W.M. Hunt

 #somereallygoodones, #harrylunn, #collecting

People are going to forget Harry Lunn (1933-1965), and that’s a shame.  

Harry was a one of a kind.  He literally made the contemporary photography market.  He could drink and swear, gossip and play bridge.  I could too so he liked me.  He terrified people with his gruff manner and outside features (he was a big man with an unfortunate Amish-style beard),  and people imagined that he could be a first class son of a bitch.  

Notably he introduced the idea of editions (in conversation he termed this “the creation of rarity”) in the selling of Ansel Adams’ photography, and he created AIPAD (Association of International Photography Art Dealers), its annual fair and he originated Paris Photo.  The story goes that in 1970 when he saw a print of Ansel Adams's iconic “Moonrise, Hernandez, N.M.”, determined to exhibit the artist.  In January 1971, Lunn sold an astonishing $10,000 worth of photographs, moved on to showing Man Ray photographs. Then Hill and Adamson, Lewis Hine and Walker Evans archives, 1,000 of Ansel Adams's last prints, 1,600 Robert Frank prints, Berenice Abbott’s prints from Eugène Atget's negatives and her work itself, Brassaï, the estate of Diane Arbus.  He co-published the Mapplethorpe X, Y and Z portfolios, he advised private collectors Sam Wagstaff, Manfred Heiting, Phyllis Lambert and Howard Gilman; The latter two were central to the formation of the Canadian Centre for Architecture in Montreal and the Gilman Paper Company.  And on and on.  

Of course, people were stunned to discover that he had been in the CIA before graduating from the University of Michigan (where I also went).  He basically became an art dealer when his cover got blown.

He was outrageous, much much larger than life.  He loved some of the bad boys of photography like Robert Mapplethorpe, Andres Serrano, McDermott & McGough, Pierre et Giles, Joel-Peter Witkin and Wouter Deruytter and if business and his family had not been his real priorities would have been a very bad boy himself.  

The “spirit” photograph (illustrated) came into my collection as a gift from Harry although he was capable of charging full retail.  On balance, he was generous.  He consigned huge holdings of vintage material to younger gallerists and he loved to entertain.  He was and lived large.

And I miss him.  He loved the action and gave the field tremendous energy.  

©2021

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