[private_subscriber][private_bundle]Lots offered in the 2005 to 2009 New York photography sales spanned more than 150 years: The oldest photo (a salt print by William Henry Fox Talbot) was completed around 1842 while the most recent (a chromogenic print by Shirin Neshat) was printed in 2008. On average, the most expensive photos dated to the first quarter of the 20th-century (Fig. 3). The most significant contribution to overallvalue, however, comes from photos taken in the 1930s (Fig. 4). More than 1,200 photos dating from the ’30s have hit the block since 2005, selling for a total of $20,086,911. Last  year, work from the 1950s, 1970s and 1980s outsold ’30s photography, which was much scarcer than usual: Only 136 lots dating from 1930 to 1939 appeared on the block, compared to 236 in 2008. Most decade subcategories experienced a similar contraction in lot volume. The number of lots offered from the 2000s subcategory, however, grew by 23% (Fig. 5). Yet the increasing supply of 21st century photography (volume has increased by a factor of 22 since 2005), is not being met with equal demand. Since 2008, average prices have fallen below average mid-estimates, signaling that expectations for recent photos are higher than the actual prices being achieved (Fig. 6). In 2008, the subcategory also posted an inordinately high buy-in rate. The poor performance of 21st-century works reflects a value problem inherent to the subcategory: While blue-chip photography from earlier decades is only sold in photography sales, top notch recent works wind up in contemporary art sales. Therefore, recent works offered in the New York photography sales tend to be second-tier to begin with.
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