The firm launched a photography and photobooks department at the end of last year when ex-Dreweatts & Bloomsbury specialist Justine Gruser joined the company. Forum is planning to hold two dedicated offerings per year: one in the summer, the other in the winter.
Among the highlights at the upcoming sale are two portraits by Julia Margaret Cameron (1815-79). One depicts Mary Ryan, the subject of a number of portraits by the pioneering Victorian photographer.
Ryan was ‘saved’ from begging when, aged 10, she and her mother were taken in by the Camerons and lived alongside the photographer’s own children.
The signed albumen print at Forum dates from 1865 and is inscribed ‘From Life’.
It is estimated at £3000-5000.
The other albumen print by Cameron at the sale is an untitled photograph of a small child estimated at £1200-1500.
Vintage themes
The top-estimated work at the sale is a gelatin silver print by Helmut Newton (1920-2004) from 1975, titled Roselyne, Château d'Arcangues (Salon) and estimated at £12,000-15,000.
Another work in the same medium is New York City, an image taken in 1974 by Elliott Erwitt (b.1928). A typical example of the photographer’s work showing a combination of two of his favourite themes – dogs and absurd situations – this print was previously owned by The Photographers' Gallery in London and is estimated at £2000-3000 at Forum.
‘New York City’, an image from 1974 by Elliott Erwitt that is estimated at £2000-3000 at Forum Auctions.
