?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 5,000 - $ 7,500
FRITZ HENLE (1909-1993) An archive of approximately 80 photographs depicting the conditions for mining families in Logan, West Virginia. The group features a variety of imagery, including both the mine interiors and homes, as well as some scenes of the greater town and landscape of the community, one of the most economically impacted in the Depression-era United States. Silver prints, the images measuring 7⅜x7⅝ inches (18.7x19.4 cm.), and slightly smaller, the sheets slightly larger, each with Henle's Black Star credit stamp and his (then) agent's stamp, approximately 28 with his signature, and five with additional notations (including one longer and dated letter) in ink on verso. 1936
After arriving in the United States in 1936, Henle accepted a commission from his art school friend Margaret Arnstein (her father, Leo Arnstein, was a philanthropist, and would provide assistance to Henle later in his career) to travel to Logan, West Virginia in order to document the poor working conditions for miners and their families on behalf of her aid organization. Henle also joined the Black Star picture agency that year and found an agent, Kurt Kornfeld (they remained together until 1942). Henle stayed with Black Star for about five years, finding the work the agency provided invigorating. The defining aspects of Henle's career can be found in this expansive and deeply compelling body of work, including his deep empathy, understanding and search for beauty and humanity in all conditions, and profound creativity. Helmut Gernsheim would call him "the last classic freelance photographer."
