PODCAST · arts
The Expert Eye
by The Expert Eye
Aimee Pflieger loves discovering connections between seemingly disparate subjects, and pulling at the threads that photography has woven through culture since its invention. In this podcast, she talks about photographs she’s handled during her career (as well as ones she hopes to someday), drawing out the hidden stories behind the images and illuminating the hidden histories of photography.
Episodes
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Episode 37: A Conversation with Daile Kaplan
Daile Kaplan is a true champion of photography. As Director of the Photographs Department at Swann Galleries she introduced dedicated sales of vernacular photographs and photobooks, setting numerous world auction records along the way. In addition to her work at Swann, she's an author, curator…
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Episode 36: Kaloma
A trip to Istanbul in 2011 revealed several mysteries, including a portrait of a dark-eyed, scantily clad woman whose true identity has been elusive for over 100 years. Who is Kaloma and why is she in so many antique stores throughout the world?
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Episode 35: Dogs Behaving Badly
In the summer of 2025, Aimee participated in the 30th season of PBS’ beloved program, Antiques Roadshow. As a volunteer appraiser, it’s always exciting to see what viewers bring to the show. This time, however, a guest brought some photographs that blew her away… it was a huge collection of...
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Episode 34: A Conversation with Rick Wester
In my continuing series of conversations with people who have shaped the Photographs market, I move back to focusing on the auction world. I sat down with Rick Wester, who, in addition to being a private dealer, consultant, and gallery owner, he has headed up the Photographs departments of 2 of 3...
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Episode 33: Twist Endings
Ralph Eugene Meatyard’s series of photographs featuring his family in unexpected places and costumes are hard to describe but entirely captivating. He found inspiration for a series of photographs from a book published in 1911 by Ambrose Bierce called ‘The Devil’s Dictionary.’ After handling one…
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Episode 32: Avery on the Log
In 1853, photographer Platt Babbitt made a chilling daguerreotype of a man named Joseph Avery, who had been stuck on a tree branch in the middle of the rushing rapids near the edge of Niagara Falls for over 10 hours. Babbitt had unknowingly created the first “action” shot in photojournalism. In...
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Episode 31: A Conversation with Leland Rice, Part II
In the second half of my conversation with curator, educator, and photographer Leland Rice, he talks about two major exhibitions that he worked on for two photographers whose work he greatly admired-Frederick Sommer and Herbert Bayer. We also talk about the important connections, or “linkages”…
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Episode 30: Post-Sale Wrap Up with Aimee and Emily
Despite a raging head cold, Aimee barrels through to give you want you want: a discussion with Emily Bierman that covers the stellar results of the sale of Ansel Adams, A Legacy: Photographs from the Meredith Collection. This auction smashed records and exceeded expectations overall. We discuss...
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Episode 29: A Conversation with Denise Bethel, Part II
In this long awaited second interview with former Chairman of Sotheby’s Photographs, Denise Bethel, she and Aimee talk about her long career at Sotheby’s and the many treasures she handled, challenges she faced, and things she learned.
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Episode 28: A Conversation with Leland Rice
This is the first part of a conversation between Aimee Pflieger and Leland Rice on May 19, 2024. Here, he details his first exposure to photography, his experiences both as a student and as an instructor, and finally the genesis and execution of the first major American exhibition of László...
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Episode 27: The Untitled One
How important are names? How important are titles of photographs? In this episode Aimee identifies 3 major ways that things become mistitled and how they can make a significant difference in the ways images are viewed using examples by Henri Cartier-Bresson, Josef Koudelka, Robert Capa, and…
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Episode 26: A Conversation with Susan Kismaric
In this episode, Aimee sits down with Susan Kismaric, who started working in the photography department at the Museum of Modern Art in 1976 after a stint at the LIFE Picture Collection. She has curated a host of exhibitions and published several books, including her most recent on Garry…
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Episode 25: Shades of Gray
In this episode, Aimee discusses Roy DeCarava’s lyrical photographs with Saul Robbins, who was DeCarava’s studio assistant during graduate school. We talk about one photograph in particular that encapsulates the photographer’s masterful printing style as well as his efforts to communicate his...
