still command well over $25,000. As with most things in the art market, value comes from context. Edition size is one factor among many, as is the notion of “vintage,” which typically means the print was made within five years after the picture was taken. Understanding how artists price different sizes and editions of their work is critical for learning the market.
3
Like other works on paper, photographs are especially sensitive to light and environmental conditions. Before raising your paddle or closing a deal, take a close look at the work's condition. Silver gelatin prints, chromogenic prints, and color photographs can all fade or discolor over time if they've been improperly displayed or stored. Ask whether the work has been framed with archival materials and UV-protective glazing, and request a condition report if you're buying at auction. Unlike a painting, where small signs of age may be expected, deterioration in a photograph can dramatically affect both its appearance and its value. A little due diligence before you buy can save you a significant conservation headache later.
A NUMBER TO KNOW
+40%
The year-over-year increase in sales by value for traditional Asian works of art at the auction house China Guardian in 2025, per Vivienne Chow at The Art Newspaper. That’s the highest-ever annual bump for the category—and just one data point reinforcing its under-the-radar resilience.
What makes the category’s success especially newsworthy is that a growing number of young collectors have been powering its surge in recent years. Driven (or maybe burned) by the auction volatility of many artists from their own generation, a critical mass of buyers from this elusive demo has gone the other way, piling into Asian “ceramics, bronzes, crafts, and artifacts,” Chow writes.
Regional powerhouses like China Guardian aren’t the only sellers benefiting. Millennials and Zoomers made up 40% of all new buyers of Chinese ceramics and artworks at Christie’s this past spring, per in-house data. Between 2021 and 2025, the same age groups also doubled the amount they spent on Asian works of art at Sotheby’s, according to the firm.
Are traditional objects from other regions exerting a similar pull on younger buyers? I don’t have that data at my fingertips. But the momentum around so-called cross-category collecting—that is, buying across different categories and time periods—gives the prospect more than a little credence. Maybe ceramic isn’t so fragile after all.
—Tim Schneider / The Gray Market
ASK: ACCESS SOPHISTICATED KNOWLEDGE
David C. ASKed: Does the lack of critically acclaimed art critics like those we've had in the past mean that the new generation of contemporary artists will never be as historically important as the iconic post-war artists? Is this the reason why there is a disparity in auction prices between historical names (e.g. Jackson Pollock) and younger generations of contemporary artists?
Josh Baer for NoReserve: No, it just means the notion of "critically acclaimed" maybe needs to change. History has a way of being rewritten, and with a glut of info and people letting AI determine what is important, it's too soon to say who the legacy artists will be.
Just because we have maybe 10 or 100 times as many self-professed artists in the USA today (around 3 million), we cannot assume 10 or 100 times as many "great artists" are out there. As I often say, there are maybe 50 artists from the Renaissance still known (how many can you name?). How could we expect there to be thousands from today that will last?
But back to criticism, I think people are starving for it. Maybe the field of art critics should stop (only) moaning about their status and figure out how to better communicate an understanding, rather than an explanation, to their readers?
Have your own question for the NoReserve team? Reply to this email or reach out to us on Instagram, @no.reserve. Readers whose submissions we choose get a special prize—six free months of our paid newsletter, The Baer Faxt.
2 MINUTES WITH…
The photo market is driven by giants who transcend the genre altogether. Look how seamlessly these prints by Richard Avedon and Richard Prince fit in among the paintings included in Sotheby’s current selling show, “American Views: People & Places,” which looks at the history of the country through the eyes of its finest artists.
The video below was filmed in partnership with the auction house for the July edition of our long-form newsletter, This Month in the Market, which hit inboxes last week. In it, we grappled with a question that’s becoming more and more difficult to answer: What is American Art? MacArthur "genius" grantee Titus Kaphar and 2026 Whitney Biennial co-curator Marcela Guerrero also weighed in.
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