The Roof is on Fire: Creating a Photography Collection

With Alvin Hall & Rick Wester

*Gold Level Members and Above
Saturday, September 25, 2021
10:00 - 11:30 AM PDT

On Saturday, September 25th from 10:00 - 11:30 AM PDT, SF Camerawork welcomed art collector Alvin Hall and former International Director at Christie’s Rick Wester to exchange views and talk specifics about how to go about collecting photography. They discussed where their interest in this specific medium stems from, focused on why the work and vision of certain artists captivates them, and shared their opinions on particular pieces offered up in the auction.

ABOUT ALVIN HALL

Alvin Hall is an award-winning broadcaster, financial educator and best-selling author. He is also a collector of contemporary art, primarily drawings and photography. Hall, who lives and works in New York City, has hosted two podcast series: Driving the Green Book winner of an Ambie Award as the Best History Podcast of 2021 by The Podcast Academy) and Power, Lust and Glory: The Story of Gold.

His radio work includes The Green Book (BBC Radio 4), Alvin Hall Goes Back to School (WNYC, winner of a New York Association of Black Journalists Award for Best General Feature, shortlisted and highly commended for the Association of International Broadcasting Award for Radio Current Affairs), and Who Sold the Soul? (BBC, winner of a Radio Academy Bronze Award for Best Music Feature or Documentary), Jay-Z: From Brooklyn to the Boardroom (BBC, winner of a Wincott Award for Financial Journalism and Broadcasting).

Hall is also active in the arena of television and has hosted landmark BBC television series including Your Money or Your Life (winner of the Personal Finance Program of the Year), Investing for All with Alvin Hall, and Alvin’s Guide to Good Business which featured the work of eight social entrepreneurs in Cambodia, India, Japan, Malawi, Mozambique, Tanzania, Zambia, and the US (San Francisco).

For BBC Radio 4 he also hosted two series about contemporary art: Alvin Hall’s Secret Collections and Alvin Hall’s Art World. Some of the artists in his collection include Tina Barney, Lee Friedlander, Jan Groover, Leslie Hewitt, Glenn Ligon, Julie Mehretu, Gabriella Sanchez, Erin Shirreff, Garry Simmons, Lorna Simpson, and Carrie Mae Weems.

Hall has written a number of bestselling books, including Getting Started in Stocks, Getting Started in Mutual Funds, Your Money or Your Life (winner of WHSmith People’s Choice Award, nominated for an NAACP Image Award), You and Your Money: It’s More than Just the Numbers, as well as a children’s book Show Me the Money, which was selected by the Bank Street College of Education’s listing of Best Children’s Book of the Year in 2009 and has been published in 20 foreign-language editions.

Currently, he is completing a companion book for his Driving the Green Book podcast series and writing a memoir of his childhood in the Florida Panhandle. Hall writes periodically for the “My Week” column in Waitrose Weekend magazine in the UK. Hall is Trustee Emeritus of Bowdoin College, from which he received the 2019 Alumni Service Award. Hall currently serves on the Bowdoin College Museum of Art Advisory Council, The Studio Museum in Harlem’s Acquisition Committee, the Board of the Conversation US, and is the Co-Chair for Black Arts Council of the Museum of Modern Art.

ABOUT RICK WESTER

Rick Wester has been in the field of photography, fine art sales and promotion for over 40 years. He worked at LIGHT Gallery and then for 10 years as a private dealer and consultant. At LIGHT Gallery, he gained in-depth knowledge of such notable artists as Harry Callahan, Aaron Siskind, Emmet Gowin and others. He joined Christie's, as Specialist Department Head of Photographs in 1992 and was promoted to International Director, responsible for organizing photograph auctions in New York, London and Los Angeles, while also serving as the department's auctioneer. Under his leadership, Christie's market share in Photographs rose significantly, reaching a high of 64% in 1997. 

He left Christie’s to become a Director at Gagosian Gallery, responsible for augmenting the gallery's stable of photographic artists. He initiated exhibitions by artists he introduced to the gallery, including Roger Ballen's "Outland," and a private exhibition of work by Vera Lutter to coincide with her inclusion in the Whitney Museum of American Art's 2002 Biennial. After Gagosian, he returned to private dealing and consulting, including a period of time as Interim Director of the Howard Greenberg Gallery, overseeing the gallery's move to 57th Street. From 2004 -2007 he led the Photographs department at Phillips de Pury & Co., hired as a Partner and Worldwide Head of Photographs, directing the firm to unparalleled success by exceeding all previous sale records. Combining signature works of contemporary photography with fine examples of Modernism, he established a distinct identity for his department, setting numerous records for artists as diverse as Robert Adams and Vik Muniz.

After exiting the firm in 2004, he founded Rick Wester Fine Art, Inc. (RWFA) as an art services company specializing in artist representation, consulting to private collectors and corporations, and secondary market sales and appraisals. Since 2013, RWFA has been in its current location, and has tripled its previous space while expanding its program to include painters and other visual artists while maintaining an active program of exhibiting photography. Gathering a core roster of painters, including Alyse Rosner, the first painter shown by the gallery, Cat Balco, Tom McGlynn and Mary Shah, RWFA has integrated disciplines and mediums to reflect the diversity of the community they serve and exhibit.

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