Hasta La Ideas

Warhol’s “Andy Sneezing,” circa 1978, is among the photos from the Polaroid Collection to be auctioned by Sotheby’s next week.

On Monday, Sotheby’s will kick-off its bankruptcy court-ordered auction of more than 1,200 works from the Polaroid Collection. The two-day sale is expected to fetch as much as $11 million. Begun by Polaroid founder Edwin Land as a group of works produced with his company’s products, the collection was later expanded to include other significant photographs made by more conventional means, so alongside distinctively-bordered Polaroid SX70 prints by artists such as David Levinthal, Helmut Newton, and Lucas Samaras are iconic photos by Dorothea Lange and Edward Weston. Many of the older works were acquired for Polaroid by Ansel Adams, a buddy of Land’s who was an early believer in the aesthetic potential of Polaroid technology. More than 400 Adams photos (Polaroid and non-Polaroid) will be up for grabs next week, including a charming pair of self-portraits that finds the photographer lurking in the shadows and behind a flower arrangement. Another couple of self-portraits that caught our eye were those of Andy Warhol, who used a Polaroid camera to capture his own sneeze, circa 1978. The diptych is estimated to sell for between $6,000 and $9,000, not including buyer’s premium. Gesundheit!

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.