A Market Ready to Develop

“Photo L.A.,” the annual photographic print exhibition and sale that brings thousands of photography aficionados to town each January, will have a new home this year. After eight years at Butterfield & Butterfield in Hollywood, the fair will be held at the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium, from Thursday through next Sunday.

As usual, photography dealers will rent booths to display a huge assortment of images--from Eugene Atget’s shots of late 1800s and early 1900s Paris and Edward Curtis’ stately portraits of Native Americans to Weegee’s messy crime scenes and Tony Mendoza’s up-close-and-personal shots of dogs. And, as always, the photographs will be hung chockablock on walls, spread out on tables and filed in bins, where collectors can peruse them.

But this year’s fair will be much larger than its predecessors, said Stephen Cohen, a longtime photography dealer who organizes “Photo L.A.” and operates a gallery on Beverly Boulevard. Instead of the usual 35 or 40 exhibitors, there will about 70 participants--60 galleries and 10 publishers, auction houses and firms that sell photography online.

The Santa Monica venue offers more than twice as much exhibition space as Butterfield & Butterfield, Cohen said, noting that more parking is available. He made the move in response to the demands of participants and a growing audience, he said. In doing so, he has taken a big step, but one that he hopes is realistic and manageable.

“I still had to turn away dealers who wanted to participate,” Cohen said, “but I wanted to keep it somewhat intimate.” Rather than squeeze in more exhibitors, he decided to enlarge the size of the booths. The aisles will be wider too, he said. “We went to a lot of trouble to design the space so that it’s pleasant and people don’t have to walk down endless long rows.” About 4,000 people attended last year’s event; Cohen is hoping for 5,000 to 6,000 this time.

Cohen organized the first “Photo L.A.” in 1992 to build his own clientele, but the annual fair has become a Southern California institution. Unlike the large contemporary art fair that sprang up at the Los Angeles Convention Center in 1986, flourished for a couple of years and then died a slow, painful death, “Photo L.A.” seems to have found its niche. The photography fair also appears to have succeeded by remaining focused and relatively small.

But now his creation needs room to grow, Cohen said. Photography has a much larger presence in Los Angeles galleries and museums than it did eight years ago. Furthermore, the photography market has boomed during the past decade, so it’s time for the fair to reflect photography’s rising status, he said.

“This has been a great year for photography,” Cohen said, referring to last fall’s spectacular auction season, when expectations of the top price a photograph might fetch shot into the stratosphere.

In 1993, a work by Alfred Stieglitz, “Georgia O’Keeffe: A Portrait--Hands,” was sold for $398,500, a record price for a single photograph. Six years went by before that sum was surpassed, but when the moment came--last October, at Sotheby’s London--the record was shattered four times within a three-week period.

On Oct. 6, another work by Stieglitz, “From the Back Window,” was knocked down for $420,500. The price barely made a blip on the photography market’s radar screen, however, because in the same auction Charles Sheeler’s “Criss-Crossed Conveyors, Ford Plant” commanded a much higher sum, $607,500. Then, on Oct. 27, two works by 19th century French photographer Gustave Le Gray broke the record established by the Sheeler. Le Gray’s “Hetre, Fontainebleau,” an albumen-print study of a beech tree, was sold for $694,650 and “Grande Vague--Sete,” a coastal seascape at sunset, commanded $840,370-- more than eight times the auction house’s high estimate of about $100,000.

Unlike sales at public auctions, transactions at art fairs are private affairs, but participating dealers are hoping to do a brisk business--or at least make contacts that will lead to future sales. Exhibitors from Los Angeles include dealers Peter Fetterman, G. Ray Hawkins, Jan Kesner, Paul Kopeikin and Craig Krull, and L.A. Center for Photographic Studies, a nonprofit exhibition space. Others--including the Center for Czech Photography of Prague and dealer Alison Holland of Sydney, Australia--will travel a considerable distance to take part in the fair.

“I’m really excited about the range and quality of the work that will be shown,” Cohen said. Ranging from classic 19th century images to experimental contemporary art, the selection will represent an international array of historic figures, such as Henri Cartier-Bresson of France, Manuel Alvarez Bravo of Mexico, Sebastiao Salgado of Brazil and Americans Diane Arbus, Imogen Cunningham and Edward Weston.

Among contemporary works on display will be Lynn Geesaman’s romantic landscapes, Danny Lyon’s shots of bikers and Lauren Greenfield’s images of Las Vegas and L.A. kids who grow up too fast. In addition, Griffin Contemporary, a gallery in Venice, will present installations of works by Liza Ryan and Enrique Martinez Celaya.

“Photo L.A. 2000” will be launched with a preview reception Thursday, from 6 to 9 p.m. Hosted by film director and photographer Gus Van Sant, the affair will benefit DIFFA/Los Angeles, a community fund for AIDS services. Tickets to the benefit, priced at $40, must be purchased directly from DIFFA: (310) 652-6601.

The fair will be open to the public Friday through next Sunday. In addition to the large exhibition and sale, Cohen has organized three lectures by well-known photographers and four seminars on collecting photography.

William Eggleston, a renowned innovator in color photography whose work is on view at the J. Paul Getty Museum, will give the first lecture, Friday at 1 p.m. Julius Shulman, whose perfectly composed pictures of Southern California’s modern architecture are probably better known than many of the buildings he photographed, will speak Saturday at 10 a.m. Mary Ellen Mark, a leading documentary photographer whose work has appeared in major magazines, newspapers and books, will lecture Sunday at 10 a.m.

All of the seminars on collecting will begin before the fair opens, but the programs will include walk-throughs of the exhibition with the leaders. The series will start Friday at 10 a.m. with Dale Stulz, a consultant and appraiser. John Bennette III, billed as “a passionate collector who emphasizes the art of collecting, rather than commercial aspects,” will follow at 1 p.m. Daile Kaplan, a writer and director of photography at Swann Galleries in New York, will lead a seminar Saturday at 10 a.m. Critic A.D. Coleman will conclude the series Sunday, also at 10 a.m.

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“PHOTO L.A. 2000,” Santa Monica Civic Auditorium Dates: Preview reception, Thursday, 6-9 p.m.; open to public Friday, 3-8 p.m.; Saturday, noon-8 p.m.; next Sunday, noon-6 p.m. Prices: Preview reception, $40--order from DIFFA/Los Angeles: (310) 652-6601; one-day admission to the fair, $12; three-day pass, $20; lectures, $5; seminars, $50 (including three-day pass). Phone: (323) 937-5482.

Suzanne Muchnic is The Times’ art writer.