An album of photographs by John Beasley Greene (1832-1856) have sold for £482,500 ($819,237).
The lot led a photography sale at Sotheby's London, achieving an increase of 221.6% on a £150,000 ($254,685) estimate.
 John Beasley Greene is considered one of the earliest instigators of modernism |
Greene mainly photographed landscapes and archaeological sites in Egypt and Algeria and is considered a proto-modernist due to the subtlety and minimalism of his compositions.
Greene was just 19 when he embarked on his voyage to Egypt in 1853. On his return, wealthy merchant and keen photographer Louis D?�sir?� Blanquart-Evrard published an album of 94 of his prints.
He was tutored by Gustave Le Gray, a French photographer who pioneered a range of technical innovations, and produced a large body of work before dying of tuberculosis in Cairo at the age of 24.
Assembled by an acquaintance of Beasley Greene, the album was thought lost, but then rediscovered on a library shelf in France.
A portfolio of prints by Richard Avedon (1923-2004) made £134,500 ($216,236).
 Avedon's portfolio was shot in Paris in the 1940s and 1950s |
Avedon's work for Harper's and Vogue defined American style throughout the 1940s and 1950s.
He was among the first fashion photographers to shoot outside the studio, bringing life to a format that had previously been highly formal.
The edition was printed in 1978 and is signed and numbered 33 of 75.
Avedon's auction record was set in 2010, when a large print of 1950s supermodel Dovima made £719,000 ($1.1m).
Other lots in the sale included a print of Robert Mapplethorpe's Dan S, which sold for £98,500 ($167,244) against a £60,000 ($101,874) estimate - an increase of 64.1%.
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