Daile Kaplan is vice president and director of photographs at Swann Galleries, New York's oldest specialty auction house. She is an auctioneer, appraiser and a curator of photographs and photographic literature. She also appears on Antiques Roadshow as a photographs specialist.

Kaplancollects what she has dubbed “pop photographica,” by which she means decorative and functional objects adorned with photographic images. As she told ArtInfo: “Because I am a former artist-photographer, my interest was in making things rather than in acquiring them. The impulse to start collecting was surprising, if not alien, to me. But as a curator who transitioned to a day job as photographs specialist at an auction house, I suppose one could characterize succumbing to the bug as an occupational hazard.”

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My First Acquisition:

The first piece I bought was a hat veil display from the 1920s—that was about 15 years ago. It was sitting in the window of an antiques shop in Jim Thorpe, Pennsylvania. I walked by the thing several times before I realized I was in love with it. This very graphic and life-size picture of a flapper-era woman’s face appears on an oversize sheet of white cardboard that’s covered with (actual) black veils. The price was a whopping $10. The ways in which this photographic item unconsciously reflected modernist concerns while simultaneously addressing consumer culture simply fascinated me. Since I’ve been renovating my studio to reinstall my collection and make it a semi-public space, it’s now in storage, like many of my more fragile pieces.

My Most Recent Acquisition:

The most recent item I purchased was the photographer Gordon Parks’ pajamas. But don’t get the wrong idea! A few months before his death, Parks asked his friend, the photographer Morris Lane, to transfer a portrait Lane had made onto specially designed, yellow-and-blue silk pajamas. The design adorning the pajamas is utterly Warholesque. I have a mini-collection of photographically based textiles from the 1870s to the 1970s, so the vivid coloration and montage on these custom-made PJs was just great. Obviously, Parks never wore them. They were offered in his estate sale at Tepper Galleries and I purchased them last month for $600.

Favorite Item in My Collection:

One of my favorite items in my collection is an African-American vaudeville entertainer’s steamer trunk from the 1930s. The inside of the trunk lid is highlighted with family photos, lucky charms, mirrors, cut-outs and all sorts of personal memorabilia. Since this man traveled a lot, the trunk not only functioned as a repository for his stuff but as a kind of family altar. I saw this piece at a gallery about ten years ago and immediately expressed interest in purchasing it. However, the dealer informed me a museum had put it on hold. Since I was friendly with the gallerist, ten months later I asked if the transaction had been finalized and learned that the curator had passed. So I bought the trunk for $3,000, and it’s currently on display in my studio.

Advice for Beginning Collectors:

With all the media attention focused on the prices realized for art today, my advice to a new collector would be to stay focused on the physical object. Buy what speaks to you, even if you don’t know what language the item is speaking!