A photo by D. Jay Culver (1902-1968)

When I started collecting photographs in a serious way, about ten years ago, one of the best resources I found was the erstwhile Culver Collection, available at an enormous online site offering vintage prints for sale at quite reasonable prices. As I recall, the collection’s curators had prioritized identifying the subject, quite reasonably, over the photographer … which meant that if you recognized the photographer’s style, or a run of images seen elsewhere on the site, you could pick up things like photos by Nickolas Muray. 

Another thing I liked about the collection, which had been a press agency in its heyday, was that one could often trace the history of the print from the penciled notes and the press stamps on the reverse. Between the low prices and the epic scale of the place, I was in heaven!

Of course, one day the flood slowed to a trickle, and quite suddenly — after I had paid for, but not received, a batch of photos — the site closed for business and became unreachable. I will attach a link to the BusinessWire story that described what happened next, although I don’t know what actually became of all that lovely photographic history…