Lot 344

Amos Badertscher, A suite of 5 photographs from the Baltimore Portraits series. 1992-97.

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Amos Badertscher, A suite of 5 photographs from the Baltimore Portraits series. 1992-97.

Estimate: $1,000 - $1,500

Starting Bid: $750

(0 Bids)

by Swann Auction Galleries
August 13, 2026 10:30 AM EDT
Live Auction
104 East 25th Street
New York, NY, US 10010

Amos Badertscher
1936-2023
A suite of 5 photographs from the Baltimore Portraits series. 1992-97.
Silver prints (5)
4 with Badertscher's initials and date in ink, including one with the location, and one (1) with the extended caption, also in ink, on recto, and all with his initials, title, and date in pencil or ink, and one also with the edition notation 2/15 in ink, on verso.

  • Provenance:
    Leslie-Lohman Museum of Art Collection, New York

    William Thomas West III "Billy", 1992
    Outside Wall / Charles Wilgis "Chubbs, 1993
    Michael L. Davis / "bridge in Wyman Park", 1995
    Robert John Delano, 1995
    Ross and Eddie Brothers III, 1997

    Notes:
    Amos Badertscher is a self-taught photographer from Baltimore who made portraits of members of his community, subjects who were then on the margins of society. The images of transvestites, strippers, drug addicts, drag queens, and hustlers represent a sector of the population rarely documented or recorded. The series spans a 20-year period from the mid-1970s to the mid-1990s. The images were made in a studio, at night clubs and gay bars, and in other locations where the subjects lived and frequented. It would be a disservice to categorize Badertscher's work as documentary in nature—the work is not subjective, the imagery imbued with feeling: love, rage, humor, defiance, with an insider's familiarity and participation.
  • Dimensions: The images 6 x 4 1/4 in. (15.2 x 10.8 cm.) (4), and one 10 x 8 in. (25.4 x 20.3 cm.), the sheets 10 x 8 in. (25.4 x 20.3 cm.)
  • Medium: Silver prints (5)
  • Condition: Please contact the Specialist for the auction to request a condition report.

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