Jane Cofer on Collecting Photography

Sorry, looks like no contributors are set

Many of Cofer’s collected portraits are of young girls, which she began collecting when pregnant with her second child. Pictured: Trine Søndergaard, Strude #20, 2008-09.
Many of Cofer’s collected portraits are of young girls, which she began collecting when pregnant with her second child. Pictured: Trine Søndergaard, Strude #20, 2008-09.

[cont. from previous page]
CS: Many people say that galleries can be intimidating. Why is that?
JC: I have felt that intimidation walking into galleries! I was working with a client and she said that she went to New York City with her list of galleries, but she didn’t know what to do once in the gallery. Who do you talk to, what do you say? The truth is, galleries can be really engaging and wonderful.  If someone comes into a gallery and says, “I heard you have this artist and can you show them to me,” they would be incredibly willing to do it. If you come in and don’t say anything, they’re not going to come up to you like they might in a dress shop, but galleries do want you to have a positive experience too. Sometimes I’ll go to a gallery and walk into their back office and ask what else is back there. I am a collector today because of my parents, and because of Jane Jackson. Jane was so gracious, you could go to her gallery and open the drawers and look at the art, and she loved talking about it.
CS: Can you describe how you came to discover and purchase some of your favorite pieces in your collection?
JC: I have several photographs that I bought from Marilyn Kiang when she had the Kiang Gallery here in Atlanta. Her husband is Chinese, so they would spend a great deal of time in China and bring artists back here. My husband and I bought the photographs because of our relationship with the gallery and we wanted to support the artists. Also, my husband went to hear one of the artists, Cui Xiuwen, talk and was even more inspired. There were several pieces we liked in her series, called Existential Emptiness, but we only wanted to buy one, and that was one of the moments when I had to put on my appraiser’s hat and say, one piece was the more powerful image and more sellable. Other favorites are an Arnold Newman that my parents gave me, and a William Wegman from Jackson Fine Art.  I also love a photograph that I found in Budapest when I went to this place called Photographer’s Gallery. I was looking in a bin and all the photographs were $100 each. I said to the woman who worked there, “Oh my gosh what a bargain, I can’t believe these are so cheap!” And she said, “Not to us.” I learned to keep my mouth shut after that.
Chris Verene, Cheyenne’s Bedroom, 2001-07.
Chris Verene, Cheyenne’s Bedroom, 2001-07.

CS: How do you make the decision to buy something from a well-known artist or a lesser-known artist?
JC: Working with collections, I see certain photographers all the time. I had always wanted an Elliott Erwitt, but everyone had the ones with the fashion model’s shoes. I saw them all the time. But then I saw a photograph by him at AIPAD (Association of International Photography Art Dealers) from a Boston gallery. Elliott Erwitt had written on the back. It’s a vintage print that he printed himself. It had Magnum stamps and a note that said it was in an exhibition at the Edwynn Houk Gallery.  You can see on the print where he burned and dodged. I had finally found my Elliott Erwitt! Collecting is about having an amazing image and then having that extra layer to it. It’s about getting caught up in the environment, and in the image, and in the price.
Jane Cofer photo collection; Sara Small, Mia in Turquoise
Over the fireplace: Sarah Small, Mia in Turquoise (from the Constructions series), 2009. (Photo: John Ramspott)

CS: What are your thoughts about collecting “photojournalism” versus “fine art” photography?
JC: There are niche markets with amazing photojournalistic work—amazing images, from the civil rights era for example—and there are people who will build collections around that because they really like what it’s about. But those are more often institutional rather than private collections.
Then there are images from someone like Henri Cartier-Bresson, who crosses over into fine art. Magnum Photos is entering the fine art realm more, but I think it still has to be image-driven. Danny Lyon had a show at Edwynn Houk, which included many of his images from the 1960s. Some would be regarded as press prints and some of the prints had Magnum stamps on the back. In cases like that, you’ve got to take into account the condition of the prints, but because they’re considered vintage they were priced around $19,000. The gallery puts the price out there to see if the market will bear that. Also, I think the events happening now resonate with what happened in the ’60s, so today’s political climate adds potency to those photographs, which might make them more valuable. I appraised some images from the tumultuous ’60s period, and I talked to a gallerist who said you have to let a certain period of history pass to be able to go back and look at those photographs, appreciate them, and be ready for them. In this case, time makes value.
[continued]

Related Stories