COLLECTING INSIGHT: Photography in Focus

Photography has long straddled the lines between art, documentation, and activism. Today, it is also one of the most compelling and accessible categories in the global art market – particularly in Africa, where lens-based work has been the medium of choice for  many artists interrogating identity, history, and place. And right now, collectors have a unique opportunity to acquire significant photographic works while supporting a groundbreaking cultural initiative

Lot 24: Richard Dobson: White Horse (Karoo Moon series), 2004

IN PICTURE: The Cape Town Photography Festival Fundraising Auction, now live online until 14 July 2025, presents a stellar selection of photographs curated by the festival director and gallerist Heidi Erdmann. The collection showcases work by some of South Africa’s most acclaimed image-makers, with auction proceeds supporting the inaugural Cape Town Photography Festival, scheduled for September 2025. The festival aims to celebrate the medium across disciplines, geographies, and generations.

The sale features iconic and rare works by major figures such as David Goldblatt, Daniel Naudé, Guy Tillim, Paul Alberts, and T.J. Lemon, as well as photojournalists and documentary photographers like Dewald Aukema, John Hogg, Rafs Mayet, Sam Reinders, and Guy Neveling. Many of these artists are seldom seen in commercial auctions, offering collectors a rare opportunity to access fresh-to-market works with historical and social resonance.

There is no buyer’s premium, and the works are on public exhibition at Aspire Art’s Cape Town gallery at 37A Somerset Road, De Waterkant.

Lot 41: David Goldblatt: Woman collecting shellfish. Port St Johns, Transkei. 1975

This auction builds on Aspire’s leadership in the photographic category, and reflects a wider international trend: photography remains on the rise – in collector demand, institutional attention, and market value.

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A Growing Market Segment

Over the past decade, photography has matured from a niche interest into a dynamic and competitive collecting category. While it may still occupy a smaller market share than painting or sculpture, its influence is outsized and growing. According to Artnet, global photography auction sales totalled $116.9 million in 2024, up from $113.4 million in 2005. While this growth is modest in raw figures, the number of photographs offered and sold has surged, and specialist photography sales consistently post high sell-through rates, with some reaching 90% in 2023, according to ArtTactic.

Lot 20: Daniel Naudé, Untitled, 2005

Part of this growth is being driven by increased institutional recognition and a younger generation of collectors, curators, and artists who are drawn to photography’s immediacy, reproducibility, and social relevance.

The African Perspective: Photography as a Medium of Choice

Nowhere is this relevance more pronounced than in Africa. Across the continent, photography has become the dominant medium through which artists engage with contemporary life, history, and politics. It is direct, portable, and powerful – qualities that make it particularly suited to the African context.

Lot 3: T. J. Lemon, Oswenka, Jeppe Hostel Swankers, 2000

From early modern studio portraiture and documentary images, to performance-based portraits, the medium has long been employed by image-makers from the continent to capture unique moments, places and individual artistic expressions.

Lot 2: Paul Weinberg, Waiting for the Bus During the Times of Apartheid, Pietermaritzburg, KwaZulu- Natal, June 19, 1986

Landmark exhibitions like In/sight: African Photographers – 1940 to the Present at the Guggenheim in 1996 and later Snap Judgments: New Positions in Contemporary African Photography at the International Centre of Photography in New York in 2006, have reframed perceptions of the continent and the medium.

Events such as Les Rencontres de Bamako, Addis Foto Fest and LagosPhoto, continue to spotlight photographers working on the continent, while initiatives like the Cap Prize, the Market Photo Workshop, The African Photography Network and the Nuku Studio support and incubate established and emerging talents.

Left: Lot 18: Lindeka Qampi, Inyanda, North Carolina, 2016
Right: Lot 40: Lambro Tsiliyiannis, Dancer, Lekki Beach, Nigeria, 1994

For South African artists especially, photography has provided a visual language for interrogating the country’s political legacies, navigating queer identity, or documenting the overlooked and everyday. 

Leading names exemplify this momentum. David Goldblatt’s searing chronicles of life under apartheid are widely regarded as foundational. Zanele Muholi’s Somnyama Ngonyama series uses high-contrast black-and-white portraiture to challenge racial and gender norms. Pieter Hugo, with projects like The Hyena & Other Men, explores themes of power, marginality, and the image itself.

Each of these artists has found both critical acclaim and strong market interest. Goldblatt’s photographs have achieved prices of over R400,000 at Aspire, Muholi’s Thuthuka I sold for R477,960 in 2022, setting a record for the artist at the time, and Hugo’s works have fetched up to R500,000. 

Aspire Art’s Pioneering Role

Aspire Art has played a central role in building the auction market for photography from Africa. It was the first auction house in South Africa to host dedicated photography sales, and it holds several national and world records in the category for artists including Ernest Cole, Malick Sidibé, Guy Tillim, and Zanele Muholi.

In collaboration with the Photography Legacy Project, Aspire launched a series of focused auctions in 2020 and 2021, broadening the collector base for photographs and educating the market. These efforts positioned photography not as a peripheral category, but as a core offering with strong historical and contemporary relevance.

The IN PICTURE auction continues this momentum – connecting photographers with new audiences and helping fund a festival that will elevate the medium even further.

Lot 8: Guy Tillim, Kampala Road, Kampala, 2017

The International Context

Over the past twenty years, photography from Africa has become one of the most popular and sought-after collecting segments with a growing global audience while receiving sustained attention from international institutions and auction houses. 

International auction house Sotheby’s hosted a 2020 sale titled 50 Years of African Photography, while others routinely include African artists in their contemporary photography auctions.

High-profile institutions like Tate Modern and MoMA in New York have increasingly recognised the significance of African photography, incorporating pieces into their permanent collections and major exhibitions. Tate holds works by Zanele Muholi, Santu Mofokeng, and Malick Sidibé, while MoMA has collected pieces by Samuel Fosso, Mikhael Subotzky, and Guy Tillim. The Art Institute of Chicago also features Seydou Keïta and Muholi, among others. A dedicated champion of the medium, the Walther Collection has built a focused and expansive holding of African photography, including artists such as Nontsikelelo Veleko, Jodi Bieber, and Pieter Hugo. Exhibiting institutions like the Barbican Centre have platformed photographers including Rotimi Fani-Kayode, Omar Victor Diop, and Hassan Hajjaj, while Fondation Louis Vuitton has exhibited works by Aïda Muluneh and Leonce Raphael Agbodjelou. Together, these collections reflect the growing international recognition of African photography as a powerful and vital artistic practice.

A Moment to Collect

Photography is no longer simply a documentary tool – it is a site of artistic innovation, critical discourse, and cultural memory. For collectors seeking to engage with the medium, African photography in particular presents some of the most intellectually and visually arresting work being created today.

The IN PICTURE online auction is not just an opportunity to collect; it is an invitation to support a movement – one that recognises the power of the photographic image to shape narratives, challenge perspectives, and build community.

Lot 7: Rafs Mayet, Mam' Busi Mhlongo at the Awesome Africa Festival, 2003

Explore the fascinating collection of photographs featured in IN PICTURE: The Cape Town Photography Festival Fundraising Auction. The auction closes on Monday, 14 July at 6 pm (SAST). 

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