Over the course of fifteen years, tech entrepreneur and former ambassador Trevor Traina accumulated one of the most valuable collections of photography, representing a complete journey through the evolution of the medium from the post-war era to the 21st Century. He is arguably one of the early collectors of work by women photographers and helped drive widespread acceptance of color photography in the art market. His significant collection includes works by celebrated photographers such as Diane Arbus, Cindy Sherman, Louise Lawler and Tina Barney, as well as pieces by Nan Goldin, Alex Prager and Jackie Nickerson. It also features vibrant color images by William Eggleston, Stephen Shore, Mitch Epstein and Larry Sultan, alongside works by Thomas Struth, Andreas Gursky, Martin Parr and Paul Graham. Anchoring the collection are some iconic shots by Robert Frank, whose influential book The Americans documented the country’s rapid evolution and changes, shaping American photography and beyond.
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On October 3, a selection from Traina’s collection will be offered at Christie's in a special sale, An Eye Towards the Real: Photographs from the Collection of Ambassador Trevor Traina (some of the photos will travel to Christie’s Los Angeles from September 10-12 ahead of the live auction). Some pieces from Traina’s collection already hit the rostrum during the 21st-Century Evening Sale last May, when Diane Arbus’ Identical Twins achieved $1,197,000, setting a new world record for the artist. Observer recently spoke with Traina to learn more about his collecting journey and his thoughts on the most significant photographs of the last century.
You are one of the pioneer collectors of modern contemporary photography. What was your first acquisition, and what led you to that specific piece?
My first acquisition was a work that had been on my wall as a young marketing intern at the Seagram corporation. I had admired the photo of the 57th Street Manhattan Skyline by Nicholas Nixon, and the Seagram curator had it placed on the wall of my office. Later, I read that the Seagram collection was to be sold, and I was able to acquire it at auction along with a Wegee photograph that had been in the hallway. I realized that owning those photos was fun and that collecting high-quality photography was something I might be able to afford. My next acquisition was intended to anchor the collection, and it was the iconic Identical Twins by Diane Arbus. It set a record when I acquired it and another record when Christie’s sold it this year.
Two intertwined themes woven throughout your collection are the rise to prominence of women photographers and the birth and acceptance of color photography in the art market. How have those two focuses organically developed over the years?
After acquiring the Arbus print, I was all in. I dove deeply into the history of 20th-century photography, eager to learn everything I could. I wanted to know who the pioneers were and how it was that photography had gone from small and black-and-white and limited in production to the current status of large, colorful prints executed by all artists, regardless of their primary medium. I wanted to know how photography went so mainstream. My exploration led me from the new documentarians to the pioneers in the 1980s. I plumbed the earliest color photographers and traced their descendants. I tried to include everyone who advanced the medium in one way or another. Whether it was Hiroshi Sugimoto’s ultra-long exposures, Phillip Lorca di Corcia’s staged artificial lighting or Alec Soth revisiting the journeyman wanderer tradition, I wanted to include them all.
Do you have a work you’re particularly attached to that is going on the auction block?
I love them all, of course. I had a bit of a Sophie’s Choice moment with William Eggleston because I could only afford to acquire one of his masterpieces at the time. I had to choose between his iconic photograph of a tricycle and an equally iconic photograph of the red ceiling. After much meditation and thought, I came to realize that the red ceiling is probably the most important color photograph of the 20th Century. We all know that it was part of his blockbuster exhibition of 1976, which helped usher in acceptance of all color photography, but more importantly, it is essentially a photograph about nothing except for color. Without that rich, saturated red, the photo would have had none of its impact. Meanwhile, the tricycle would still be a great photograph. I realized that was the one image that proudly proclaimed color was essential to the meaning of the work and that color could not be denied. It is impossible to reproduce the rich, saturated hues of the die-transfer print. My print has been in several books and is one of the earliest and best, but it never looks as good as it does just sitting on a wall, literally radiating power. It is an absolute masterpiece. As for the newer works, I think that Charles Vasa by Alec Soth may well prove to be the masterpiece of the first half of the 21st Century. It is quirky and clever and a wonderful restatement of more than fifty years of documentary and observational photography.
What was the main source of information you turned to while building your photography collection?
I was literally hungry for information. I read every book and catalog. John Szarkowski was a big influence on me, as was Kevin Moore, who advised me on several of my early purchases and helped me source some of the greatest works. In San Francisco, Jeffrey Fraenkel was a wonderful source of information, particularly about the new documentarians. Ultimately, I came to trust my own eyes as my single source of truth. A collection is, after all, simply works that appeal to a single brain and a single pair of eyes. I am not sure if my collection makes sense or not, but that is up for others to determine!
Traveling enhances human understanding, which is also what photography does in documenting and sharing stories in a way that allows them to endure beyond the moment. How has your profession influenced and supported your passion, and vice versa?
In addition to my collection’s great early color works and female works, there is a lot of geographical diversity. I have some true masterpieces of German photography, but I also have works from India, Russia and many other places. Ultimately, I like photography that makes me see the world in new ways. To me, each print is like a small puzzle, and I often look at them for hours. Teasing out new details and new insights. Are they happy, or are they sad? Is there a riddle somewhere? What is inside the windows of Robert Adams’ little houses? Why did the elephant collapse in the Joel Sternfeld photo? How does the print make me feel? As a diplomat living in Europe, my collection helped me inform foreigners about the United States of America. I was one person charged with representing 340 million Americans. How could I tell so many different stories? I brought more than fifty works with me, and they were displayed in my embassy as well as in two exhibitions around Austria. I found I could let them speak for me in powerful ways.
