30 Years In The Photography World: Peter Hay Halpert in conversation w Matthew Dols

I recently had the opportunity to talk to Matthew Dols, a photographer and educator currently based in Prague, about my 30 + years in the art world. The conversation runs almost 2 ½ hours long - I kept telling stories, secure in the knowledge that Matt would shorten everything down to a few cogent, pithy statements. However, he seemed to think the stories were good enough to roll on. Consequently, this podcast breaks one of my golden rules to photographers: Edit! Edit! Edit!

I started collecting photography in the 80s. The modern photography market was barely a decade old. Prices were relatively affordable, and certainly significantly less than almost every other segment of the art market. I recently listened in to an online program featuring Deborah Rogal, Daile Kaplan and Denise Bethel, three women who have headed the Photographs Department at Swann Galleries, the auction house which 70 years ago held the first sales in the US dedicated to photography. Listening to their conversation, I was struck by the presence of absent friends. People like Sam Wagstaff, Harry Lunn, and John Szarkowski were noted for the important roles they played in developing appreciation for photography and for growing the nascent market for the medium. With the recent passing of the gallerist, Julie Saul, the list of my friends, people who helped me as I was beginning my own journey as a collector and dealer, and are no longer standing here with me, grows longer. I’m conscious of a changing of the guard. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing. As someone who has focused primarily on young and emerging artists working with photography, it is a confirmation that change is inevitable and there’s always someone on the horizon doing interesting work, whether as a dealer, curator or artist.

If you’d like to read more about the creation of the modern photography market, I would refer you to an article I wrote in 1999 for COLLECTIONS magazine, and an article I wrote in 2011 for L’OEIL DE LA PHOTOGRAPHIE about Harry Lunn.

 And listen to the WiseFool podcast on Apple Podcasts and on Spotify!