Don’t buy that photo, the man said jokingly over my shoulder. He was referring to a lovely and loving picture of three little African girls walking down a road towards us, all tight like best friends or sisters or cousins.
I was taking photos of the photo for my blog, but still admiring it and thinking that I’d love to have it on my wall. I didn’t get a bid paddle, just to make sure I did not buy anything at the auction, although it was for a worthy cause. The works were donated by photographers to help raise money for scholarships.
The man wanted this particular photo among at least 70 or more up for sale at a National Association of Black Journalists’ (NABJ) auction last weekend during its annual convention. The word was that an estimated 2,500 journalists, students, educators and others came to Philadelphia to partake of learning and training sessions, to see old friends and to honor journalists who had done good work.
The auction, sponsored by the group’s Visual Task Force, was just as much a fixture at the convention as the W.E.B DuBois lecture, the Sports Task Force awards program, the screening of the hottest new film featuring black actors and the awards gala. I had always looked forward to the photo auction when I’d attended the convention in the past.
In fact, I bought a photo once much like this one. It showed a group of African refugees on a road at dusk, the colors all purples and blacks. It hung on my wall until I rearranged some artwork recently.
The African girls were photographed by photographer Brian Branch Price in Gomoa Tekyiam, Ghana, last September. It was part of his Obaatan Project, after a faith-based organization called Obataan Mobilization Against Poverty that helps poor women and children. The organization assisted the village last fall after a major flood.
A photo of a senior pharmacist in his white coat fitted into a tight space among shelves of pills and other medicines also caught my eye. It had a look of antiquity, unlike the bright lights and wide aisles of today’s pharmacies, which are not places to themselves but offshoots of stores that sell a lot more than pills. The photo by photographer Gary Porter was like a throwback jersey among the more contemporary pieces in the auction. I checked out some of his other works on the web. Fantastic.
It reminded one convention volunteer of her Uncle Randall who worked in a pharmacy in Philadelphia back in the 1940s.
I was taken with the photo because it reminded me of the stuff I see at my regular auctions – the pieces of a person’s past that the families don’t know what to do with after they’re gone. I always come across single photos and photo albums taken from a time that this pharmacy seemed to represent. In this auction, though, there was a decided difference: These photos were offered by the owners themselves for a very good cause.
The pharmacist photo was not the only vintage-looking one. Two 1957 black-and-white photos of Louis Armstrong by photographer Bob Moreland were for sale. I was sure that those would be among the top money-makers. Here’s another Moreland of Satchmo in a cloud of smoke at the Manhattan Casino in St. Petersburg, FL.
Once the auction began, it was very informal. The would-be auctioneer warned us beforehand that it was all in good fun: “We have one rule,” Fred Sweets, who for years was a photographer and photo editor at the Associated Press, said. “We have no rules.”
And he was right. He joked with the audience and they joked back. He called out to friends and they came right back at him. He lingered and he joked some more. It was not what I was used to, but as he indicated, it was not your typical auction. Sweets noted that he was starting the bids at prices based on how much he liked the photo. I was not there for the entire auction (it lasted for at least 2 ½ hours), but the first few started at $50.
The photo of the little girls was among the first to come up. The man who wanted it got into a bidding war with another woman who wanted it just as badly. I sat and watched in awe as the bidding raced past $100, then to past $300 and then to $500. The man backed off and someone else stepped in. “I thought you wanted it,” I said over his shoulder as I sat behind him. “I can’t go beyond $500,” he said. A few minutes later, though, he jumped back in and finally got the photograph for $750.
At these auctions, folks are willing to pay more because they know they are contributing to NABJ and its programs.
I wasn’t around when the Satchmo photos were sold, but I was told that the one with him and his trumpet went for $1,000 and the other one for less. Neither was I around for the pharmacist but decided to return to the auction site later to see if it sold. I was this close to buying it if it was still there. It did not sell at auction, I was told, but a buyer got it outside the auction for $75. Lovely, the old guy deserved to go home with someone.
Here are some other photos from the auction:
The Old Spice commercial guy, Isaiah Mustafa. This one was a looker. $75.
A mother’s pain. Photographer Milt Brown took a photo of a mother whose son was shot by Chicago police. $75.
Saxophonist Clarence Clemons, $75.
Autographed photo of golfers Ben Hogan and Brian Wilson, $200.
Alex Garcia’s photo of a 7-year-old girl with sickle cell anemia on a trip to Macy’s. She wants to be a singer, according to Sweets. The photo was a burst of orange against her deep chocolate skin. The colors were brilliant. No sale.
Jim Walker’s photo of a Feb. 15, 1960, sit-in by Norcom High School students at Roses Department store in Portsmouth, VA. Not far from it was a 50-years-later reunion photo of the Norfolk 17 student protesters. The Portsmouth photo ran in Life magazine on Feb. 29, 1960. Caption: “Backed by jostling crowd, Negroes stay unserved during lunch counter sit-down protest.” Whites and blacks fought that day in the shopping center parking lot after the protest.
Little girl and perhaps her grandmother dressed to the nines. Photo by Chris Zuppa.
