A 1962–66 set of Ruscha’s five hugely influential books—serial images of gas stations, small fires, parking lots and buildings on the Sunset Strip—is priced at $60,000 to $90,000, as is a copy of Hans Bellmer’s 1949 exercise in sadomasochism with mannequins, Les jeux de la poupée, which is autographed to his psychiatrist. A copy of Facile, the elegant 1935 collaboration that joined Man Ray’s solarized and double-exposed images of nudes with Paul Éluard’s love poems to his wife, is inscribed by both to Bellmer, thus closing a cozy Parisian Surrealist circle (est. $40–60,000).

Becker oversaw successful sales of rare photographic books in 2006 and 2007 at Christie’s London; the 2006 auction brought in $1.2 million. He chose New York this time in part because Americans compose nearly half the market (Europeans account for most of the other half, with the difference made up by Asians). But he also believes that Americans “respond to quality and to unique signatures.”  In fact, such inscriptions may be more important in determining price than how well the photos are reproduced. The reproduction quality in the Ruscha books and in The Americans, for instance, is mediocre, yet they have commanded significant sums.

The New York art and book dealer Andrew Roth, who advised and bought for the collector whose works will be auctioned on April 10, confirms the price-enhancing power of signatures with unique associations. More anonymously inscribed copies appear in such numbers that they have “devalued the signature,” says Roth. However, he adds, “Just as the unique vintage print is more valuable than the editioned print, the copy of a book inscribed from one significant individual to another should be more valuable.” A first edition of Larry Clark’s Tulsa, the native Oklahoman’s scary joyride through a teenage world of guns, sex and injected drugs, for instance, “is rare enough,” Roth notes, but add an inscription from Clark to his buddy, publisher and fellow photographer Ralph Gibson, and it becomes “more meaningful.”

Many observers credit Roth’s 2001 The Book of 101 Books: Seminal Photographic Books of the 20th Century, with inspiring collectors and scholars to take photographic books more seriously. (Published by PPP Editions in association with the gallery once owned by Roth and book dealer Glenn Horowitz, it has itself become a rare book, with signed copies selling for more than $2,000 on Amazon.) The field received another boost from The Photobook: A History, by photographer Martin Parr and critic Gerry Badger, an even more comprehensive study published in two volumes (2004 and 2006) by Phaidon.

Those weren’t the only entries in the genre. In 2005 the Hasselblad Center published The Open Book: A History of Photographic Books from 1878 to the Present to accompany a traveling exhibition. The Stephen Daiter Gallery published From Fair to Fine: 20th-Century Photography Books that Matter in 2006.

The potential for dealers and collectors to be self-enriching in producing ostensibly scholarly tomes that promote works they own or have bought for clients troubles many in the photography world, none of whom want to go on the record. Others are less concerned about the possible conflict of interest. “I don’t have a problem with [Parr’s book],” says the New York dealer Howard Greenberg, who specializes in 20th-century and contemporary photographs. “Museums do it, too. The truth is, Martin loves his books. He’s done all this research. He’s contributed to the enthusiasm in the field.”

Among the new enthusiasts are speculators, such as those who, after the publication of the first Parr-Badger volume, eagerly bought up titles they guessed would be selected for the second. The authors tried to cross up these gamblers by continually revising their list, which may explain its eccentricity and British slant. For example, Ansel Adams and Edward Weston did not make it into either volume. The writing is so persuasive, however, that it’s hard not to be caught up in the authors’ taste for avant-garde books from Japan and Germany.