Q: What is the most expensive photograph ever sold?
Answer:
1. Andreas Gursky's "99 Cent II Diptych"
Price: $3,340,456.00 at Sotheby's London, February 2007.
2. Edward Steichen's "The Pond-Moonight" (1904)
Price: $2,928,000.00 at Sotheby's NY, in February 2006.
Filed under: art, photography
Tags: Jeff Schear Photography, The Most Expensive Photograph Ever Sold, the photo ninja blog
I'd love to hear more story behind #1! What is that?!
Andreas Gursky's is a huge fan of the high perspective angles. This photo was taken in 1999 I believe. A diptyc is a two part work (in this case two photos side by side). What you see is the inside of a supermarket, with the aisles creating a colorful and complex photo. The perspective in the photograph is altered. It is compressed to make everything appear closer together, normally the aisles wouldn't look like they are on top of one another. This is either achieved using a longer telephoto lens, or done in photoshop using the lens correction tool.
I think the reason it snatched such a high price was not only the fact it looked cool, but it made a big splash as a contemporary artwork. IMOP, it's a statement on consumerism, and the visual tricks we artists use to make products jump out. It's overwhelming, as if ever product in the 99 cent store is screaming out "Buy me! Buy me!"