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Episode 24: A Conversation with Denise Bethel, Part I
Denise Bethel joined Swann Galleries in 1980, soon after photographs auctions were inaugurated in New York. After a decade at Swann, she moved to Sotheby's in 1990, where she rose from senior specialist to Chairman of the Department in her 25 years there. At Sotheby's, she set records in a host…
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Episode 23: Layer Cake
The layers within this story are many: Director James Cameron drew a picture of a picture and then gave said picture to an actor to use as a prop in a movie about a real thing that happened but is actually completely fabricated, and he talks about a woman who actually existed but no one knew who...
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Episode 22: A Conversation with Howard Greenberg
Formerly a photographer and founder of The Center for Photography in Woodstock in 1977, Howard Greenberg has been one of a small group of gallerists, curators and historians responsible for the creation and development of the modern market for photography. Howard Greenberg Gallery—founded in 1981...
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Episode 21: Post-Sale Wrap with Aimee and Emily
Emily Bierman, SVP and Global Head of Sotheby’s Photographs, comes back to chat with Aimee about the spectacular results of the Sotheby’s Photographs May 1 and 2, 2023 auctions: Pier 24 Photography from the Pilara Family Foundation Sold to Benefit Charitable Organizations. Covered: Sale strategy,...
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Episode 20: The Limits of Control: O. Winston Link
O. Winston Link is the King of Steam Train Photography. His mastery of the medium of photography and artistry in creating night shots is unparalleled. But while he was obsessive over trains and lighting, he left a lot of details to chance when it came to what his wife and business manager was up...
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Episode 19: Carleton Watkins Detective
Cartleton Watkins is considered by many to be the foremost 19th century photographer of the American West. His ‘mammoth plate’ prints can sell for six figures at auction. How do we rate Watkins prints when they come through the Sotheby’s Photographs department? How do we judge what is a “good”…
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Episode 18: Margaret Bourke-White and the NBC Murals
Margaret Bourke-White was commissioned for what was to be the largest photo-mural in the world for the newly-constructed 30 Rockefeller Plaza. She worked furiously and it was unveiled in December, 1933. At the opening ceremony, what someone had done to her work would upset her so badly she…
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Episode 17: Second Chances
In 1930 three people, Edward Weston, Lincoln Steffens, and Jack Black (not THAT Jack Black) have some life-changing experiences and their stories intersect with a woman named Ginny Williams who buys a portrait 60 years later.
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Episode 16: Lost and Found Dept.: The One-Man Historical Society
In the early 2000s Alan Pflieger, a photographer in Huntington, Indiana (and my dad), acquired a huge archive of negatives from the Rickert Studio, which had been in operation from 1912 to 1986. He saved the negatives from being destroyed. My parents stored these negatives in their house for…
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Episode 15: Post Sale Wrap with Emily and Aimee
Emily Bierman, SVP and Global Head of Sotheby’s Photographs, chats with Aimee about the April 13, 2022 Photographs auction. Covered: estimate “Smack Down” sessions, photograph obsessions, missed opportunities, and the health of the market from two people who should know.
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Episode 14: A Talk with Lee Marks
Lee Marks, a photography dealer and consultant, heads Lee Marks Fine Art, established in New York City in 1981 and now located in Shelbyville, Indiana. Lee has served in many roles in the photographic field, including gallery employee, writer, curator, President of the non-profit organization...
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Episode 13: The Witch Dance
In 1914, Mary Wigman created a dance that would shatter the rules about what dance was supposed to look like. A trio of images by Charlotte Rudolph of Wigman came through the Photography department at Sotheby’s recently. Aimee gets to the bottom of what these images had to do with the Suspiria...
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Episode 12: Ansel Adams Detective
In this episode Aimee gives you the secret five-step process for looking at Ansel Adams prints, providing lots of detail on Adams’ signature (and unique) style, how to narrow down print dates, analyze paper, stamps, and more.
