If you’ve ever thought about collecting art but felt the price, or the whole concept of it was beyond you, read further. In the last decade the idea of collecting fine art photography has risen dramatically. Curators and music photography galleries recommend it for a number of reasons. One, its affordable and a great way to start a collection, two, the market value of many works has risen dramatically giving all signs that this trend is not going away, and three, you can purchase something that is truly unique and you’d be happy to hang on your wall.
A recent article in the highly respected Financial Times not only supported this but also keyed in on collecting music photography. To quote the Times
“ Music photography – images that were once ripped out of magazines and stuck on teenage bedroom walls – have become increasingly collectable. Musicians are themselves, whereas film stars are pretending to be someone else. There is more of an art to music photography because of the intimacy. Take Gered Mankowitz’s portrait of Jimi Hendrix, which nearly doubled in price from £5,367 to £9,781 between November 2013 and May 2014. Or Annie Leibovitz’s 1980 photograph of a naked John Lennon curled against a black-clad Yoko Ono. Selling for $350 in 1984 at Washington’s Govinda Gallery, the image fetched £15,420 at Sotheby’s New York in February 2013”
Early pictures of Bruce Springsteen, as featured at Gallery5.9.1974 are certainly part of this trend. For the fan who is also a collector, it is more than Bruce Springsteen memorabilia but a record of an era that had gone by. Again to quote the Times
“Simone Klein, director of photography at Sotheby’s Paris, says: “Photographs of celebrities are increasingly important in today’s celebrity-obsessed world. And rock stars from the ’70s, ’80s and ’90s are the big heroes, so they are becoming more important in galleries and auctions.” Sotheby’s Paris has a Rolling Stone front cover of Keith Richards by Sante d’Orazio (est €4,000- €6,000) in a sale this month, alongside photographs by Andreas Gursky, August Sander and others.”
In the last five years, Bruce Springsteen photos in galleries in the United States and Europe have tripled in value.
Bruce Springsteen, Cambridge, MA 5/9/1974