"Also, the market is as hot as I've ever seen it, and I've been doing photography auctions for 25 years."

This wasn't just your everyday photography auction, and the audience knew it.

He cited last fall's photography auctions at Christie's and Sotheby's in which a number of Mapplethorpe photographs soared well over estimates.

Last month, the photography auctions in New York at Christie's, Sotheby's and Swann Galleries all set records.

At Sotheby's photography auction, however, there were major disappointments for the auction house.

Manhattan's annual spring week of major photography auctions has concluded with record sales at every participating house and record prices for work by several artists.

This month, Sotheby's placed it in a photography auction that had been arranged well in advance of Sept. 11, and had estimated its value at $12,000 to $18,000.

Next week's major photography auctions at Sotheby's, Christie's, Phillips and Swann Galleries may change the meaning of "photo op."

The next day, Christie's New York set a world record for a photography auction with a sale that reached $4.6 million.

His newspaper began selling vintage photographs earlier this year, offering them at a New York gallery, at a Sotheby's photography auction and on sothebys.amazon.com.