COURTESY SONDRA GILMAN AND CELSO GONZALEZ-FALLA
Who are the world’s top photography collectors? ARTnews surveyed prominent dealers, auction specialists, and museum curators to find out. The list represents a disparate lot—from connoisseurs who started in the 1970s, when the market for photography first emerged, to aficionados such as New York financier Thomas H. Lee and his wife, Ann Tenenbaum, who in recent years have joined the ranks from other areas of interest, particularly postwar and contemporary art.
“It’s a very different group from that of five years ago,” says San Francisco dealer Jeffrey Fraenkel of the 25 collectors, who were selected based on how active they are rather than the size or value of their collections. “No medium is isolated unto itself. For the last 160 years, photography has been inextricably bound with other arts—a fact that is becoming ever clearer.”
Some of those on the list take a broad, historical approach to their collecting. Others mine a specific interest. Los Angeles film producer Bruce Berman and his wife, Nancy, share a penchant for William Eggleston. New York physicist Michael Mattis and his wife, Judith Hochberg, are especially fond of Edward Weston. Henry Buhl, a retired New York investment banker and longtime collector, likes images of hands, while San Francisco real-estate investor Paul Sack says he favors photographs with buildings in them.
What distinguishes these top 25 is “their level of activity, the degree of their commitment, and the time and energy they spend,” says New York dealer Howard Greenberg. They “follow their hearts and can talk to you about their collections,” adds Anne Wilkes Tucker, curator of photography at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. “They know what they have bought and why.” What ends up hanging in their homes often only hints at the depth of their passion. “You know you are truly obsessed,” Mattis notes, “when you buy something that is destined for your print cabinet—not your wall.”
Bruce and Nancy Berman
Los Angeles
Film
20th century, particularly postwar American; contemporary
Claude Berri
Paris
Film
19th and 20th century, particularly Surrealism
Henry Buhl
New York
Investment banking (retired); commercial photography
19th and 20th century; contemporary
Carla Emil and Rich Silverstein
San Francisco
Advertising
20th century; contemporary
Robert Fisher
San Francisco
Apparel (The Gap)
20th century; contemporary
Danielle and David Ganek
Greenwich, Connecticut
Money management
20th century; contemporary
Sondra Gilman and Celso Gonzalez-Falla
New York; Corpus Christi, Texas; Kingsland, Georgia
Inheritance; real-estate development
20th century; contemporary
Ydessa Hendeles
Toronto
Investments
19th and 20th century; contemporary
Matthew R. Isenburg
Hadlyme, Connecticut
Auto dealer
19th century, particularly daguerreotypes
Elton John
Old Windsor and London, England; Atlanta
Entertainment
20th century; contemporary
Baroness Marion and Baron Philippe Lambert
Geneva
Banking
19th and 20th century; contemporary
Saundra B. Lane
Boston
Manufacturing
20th century; contemporary
Thomas H. Lee and Ann Tenenbaum
New York; East Hampton, New York; Palm Beach, Florida; Lincoln, Massachusetts
Finance
20th century; contemporary
Bruce Lundberg
New Haven, Connecticut
Hematology
19th-century Italian; American daguerreotypes
Martin Z. Margulies
Key Biscayne, Florida
Real-estate development
20th century; contemporary
Michael Mattis and Judith Hochberg
Westchester County, New York
Science
19th and 20th century
Richard and Ronay Menschel
New York
Investment banking
19th and 20th century
John and Lisa Pritzker
San Francisco
Hotel and service industry (Hyatt; Ticketmaster)
20th century; contemporary
Paul Sack
San Francisco
Real-estate investor
19th and 20th century
Gary B. Sokol
San Francisco
Investment management
19th-century European; 20th century
Howard Stein
New York; Santa Barbara
Investment banking
19th and 20th century; contemporary
Sheikh Saud Al Thani
Doha, Qatar; London
Particularly 19th century; 20th century; contemporary
Thomas Walther
Berlin
Inheritance (machine-tool manufacturing)
Particularly 19th century; 20th century; contemporary
Michael and Jane Wilson
London; Los Angeles
Film
19th and 20th century
Gary and Sarah Wolkowitz
New York
Apparel (Hot Sox)
19th and 20th century; contemporary
