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Lorraine Anne Davis BSC. MA. MFA.     AAA – Certified Appraiser – USPAP

Lorraine Anne Davis is a certified appraiser specializing in photography with the Appraisers Association of America, Inc. and carries a Uniform Standards of Professional Appraisal Practice (USPAP) certificate as set by the Appraisal Foundation in Washington, D.C. She adheres to the Code of Ethics of the Appraisers Association of America and conforms to the guidelines set forth by USPAP.

Ms. Davis has appraised both small and large archives and many private collections and has worked with major museums internationally including the J. Paul Getty, The Boston Museum of Fine Art, The Tate, London, The National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., the National Portrait Gallery, London, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the Whitney Museum of American Art and others.

She has served as an Expert Witness in international federal and domestic state courts.

Ms. Davis graduated from the University of Wisconsin with a Master’s Degree in Photography and a Master of Fine Arts Degree in Graphic Design and Photography. She attended the University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, where she studied the History of Photography with Amy Conger, PhD and Contemporary Ideas in Photography with Peter Bunnell, Princeton, Barbara Kasten, Eileen Cowin and Harold Jones, CCP.

In addition, she printed for the Chicago Albumen Works, a company specializing in 19th century photographic processes, and worked as Berenice Abbott’s printer and archivist. In 1983 she became the Assistant Director of the Paul Strand Archive then, in 1987, moved to Switzerland where she was the Curator at Galerie zur Stockeregg in Zürich until 1991. For the following twelve years Ms. Davis built and curated the Pfeifer Collection, Zürich; the most comprehensive private collection of Classical American photography in Europe. The collection travelled in Germany to much critical acclaim, culminating in an exhibition at FotoForum Frankfurt.

Ms Davis is currently revising and updating Lee Witkin’s seminal 1979 The Photograph Collector’s Guide, and is working on A Guidebook to Appraising Photographs for Appraisers and Collectors.

She writes two bi-monthly columns for Black&White Magazine: ‘What’s It Worth?’ about appraising photographs, and the second; ‘Image Protection’ about copyright issues in photography. She has also published a number of feature articles about photographers, archives, and the photography market.

Ms. Davis gives seminars on appraising photographs, connoisseurship, and the identification of photographic processes to collectors and appraisers and regularly gives lectures on a variety of topics in the field of photography.

Ms. Davis returned to the USA in 2003 after 16 years in Europe. She maintains satellite offices in Santa Fe, NM, Los Angeles, CA and New York City.

 

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