The 11 Most Expensive Photographers

Since the early 20th century and the advent of art photography, photographers have become not only documentarians of the world around them, but artists in their own right. Through their lens, they have captured and framed landscapes, people, objects and more with reference to aesthetics and composition. Here are the 11 most expensive photographers, whose images have fetched over seven figures at auction:

11. Richard Avedon

After returning from service in World War II, Richard Avedon (1923-2004) studied photography under Alexey Brodovitch, artistic director of the fashion magazine Harper's Bazaar. In the late 1940s and early '50s, Avedon took elegant, playful and spontaneous black and white photographs that showed off the latest fashions. In 1955, Avedon made fashion and photographic history by taking the iconic photograph Dovima with Elephants, which depicted the era's most famous model wearing a Dior evening dress, posing by two elephants from the Cirque d'Hiver in Paris. The photograph was sold at Christie's in 2010 for $1.2 million (around £968,000).

See also: Louise Dahl-Wolfe: The Mother of Fashion Photography

10. Edward Weston

One of the leading fine art photographers of the 20th century, Edward Weston (1886-1958) is best known for his Nude series and his Nautilus photograph. His work consisted of highly detailed photographs of nature and landscapes, as well as nudes and portraits. His most expensive photograph is Nude 1925, which sold at Sotheby's for $1.6 million (around £1.2 million) and depicts the torso of a woman positioned and framed like the topography of a landscape.

9. Thomas Struth

German-born Thomas Struth (b. 1954) focuses on cityscapes in his photography and how humans live and move within urban environments. He is well-known for his museum series, photographing crowds in the world's major museums and historic sites from the Louvre to the Pantheon in Rome. His Pantheon print (1990-92), depicting tourists illuminated by the skylight in the domed church, sold for $1.8 million (around £1.18 million) at Sotheby's in 2015.

See also: Technical Perfection: Candida Höfer

8. Helmut Newton

Famed for his fashion photography that graced the pages of magazines in the mid-20th century, Helmut Newton (1920-2004) was first discovered in Australia before moving to Paris. His work often focused on portraits and nudes, charged with erotic energy that he shot for Vogue, Harper's Bazaar and Playboy. His famous diptych Sie Kommen, Paris (Dressed and Naked diptych) for French Vogue in 1981 is reflective of his sexualised fashion photography and sold at Phillips in 2019 for $1.82 million (£1.4 million). His most expensive photograph, Big Nude III, sold for $2.3 million (around £1.8 million) at Christie's in 2022.

See also: The Polaroid Camera: The Eternal Charm of Instant Photos

7. Jeff Wall

Jeff Wall (b. 1946) is a Canadian photographer revered for his choreographed and carefully composed photographs, inspired by both popular culture and traditional paintings, and often in large format. Recurring themes include social and political conflict, such as in Dead Troops Talk, which was taken in a cinematic style, composed like a film still. Jeff Wall won the 2002 Hasselblad Award and his work has been exhibited at the Tate Modern in London and the Museum of Modern Art in New York. In 2012, Dead Troops Talk sold for $3.6 million (£2.9 million).

6. Gilbert & George

The photographer duo and couple, Gilbert Prousch (b. 1943) and George Passmore (b. 1942), known professionally as Gilbert & George, have revolutionised photography with their revealing and often scandalising images of London's East End. Describing their work as living sculpture, they typically compose in large dimensions that incorporate elements of collage. They often include themselves in their artwork, in their trademark suits, placing themselves surrounded by visual representations of the East End and graphic design. In 2008, their work To Her Majesty (1973) sold for £1.8 million at Christie's.

See also: 6 Artists in Front of the Camera

5. Cindy Sherman

Cindy Sherman (b. 1954) is considered one of the world’s leading representatives of staged photography. Her major breakthrough came with the 'Untitled Film Stills' series, consisting of black-and-white photographs of herself, wearing costumes and make-up. Through these portraits, Sherman showcases female stereotypes as rhetorical formulas or clichés, inspired by Hollywood films. Sherman switched to colour photography in the 1980s and still uses herself as a model to problematise established gender roles. Many of her photographs have sold for seven figures: in 2014, a collection of her 'Untitled Film Stills', comprising 21 photographs, was sold for $6.7 million (£4.2 million). Her most expensive standalone photograph is Untitled #96, an iconic print which sold in 2011 for $3.9 million (£2.3 million). 

See also: The Female Look: 11 Women Who Changed Photography

4. Richard Prince

Richard Prince (b. 1949) has championed the genre of re-photography, appropriating other images and using the techniques of cropping, layering or combining to create a new image. His Cowboy series (1980-92), his most famous re-photography series, used the Marlboro Man from Marlboro cigarette ads. His most expensive photograph, which sold for $3.9 million (£2.3 million) in 2014, was also not without controversy. He rephotographed a nude image of 10-year-old Brooke Shields, titled Spiritual America (borrowed from Alfred Stieglitz's 1923 photograph of the same name), which was, at the time, the centre of a media-covered lawsuit between Shields' mother and the original photographer. Prince's work has repeatedly addressed the issues of authorship of photography, as well as the meaning inherent in the images that make up contemporary visual culture.

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3. Andreas Gursky

The cameraman behind the most expensive photograph ever auctioned, Dusseldorf-based Andreas Gursky (b. 1955), is known for his large-scale landscape photography that emphasises high-vantage perspective. Rhein II, which holds the record for priciest photograph, sold for $4.3 million (£2.7 million) in 2011 and depicts a horizontal capture of the Rhine River. Though the setting seems uninhabited, Gursky removed people and other details through digital editing.

See also: The 5 Most Expensive Cameras Ever Auctioned

2. Edward Steichen

Along with Alfred Stieglitz, Edward Steichen (1879-1973) was a seminal figure in the development of art and fashion photography in the early 20th century. After being the lead army photographer during Wold War I, he was hired by Conde Nast as a fashion photographer. He returned to Europe to document World War II and then became the Director of Photography at the Met from 1947-62. His early photograph, The Flatiron (1904) is a pictorialist work that sought to resemble a painting and seems to mimic colour photography (which wasn't available yet) by printing it with coloured inks. It became the second most expensive photograph ever sold when it was auctioned as part of Paul Allen's collection in November 2022 at Christie's for $11.8 million (£9.5 million).

See also: Surreal Glamour: The Photography of Angus McBean

1. Man Ray

Intensely creative, Man Ray (1890-1976) explored many artistic mediums, such as drawing, painting, sculpture, photography and photograms (which he called 'rayograms') and was part of both Dada and Surrealist groups. After moving to Paris from New York in 1921, he focused on photography with surrealist themes. In Le Violon d'Ingres (1924), Kiki de Montparnasse, Man Ray's muse and lover, is photographed from behind, with two violin f-holes painted on her back to resemble a violin and dressed in the same garb as Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres' subject in The Valpinçon Bather (1808). It became the world's most expensive photograph when it sold at Christie's in 2022 for $12.4 million (£10 million).

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This is an updated version of an article originally published on 20 July 2020