Multiple Art Breeds Questions: The Photographic Legacy of the Print Collector’s Newsletter

Founded in 1970, the periodical The Print Collector’s Newsletter (PCN) was distinctive for its coverage of works on paper, but perhaps even more exceptional was its attentiveness to the nascent market for photography. Starting in 1971 and running for more than two decades under the guidance of managing editor Jacqueline Brody, PCN published an array of articles, reports, and interviews expressly devoted to a conception of photographs as physical—and collectible—objects. Photography’s rapid institutionalization during the 1970s formed the basis of what has commonly been referred to as the photo boom. For the first time, a critical mass of dealers, collectors, and curators began turning their attention to the medium, exerting a lasting influence on how photographs are collected and studied. Certain characteristics of photographic prints, however, including their apparently boundless reproducibility and bewildering variety, often made them confusing to collectors, many of them new to not only collecting but to photography itself. Despite its nominal emphasis on traditional graphics, PCN was one of the only publications of the era to seriously consider how photographic prints might be evaluated both as material, aesthetic objects, and as potential investments; and to track the development of the photographic market. Far from being prescriptive, it functioned as an outlet for lively debates among first-hand participants about both the history and the contemporary reality of collecting photographs. This paper examines for the first time the significance of this remarkable periodical during a watershed moment in the history of photography.