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Thread: World's most expensive photo - where we are going wrong

  1. #1
    davidedric's Avatar
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    World's most expensive photo - where we are going wrong

    I expect many members will know this, but I didn't. This image, called Rhein II, sold for £2.7m in New York last year.

    World's most expensive photo - where we are going wrong

    Worse, the image doesn't exist. A factory and some dog walkers had to be cloned out to make "an image of a modern river".

    I don't think it would place in a CiC mini comp, but I guess that shows how little I know and why I'm not a millionaire

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    re: World's most expensive photo - where we are going wrong

    Quote Originally Posted by davidedric View Post
    I expect many members will know this, but I didn't. This image, called Rhein II, sold for £2.7m in New York last year.

    World's most expensive photo - where we are going wrong

    Worse, the image doesn't exist. A factory and some dog walkers had to be cloned out to make "an image of a modern river".

    I don't think it would place in a CiC mini comp, but I guess that shows how little I know and why I'm not a millionaire
    Hi Dave,

    Yeah - we discussed it a while back.

    In response, I shot a better one and put it up for sale for only $1,000,000.

    It's still available if you're interested ...

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    re: World's most expensive photo - where we are going wrong

    Then some members ask me where the subject is in some of my images. How about the horizon slap bang in the middle. If I had to say it is flat? Won't recomend enlarging and hanging this one on a wall.
    I could have done it and retired.

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    Re: World's most expensive photo - where we are going wrong

    Quote Originally Posted by davidedric View Post
    This image, called Rhein II, sold for £2.7m in New York last year.
    Says more about the emperor's new clothes that is modern art than it does about photography, fortunately

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    Re: World's most expensive photo - where we are going wrong

    Huh?

    Well gee whiz! I liked it so much I bought two of them.

    Got them hanging in my bathrooms!


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    Re: World's most expensive photo - where we are going wrong

    Quote Originally Posted by Loose Canon View Post
    Huh?

    Well gee whiz! I liked it so much I bought two of them.

    Got them hanging in my bathrooms!

    Must be big bathrooms - they're printed 73 x 143 inches.

    http://www.christies.com/LotFinder/l...jectID=5496716

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    Re: World's most expensive photo - where we are going wrong

    Quote Originally Posted by Colin Southern View Post
    Hi Dave,

    Yeah - we discussed it a while back.

    In response, I shot a better one and put it up for sale for only $1,000,000.

    It's still available if you're interested ...
    The problem with Colin's one million dollar one is that I took one very similar, and marketed it at $900,000. I've been selling prints like hotcakes. Sorry Colin, I should have cut you in.

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    Re: World's most expensive photo - where we are going wrong

    Sorry guys, I did a "Donald" of something similar and printed it on metal and ceramic. A factory in Abistan is making millions of them as cladding for building exteriors. Another factory is making the ceramic versions for kitchens, bathrooms, floors etc. Clearing GBP 16,000,001 a day as my share of the profits (sorry Ortega, you are now 2nd). At this rate everything in the world will bear this pattern including camera bodies.

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    Re: World's most expensive photo - where we are going wrong

    I'm selling my stuff too cheap

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    Re: World's most expensive photo - where we are going wrong

    Quote Originally Posted by Colin Southern View Post
    Must be big bathrooms - they're printed 73 x 143 inches.
    Nah!

    I was able to get the 8"x10" versions for half price!

  11. #11
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    Re: World's most expensive photo - where we are going wrong

    The image is rather confused, with a plethora wave crests competing for the viewer's attention. The photographer should have recognised this as a problem, and used a very slow shutter speed to introduce a substantial motion blur onto the surface of the river. However, even then, the green tones of the layers of grass would still be a distraction from the flat, featureless sky - desaturating these, or a complete B&W conversion, would have restored some sort of equilibrium to the image. In view of these shortcomings, it is perhaps surprising that bidding for the photograph did not stop at £2.6 million.

    Philip
    Last edited by MrB; 17th November 2012 at 05:43 PM.

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    Re: World's most expensive photo - where we are going wrong

    I'm sorry... I do not see the problem.

    There is a difference between value and art.
    There is a difference between monetary value and aesthetic value.
    I have routinely read on many photog forums about it being OK to use clone stamping and severe editing to make an image look better in the name of perceived vision; it's a product of the easiness of digital formats in allowing manipulations on this scale. That's not OK in my photography and in today's digital world it is difficult for me to see and discern what is "real" and what is not in media. If that's what you personally do then OK. Just don't use a different judgment criterion on this photo.

    I'm not trying to start a war or a film/digital divide here, but in the end the photo is worth what someone is willing to pay for it.

    Still learning,
    Tyler

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    Re: World's most expensive photo - where we are going wrong

    The price would only have made sense if it was signed by Ansel Adams.

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    davidedric's Avatar
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    Re: World's most expensive photo - where we are going wrong

    Only meant as a weekend diversion......

    But still, if I had posted it as my own image, and asked for C&C, I wonder what would have been said

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    Re: World's most expensive photo - where we are going wrong

    Quote Originally Posted by Andrew76 View Post
    Sorry Colin, I should have cut you in.
    It's not too late

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    Re: World's most expensive photo - where we are going wrong

    Quote Originally Posted by Bobobird View Post
    Sorry guys, I did a "Donald" of something similar and printed it on metal and ceramic. A factory in Abistan is making millions of them as cladding for building exteriors. Another factory is making the ceramic versions for kitchens, bathrooms, floors etc. Clearing GBP 16,000,001 a day as my share of the profits (sorry Ortega, you are now 2nd). At this rate everything in the world will bear this pattern including camera bodies.
    Forwarded to the tax dept!

  17. #17

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    Re: World's most expensive photo - where we are going wrong

    Quote Originally Posted by Loose Canon View Post
    Nah!

    I was able to get the 8"x10" versions for half price!
    Interestingly I did note from the Christies auction site that it IS edition 1 of a run of up to 6 -- I wonder what the others would go for?

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    Re: World's most expensive photo - where we are going wrong

    Quote Originally Posted by MrB View Post
    The image is rather confused, with a plethora wave crests competing for the viewer's attention. The photographer should have recognised this as a problem, and used a very slow shutter speed
    ... would probably have made it harder to clone out the moving person & dog ...

  19. #19

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    Re: World's most expensive photo - where we are going wrong

    Quote Originally Posted by tybrad View Post
    in the end the photo is worth what someone is willing to pay for it.
    For sure. Perhaps what draws so much comment though is the fact that it was expected to fetch millions - it did fetch millions - and yet its something that most of us wouldn't pay $20 for.

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    Re: World's most expensive photo - where we are going wrong

    Quote Originally Posted by davidedric View Post
    Only meant as a weekend diversion......

    But still, if I had posted it as my own image, and asked for C&C, I wonder what would have been said
    Interestingly, I think it would be a very easy image to copy.

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