Swann is offering a set of 22 Ilfochrome prints, printed in 1985, from NASA Missions (1965-84) (Photo: courtesy Swann Auction Galleries)
Space nerds and photography buffs alike will be tempted by the 14 February auction, Icons and Images: Photographs and Photobooks at Swann Auction Galleries in New York, which offers 325 lots from the 19th and 20th centuries, many by boldfaced names like Margaret Bourke-White, Lewis Hine and Imogen Cunningham. The sale features a number of images related to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), including a collection of 22 large-format prints from NASA's archives (est. $15,000-$25,000), and six archival binders with around 280 photographs documenting Apollo Missions ten through 17 (est. $7,000-$6,000). For those who gravitate towards subjects on Earth, other lots include 50 collotypes from the photographic motion series Animal Locomotion (1887) by the English photographer Eadweard Muybridge (est. $30,000-$45,000), 32 photographs of the 1936 summer Olympics in Berlin, shot by the filmmaker and Nazi propagandist Leni Reifenstahl (est. $25,000-$35,000) and an 1887 portrait of the American poet Walt Whitman attributed to the artist Thomas Eakins (est. $4,000-$6,000). An auction preview is now on view to the public (through 14 February, midday).