In celebration of light.

• Position: Focus on America - Works from photography collection of Cherye and Jim Pierce go on display at New Orleans Museum of Art

It is amazing that the widespread recognition of photography as a fine art began only 30 years ago with a few pioneer dealers, private collectors, and museum curators. Now, in the first years of the new millennium, rare vintage photographs from the 19th and 20th centuries command hundreds of thousands of dollars each; museums across the country regularly mount photography exhibitions that attract record crowds; and many of the most critically praised and avidly collected contemporary artists choose to work in the photographic medium.

After 1980, the quickly developing market for fine photography, spurred by new dealers and auction houses, was a catalyst for the discovery and availability of unique and unusual vintage material. Only when prices began to reach four and five figures did great examples by the most important masters begin to appear on the market. Collectors quickly became aware of the rarity of these treasures.

In the past, most photographers made only a handful of prints from their negatives at the time of creation. Later prints, even those made by the original artist, bring much lower prices than vintage ones. The scarcity of work by earlier masters is a key factor in the now tremendous collecting interest in a select number of contemporary photographers, whose new work is produced in severely limited editions, creating an artificial rarity that commands high prices immediately.

In selecting and organizing this exhibition of 130 photographs from Cherye and Jim...