Andrea Blanch: I’m very curious about why a major dealer organization and an auction house are teaming up.

Richard Moore: It is kind of unusual, because we’re friendly with all the photography people at the auctions and we work together and always invite them to our show, but in a way, we’re competitors, because we’re vying for the same collections and so forth. But this year has just been so unusual. We were all set to take part in the show with Paris Photo New York and three weeks before it had to be cancelled. So AIPAD has been kind of absent from the public view for most of 2020 because during the annual show, that’s when everybody comes to town—the curators, collectors, all the great photographers come, and we didn’t get that.

Andrea: Where did the idea come from?

Richard: It was probably during a members’ zoom meeting. Someone brought up maybe doing an auction. We thought about how it could be like a fundraising auction for AIPAD, but then we thought, if we can collaborate with one of the major auction houses, because they all already have these platforms for doing online auctions, which we don’t have, then it could benefit the individual members by hopefully having some sales from the pieces they consigned. Then we wanted to ask the auction company if they would donate or give a payment to AIPAD for our talks program, which we’ve always had during the photography show. Emily [Emily Bierman, Head of Sotheby's Photographs, New York at Sotheby’s] has always really understood what AIPAD is about, and she’s become friends with a lot of our members because dealers buy at auctions or try to consign things. So she was really positive about it.

Stephen Bulger Gallery, Toronto, Lutz Dille, MoMA, N. Y. C. , 1959, Estimate: $3,000-5,000 — *Stephen Bulger Gallery*, Toronto, Lutz Dille, **MoMA, N. Y. C.** , 1959, Estimate: $3,000-5,000

Richard: They agreed to give a small percentage of each lot that’s sold to AIPAD for our talks program, and they’re also really generous in crediting each lot to the gallery that consigned it. She even gave each gallery an opportunity to write a few things about the piece they consigned. The idea is that the work that’s consigned from each gallery is representative of what they deal in, their specialties, so this would also hopefully bring people to each member’s website or gallery. So I really commend Emily and her team for all the hard work they did because they have so many other auctions going on too. They’ve got this big single owner sale of a big collection of Ansel Adams I think that’s going to be a live auction right before ours starts.

Andrea: Do you think you’ll resume your collaboration with Paris Photo?

Richard: Our agreement is for three years. It was for the first three shows, and then if they wanted to continue it, we would renew the agreement. So that remains to be seen. I think everybody who’s involved in producing art fairs is just kind of cautiously waiting because they had to cancel the Paris show and the New York show.

Andrea: Yeah, it’s like the last man standing.

Richard: Exactly. And I don’t think I see a lot of people planning art fairs this spring in New York. But we’re hoping that Paris Photo will want to come back to New York.

Andrea: Since you’ve had a long career in the photography world, has your taste changed over time?

Richard: A lot. Especially when I first got into photography it was the classical 20th century photographers. But since I’ve been on the AIPAD board and was involved in a show, I started paying more attention to the contemporary work people were showing,. At first I thought they just kind of looked the same, but then like with any kind of art that you don’t pay attention to, suddenly one day you get a moment where you really start seeing it. So my taste has definitely expanded and I think it all works together with AIPAD. I still prefer the analog materials. Digital is beautiful but it’s so predictable. I understand that it’s a tool and a medium for the artist to say what they want to say. But I get more excited by the rethinking of analog stuff. One interesting thing about the auction that Sotheby’s is doing is that they’re open to taking consignments of contemporary work from galleries that have more emerging photographers who don’t really have an auction record. So it’s a good opportunity for those galleries and their artists to drum up some support.

Andrea: What has the response been to the auction?

Richard: We’re just starting to publicize. They don’t have the catalogue up yet but that should be up soon online. And Emily tells me that she’s getting a lot of very enthusiastic response.

Andrea: Do you have any role in selecting any of the images that are going to be in the auction or any of the galleries that are going to be in the auction?

Richard: Well it’s really that each consigner is consigning with Sotheby’s, so AIPAD doesn’t really even have any kind of contract with Sotheby’s. There was just an agreement that we would invite all the members of AIPAD which I think are 95 now. They all submit five works and then we left it to the Sotheby’s experts to pick a couple from those. We’re really letting them handle it, and then the idea is that we’ll jointly promote it, and when we start our online talks program.

Henry Feldstein, Forest Hills, Weegee, End of the War, 1945, Estimate $3,000-5,000 — *Henry Feldstein, Forest Hills,* Weegee, ***End of the War,*** 1945, Estimate $3,000-5,000

Andrea: Is that going to be through Sotheby’s as well?

Richard Moore: That’ll just be AIPAD, but we may participate with them in some future things.

Andrea: So what’s next? Where do you see it going?

Richard: I think our point of view is try to wait it out and hope that there’ll be an art fair when there can be. I can’t really say when that would be. Maybe the art fairs are going to be simpler, not as many bells and whistles and champagne bars and extra expenses initially, because they have to be affordable for the galleries, because people don’t really know what to expect.

Andrea: Are you sending anything of your work from your gallery to be in the auction?

Richard Moore: They actually selected two pieces. Women photographers and they’re both vintage pieces.

Andrea: Well I will definitely look for it.