"Sotheby’s annual Contemporary Photographs sale presents works dating from the 1970s to today. From large-scale landscapes and fashion-inspired photographs to poignant portraits and abstract images, my picks are as distinctive as the photographers who made them."

Kelly Sidley, Associate Specialist and Senior Researcher, Photograph Department at Sotheby's New York

Below, we've asked Kelly to select works from the auction that she likes best, and why. Find out what she chose, then check out the other photographs included in the sale.

1. Richard Prince, Untitled (Couple) (1977-79)

"In the later 1970s Prince, along with other members of ‘The Pictures Generation,’ began to appropriate imagery from newspapers, magazines, television, and films. While working in the file department of Time Life, he cut out and organized tear sheets from its various publications—a process through which Prince arrived at his specific method of repurposing: after salvaging an advertisement or image from the clippings, he re-photographed it and printed it without text or logos. For his series ‘Couples,’ Prince selected pairs of glamorous men and women, slyly playing with gender roles, hetero vs. homosexual relationships, and the inherently unattainable standards of beauty presented in the media." – KS

2. Annie Leibovitz, 'John Lennon and Yoko Ono' (1980)

"In the lyrics to ‘God’ (1970), John Lennon wrote: ‘I just believe in me, Yoko and me, and that’s reality.’ Leibovitz took this portrait of the couple entwined on the floor of their bedroom just hours before Lennon was shot and killed outside their New York City apartment. Rolling Stone magazine had originally commissioned the photo shoot in advance of the release of their joint album Double Fantasy, but this iconic image was ultimately featured on the cover of the memorial issue dedicated Lennon. Steeped in intimacy, vulnerability, and gentleness, this photograph is one of the great representations of modern love." – KS

3. Robert Rauschenberg, North Carolina (from 'The Bleacher Series') (1991)

"In 1988, the Polaroid Corporation brought its massive 20-by-24-inch camera to Rauschenberg’s studio in Florida. He was fascinated by Polaroid’s photographic process and devised ways to manipulate and interfere with the developing chemicals so that each unique print has a weathered, bleached-out appearance. In light of his master work Erased de Kooning Drawing (1953), Rauschenberg’s Polaroid works continued his long-ranging experiments in manipulating and obfuscating images." – KS

4. Hiroshi Sugimoto, Cambrian Period (1992)

"When Sugimoto first came to New York City in 1974, he visited the American Museum of Natural History, where he was fascinated by the life-size dioramas of different landscapes, wildlife, and geologic periods. “The stuffed animals positioned before painted backdrops looked utterly fake, yet by taking a quick peek with one eye closed, all perspective vanished, and suddenly they looked very real. I had found a way to see the world as a camera does. However fake the subject, once photographed, it’s as good as real,” Sugimoto has explained. From his series ‘Dioramas’ (1975-1999), this serene view of the ocean floor represents the Cambrian period when earth experienced a radical diversification of living organisms, particularly those living underwater." – KS

5. Richard Misrach, Untitled #833-02 (from 'On the Beach') (2002)

"If you crave the ocean but can’t get to the shore, Misrach’s seascape from his epic series ‘On the Beach’ is the next best thing. Its immersive size encourages daydreaming and contemplation. Misrach has said that this series is ‘. . . suffused with a sense of the sublime, but it also begins to expose our vulnerability and fragility as human beings.’ In the center of the work, a single figure floats serenely in the blue expanse." – KS

6. James Welling, Flower Photos (2005)

"At first glance, Welling’s photographs in his series ‘Flowers’ are lighthearted and airy, but to produce this effect he devised a rigorous process to construct these seductive riffs on the classic floral still-life arrangement. After positioning the blossoms of a plant native to California on sheets of 8-by-10 film, he exposed each one to light and then projected the negative onto special photo paper through an enlarger and color filters. The result are these hyper-realistic, joyous botanical studies." – KS

7. Elad Lassry, Group of 4 selected photos (2007-2012)

"The saturated colors and enticingly glossy frames of Lassry’s still-life photographs deliver a visual punch. The artist considers each of his photographic objects to be ‘something that’s suspended between a sculpture and an image.’ The four works on offer date from Lassry’s breakthrough moment in the late 2000s and early 2010s when he began to place bespoke frames in conversation with photographic images that he either appropriated from vintage magazines and film archives or took himself, imbuing his own pictures with a commercial, advertisement-like aesthetic. Lassry deliberately printed most of these works on 11-by-14-inch paper in order to work within the framework of readily available photographic materials." – KS

8. Marilyn Minter, Streak (2010)

"I find Minter’s photographs – such as this image of high-heels viewed through a curtain of water – to be utterly empowering. (It’s no wonder that Madonna used similar works by Minter for the backdrop of her live performances during her Sticky & Sweet Tour in 2009.) At the heart, her enterprise is a nuanced view of the female form. Minter pushes her hyper-sexualized imagery to serve double-duty: photographs such as Streak are at once visually seductive and celebratory while also critiquing the fashion industry and our overloaded consumer culture." – KS

9. Wolfgang Tillmans, Silver 143 (2013)

"Tillmans’s large-scale, swallow-me-whole color field photographs are contemporary offshoots of 1950s Abstract Expressionist paintings. But don’t be fooled: These works are not mid-century throwbacks. Tillmans began the ‘Silver’ series in the late 1990s by feeding photo paper through a processing machine that contained leftover traces of chemicals, particularly silver nitrate. As the paper moves through the machine, it is etched with streaks, scratches, and other errant deposits. Embracing the inherent properties of photographic materials as well as the possibility of chance, works such as Silver 143 allow orchestration and improvisation to share the same stage." – KS

10. David Yarrow, The Old Testament (2017)

"David Yarrow has single-handedly brought the art of animal photography into the art world. He has recounted the making of The Old Testament: “Unlike many of my lion shots, this was not taken with remote controls, it was camera in hand. I was in a two-man cage, with my assistant behind me controlling the door with a rope. . . In my view, the best time to photograph lions is about half an hour after sunrise. The light gets stronger by the minute . . . The face of the lion could not be sharper—every detail is there and he is looking right into my eyes – as he is transfixed.” The formal simplicity, logistical complexity, and inherent beauty of this photograph pays tribute to this magisterial creature." – KS