(Photo: Courtesy of Christie's Images Ltd 2007)

3. Herb Ritts
Versace Dress, Back View, El Mirage, 1990. Printed 1990; No. 18 in an edition of 25.

Estimate: $12,000 to $18,000. Pure fashion photos like this one propel Solley’s collection from a studious, sober grouping to a record of passion for the female form. But as clean as Ritts’s images are, they haven’t yet convinced most fine-art photography buyers that they have transcended their moment.

Market details: This image sold out its edition, according to Etheleen Staley of the Staley-Wise Gallery, which originally sold it to Solley. While Ritts’s images of male bodies in Grecian poses were more popular in the eighties, his women have since caught up.

Prospects: As fashion photography gains acceptance as another serious genre within the medium—a perception fostered by MoMA’s big exhibition in 2004—prints like these can only get more expensive. For Ritts, the price is right, and this should sell within estimate.