Developing the Market

ITH PHOTOGRAPHS selling at auction for millions of dollars, art fairs dedicated entirely to the medium of photography, and galleries galore selling everything from daguerreotypes to digital C-prints, it’s hard to remember that not too long ago, there was virtually no commercial market for photography. Until the 1970s, when photographs were sold it was usually by their creators, as works of journalism, illustration, or portraiture. Museums such as MoMA purchased photographs, but they paid very little. Photography collectors were hobbyists swapping prints with each other. One of the key players in changing all that was the LIGHT Gallery, a New York commercial establishment that courageously championed contemporary fine-art