Alvin Langdon Coburn's Shadows & Reflections, Venice (1905) will lead a major photography sale at Sotheby's New York on December 11 with a valuation of $350,000-500,000.

The auction is titled "175 Masterworks To Celebrate 175 Years Of Photography: Property from Joy of Giving Something Foundation" and is made up of works from the collection of financier Howard Stein.

Coburn Venice Shadows

Coburn was a key figure in the photo-secessionist movement, along with contemporaries like Alfred Stieglitz, which pushed for the development of photography as an art form.

This was a controversial stance to take at a time when photography was primarily considered a science.  

The present lot is among the most reproduced photographs from the early years of art photography.

Another print of the work sold for $365,000 at Christie's New York in 2004.

August Sander's Handlanger (Bricklayer) will cross the block with a similar estimate of $300,000-500,000.

Sander opened a photography studio in Cologne in 1909 where he began shooting a groundbreaking series of portraits.

They were later compiled in a book called Face of Our Time (1929), which remains hugely influential.

Another print by August Sandler is set to auction at Sotheby's Paris later today.

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