25068

Original 1939 Peter Sekaer Photograph Signed by H

Currency:USD Category:Antiques / Other Start Price:1,100.00 USD Estimated At:2,000.00 - 3,000.00 USD
Original 1939 Peter Sekaer Photograph Signed by H
<B>Original 1939 Peter Sekaer Photograph Signed by His Widow</B></I> Born in Copenhagen, Denmark in 1901, Sekaer came to New York in 1918 to seek opportunity. After working as a master sign painter, he became interested in photography through Ben Shahn, who later introduced him to Walker Evans. Sekaer dedicated himself to photography alone after 1933. In the late 1930s, he worked on assignment for the U.S. Housing Authority, documenting slums in 20 American cities that had accepted federal funds to build public housing. Though Sekaer called himself a photographer, the drama, strength and simple humanity shown in his photographs along with their technical excellence make him an artist by most any definition. Here is an original 10" x 8" gelatin silver print signed on the verso by his widow, Elisabeth Sekaer Rothschild. The untitled image was taken in Birmingham, Alabama circa 1939 and shows two black women on the front porch of a modest frame house. One is wearing a pair of men's shoes and is busily sweeping water off the porch with a broom. The other woman is wearing a hat, sitting in the porch swing oblivious to her surroundings, engrossed in reading a newspaper. Quite an interesting and moving image. Matted in museum board to an overall size of 17" x 14". Sekaer died of a heart attack at age 49 in 1950. Lot:250