Nick Brandt's Portrait of an Elephant in Dust, Amboseli achieved a 21% increase on its estimate of $30,000-35,000 at Bonhams New York on October 29.
The 2011 photograph realised $42,500 at the sale. It depicts an elephant in the Amboseli National Park in Kenya and is numbered eight of 12.
 Brandt's work has more in common with studio portraiture than conventional wildlife photography |
Londoner Brandt is a wildlife photographer who works exclusively in Africa. His photographs are taken on medium format film and represent an attempt to document wild places before they are destroyed by mankind.
Prior to his work as a photographer Brandt directed music videos. It was while filming the video for Michael Jackson's Earth Song in Tanzania that he realised his calling.
Last year, his Elephant Drinking portrait sold for $116,257 at Christie's in Paris.
Aspens, New Mexico (1958) by Ansel Adams achieved $30,000 at the present sale.
 Aspens, New Mexico features Adams' characteristic high contrast |
It featured alongside a number of Adams prints that included Mount McKinley and Wonder Lake, Denali National Park Alaska, which realised $27,500, and Winter Sunrise, Sierra Nevada, from Lone Pine California, which sold for $25,000.
Adams was one of the world's greatest photographers, best-known for his stark black and white photographs of American landscapes.
Bonhams' director of photography, Judith Eurich, commented prior to the sale: "Adams is perhaps the most influential American photographer of all time. His stellar career is beautifully articulated through the various decades represented in this sale".
Sign up to our free weekly newsletter for the latest from the art world direct to your inbox.
