Famed landscape photographer Ansel Adams' Arca-Swiss 4x5 camera that he personally owned and used from 1964 to 1968 will go up for auction at the end of this month via Heritage Auctions in New York. Bidding will open at a staring price of $35,000 on October 27th, so if you have some extra change lying around, you can bid on this one-of-a-kind piece of photographic history.
The auction will also include three lenses, the original carrying and shipping case, a Majestic tripod, and other various accessories to go along with the camera itself.
The items are being sold by the family of Liliane de Cock. She was Adams' full-time assistant. Adams gave this large-format camera to her after using it through 1968, after which Cock continued to use the camera herself throughout her own successful photography career.
This is the only Ansel Adams view camera ever to be offered for sale or auction, so it will interesting to see how much it fetches. It is estimated to go for between $70,000 and $100,000. So while I would love to put in a bid on this and display it in my home, my own funds wouldn't agree with that decision. However, this is still very fascinating nonetheless.
Check out the auction page in the link below for more information.
[Via Hertiage Auctions]
I wish I had some spare cash laying around....
Doooooood... my wife would absolutely kill me. But so cool
Yea, I don't want to own a "shelf queen". I want to use the cameras that I own. Likewise, my wife would kill me.
35k doesn't seem too unreasonable but that is just the opening bid. Who knows what this will actually sell for. Seems like even 100k is still low.
I think that it will go higher than 100K.
I find it hilarious that somewhere along the line, someone felt the need to put "Photographer" in front of Ansel Adams' name for the headline.
Ahhhhhh, it's like 1 before x is understood... ergo never 1x.