NEW YORK— Christie’s and Sotheby’s photography divisions take heed: There’s a new kid on the auction block. The 25-year-old London firm Bloomsbury, the world’s largest auctioneer of rare books, is forming a photo department at its recently expanded New York branch and has brought on board the private dealer Rick Wester as an adviser.

Wester has more than 30 years of experience in the field, and has headed up the photo divisions at Christie’s, Gagosian Gallery and, most recently, Phillips de Pury & Co. “I want to make Bloomsbury’s department number one,” says Wester. And he’s shown he can deliver: During his tenure at Christie’s, in the 1990s, that house became the first to reach $10 million in annual photography sales in New York.

These days Wester is busy gathering consignments for Bloomsbury’s New York photo auction, in October, the first of two or three sales to be held annually in its New York and London salesrooms. The company has a tradition of handling 19th-century albums, but Wester is focusing on modern and contemporary material. He is also responsible for developing a staff of specialists and says it will take a couple of years for the department to really establish itself.

“We were privileged to get Rick to join us as our international consultant,” says Bernard Frelat, Bloomsbury’s CEO for the Americas. “It’s a great marriage.”

"Snapping to It" originally appeared in the June 2008 issue of Art+Auction. For a complete list of articles from this issue available on ARTINFO, see Art+Auction's June 2008 Table of Contents.