Compared to most other art forms, photography's history is a mere blink of the eye -- the British "father of modern photography," William Henry Fox Talbot, created the first modern negative, using paper soaked in silver chloride, around 180 years ago.

A relatively young art, then, but almost unfathomably vast, and the catalogue for the sale at Christie's on February 15 practically constitutes a comprehensive text. From the iconic expanse of the simultaneously ancient and new Western frontier captured by Edward S. Curtis, to the impeccably styled, shimmering scenarios created by David LaChapelle, to the sharp, unfussy portraits by Martin Schoeller (Angelina Jolie, above) every lot is a history lesson captured frame by frame.

Below are a few highlights:

CECIL BEATON (1904-1980), Mick Jagger, c. 1969

EDWARD S. CURTIS (1868-1952) , Selected images from North American Indian, 1905-06

JOHN SWANNELL (b. 1946), Fine Lines, 1997