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Episode 11: Deborah Bell, Part II
In the second half of my interview with Deborah Bell, we talk about Deborah's experiences as a private dealer, auction house specialist, gallery owner, and educator.
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Episode 10: Deborah Bell, Part I
After 13 years as a private dealer, Deborah Bell opened her first public gallery at 511 West 25th Street in Chelsea and remained there for 10 years (2001-2011). In 2011 Bell closed the gallery in order to join Christie’s New York, where she was Head of the Photographs Department for 2-1/2 years.…
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Episode 9: If You Could Read My Mind, Love
What if you could send from your brain straight to a camera? In the 1960s, a man named Ted Serios and a psychiatrist named Dr. Jule Eisenbud set out to prove to the world that it could be done.
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Episode 8: Diane Arbus, Steven Shainburg, and 'Fur.'
In this episode, Steven Shainberg, director of 'Fur: An Imaginary Portrait of Diane Arbus' joins me to discuss hero worship, hairy actors, and make-believe.
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Episode 7: Diane Arbus and the Monster Club
In this episode, I tell the story of how I got to research a very rare photograph by Diane Arbus that she took while on assignment for a magazine called Famous Monsters of Filmland. The photograph features 5 youngsters on the stoop of their rowhouse in Queens, sporting monster masks. It sold for...
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Episode 6: The Devil's Paradise
A German Photographer named Albert Frisch was responsible for some of the first photographs taken in the Upper Amazon. Among those images are ones of a rubber tree and a man working with latex. Why is this important? Aimee gets to the bottom of our very complicated history with this special tree.
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Episode 5: The Monkey On Her Back
In 1939, LIFE photojournalist Hansel Mieth took a photograph that would haunt her for the rest of her life. That photograph was … of a monkey. In this episode, Aimee talks about the time she handled a print of this image and the surprising history behind it.
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Episode 4: Frozen in Time
At the height of Polar Mania, three Swedish explorers went on the search for the North Pole by hot air balloon. This episode tells the story of what happened when documentary photographs taken by the adventurers were found in the ice, years later.
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Episode 3: The New Woman
Aimee visits an intriguing exhibition at The Met and realizes that it is coincidentally connected to a print she catalogued for an upcoming auction by pioneering photographer Florence Henri.
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Episode 2: Print Class/Bill Brandt
A 1933 image of rooftops by influential British photographer Bill Brandt comes across Aimee’s desk, and she tries to get to the bottom of how Brandt made this print using her mantra: Look, Touch, Think, Look (again). She nearly misses some important clues.
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Episode 1: Inferno Crisis
A photographic discovery by astronomer Sir John Herschel inadvertently influences the mad experimentation of playwright August Strindberg, leading to surprising results.
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ABOUT THIS SHOW
Aimee Pflieger loves discovering connections between seemingly disparate subjects, and pulling at the threads that photography has woven through culture since its invention. In this podcast, she talks about photographs she’s handled during her career (as well as ones she hopes to someday), drawing out the hidden stories behind the images and illuminating the hidden histories of photography.
HOSTED BY
The Expert Eye
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Frequently Asked Questions
How many episodes does The Expert Eye have?
The Expert Eye currently has 37 episodes available on PodParley. New episodes are automatically indexed when they're published to the podcast feed.
What is The Expert Eye about?
Aimee Pflieger loves discovering connections between seemingly disparate subjects, and pulling at the threads that photography has woven through culture since its invention. In this podcast, she talks about photographs she’s handled during her career (as well as ones she hopes to someday), drawing...
How often does The Expert Eye release new episodes?
The Expert Eye has 37 episodes. Check the episode list to see recent publication dates and frequency.
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You can listen to The Expert Eye on PodParley by clicking any episode. We provide an embedded audio player for direct listening, and you can also subscribe via your preferred podcast app using the RSS feed.
Who hosts The Expert Eye?
The Expert Eye is created and hosted by The Expert Eye.
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