“Photography came into my life right after I became sober,” Elton explains. “After leaving rehab, I went to Cahors to be with friends, a wonderful mix of people, including photography dealer David Fahey. It was during that trip and through the lens of my new sobriety that photography really resonated with me. For my first acquisition—typically, it was never going to be just one piece—Fahey, who was on his way to an art fair, had brought boxes of work filled with various photographers to the house: Irving Penn, Herb Ritts, Edward Weston. I bought 10 photographs on the spot and I haven’t stopped since.”
The John/Furnish collection currently stands at around 7,000 artworks and counting. “While Elton jumps in feet-first,” says Furnish, “I love to know everything about the artist, the series, and their overall work and how all of that culminates to the piece in front of us.”
The collection spans nearly every discipline, from still life to portraiture, nudes to fashion, the abstract and graphic to real life and documentary. Francis Bacon can rub shoulders with Mae West, Divine, with Malcolm X, Penn and Richard Avedon with contemporary Vogue photographers Tyler Mitchell and Harley Weir.