eonard Joel auctioneers have been entrusted with the dispersal of the estate of renowned photographer Wolfgang Sievers, which resulted in the first of many stand-alone photography auctions in 2010.

The auction returns again this year with Sievers’ work selling alongside works of humanist photographer Mark Strizic and several others. Sievers and Strizic were both born in Berlin and, on immigrating to Australia, built an oeuvre based on the uncanny beauty of industry and commerce, architecture and everyday people on Melbourne streets.

A largely unrecognised artist in his time, Sievers’ work focussed on the large concrete and metal structures of the mining and oil industries in Australia, where humans were dwarfed by structures and machinery of immense proportions. Strizic, however, was something of an urban explorer, documenting the city of Melbourne, its people and their environs throughout the 1950s and 1960s. Documenting the city’s architecture and socio-cultural climate in a time of transition and upheaval, Strizic’s images are as endearing as they are powerful.

The auction also provides the opportunity to snap up works by more contemporary Australian photographers such as Bill Henson, Darren Sylvester, Patricia Piccinini and Tracey Moffatt, as well as work by legendary international photographers Robert Mapplethorpe, Helmut Newton, Irving Penn and Patrick Demarchelier among several others.

Auction day is Sunday June 19 beginning at 2pm, viewing begins on Wednesday 15 and runs until Saturday 18.

Leonard Joel
333 Malvern Rd, South Yarra.

leonardjoel.com.au