Art photography is a strange and volatile market that can change very quickly. While most photographs sell for reasonable amounts, the price of some of them blows up to numbers that most photographers can only dream of.
For example, in February 2018, a group of 10 investors paid $ 1 million for a cryptographic photograph called The Forever Rose, taken by Kevin Ebosch. Forever Rose is not a physical photograph, but the most expensive virtual image in the world. And each investor received a "token" that he can keep or sell.
However, even $ 1 million is a trifle compared to the amounts paid for the most expensive photographs in history.
10. "Lake in the Moonlight" by Edward Steichen
The photo is estimated at $ 2.9 million.
The list of the most expensive photos in history opens with a picture taken back in 1904 and sold in 2006.
Steichen was one of the first photographers (if not the first) to use autochrome. To paint a photo, he applied potato starch granules filled with paints of different colors to the film. And there are two copies of this photograph: one sold at Sotheby's, and the other is in the permanent collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
9. "Chicago Stock Exchange III", Andreas Gursky
The photo was sold for $ 3.3 million.
Gursky's first, but not last, in a selection of the world's most expensive photographs. The picture shows the trading floor of the Chicago Stock Exchange. To express the feeling of movement, the author exposed several parts of the image twice.
As with his other photos on this list, Gursky also changed colors to make them more vibrant.
8. “99 cents. Diptych ", Andreas Gursky
The photograph was sold at auction for $ 3.3 million.
This is a chromogenic color print stylized as a diptych and consists of two photographs. It is very large - 2.07 x 3.37 meters. The action takes place in a store in Los Angeles where goods are sold for 99 cents.
Gursky uses semi-symmetrical lines and colorful packaging on the shelves to create a high-contrast image that's sure to grab attention.
7. "Untitled (Cowboy)" by Richard Prince
Sold at Christie's for $ 3.4 million.
Richard Prince began his foray into artistry at Time-Life, Inc., where his job was to cut magazine articles for in-house writers. As an aspiring photographer, Prince studied what was left of magazines after clipping articles - advertising pages.
"Cowboy" represents the pinnacle of Prince's fascination with American archetypes, and the picture is actually a Time magazine ad depicting a Marlboro cowboy. This work is "in the broadest sense, a reflection on the constant attraction of the entire culture to spectacles, and not to life experience."
It's funny that the photographer who took the first advertising photo did not appreciate the high art and sued Prince for using the copyrighted image. But the court ruled in Prince's favor.
6. "Dead Soldiers Conversation" by Jeff Wall
Price - $ 3.6 million.
This image was taken by Canadian photographer Jeff Wall in 1992 and is a fictional scene of the resurrection of a Red Army patrol ambushed near Mokora, Afghanistan, in the winter of 1986. The revived fighters talk to each other, not paying attention to severe wounds and severed limbs.
At the same time, Wall has never been to Afghanistan, and the shooting of the actors portraying the soldiers took place in the studio.
“I didn't make the dead soldiers speak to comment on the Afghan war. I did this because I wanted to photograph the talking dead. It was a theme, or an image, or both, that arose spontaneously, I don't know why. So the painting had a personal or internal starting point, ”the photographer told Photoworks.
5. "For Her Majesty" by Gilbert Prosh and George Passmore
The photo is worth $ 3.7 million.
Gilbert and George are life and work partners in the performance photography genre, but the couple adamant that they are “two people but one artist,” as George told Reuters in an interview.
And as one artist, they created a whole collage of black and white photographs, which is dedicated to the memory of the period of alcoholic libations of the duo in the early 70s of the last century. Thus, Gilbert and George are both subjects and objects, art and creators of their paintings, as they prefer to call them.
4. "Untitled # 96" by Cindy Sherman
The photo was bought for $ 3.9 million.
Known for her provocative self-portraits, Sherman's work is extremely popular with collectors. Once, according to Bloomberg, she grossed $ 13.7 million in just one auction.
Sherman was responsible for all aspects of her photography, including makeup, hair, lighting, staging, and photography.
When creating "Untitled No. 96" the photographer was inspired by the spreads of men's erotic magazines. Moreover, in the picture, she looks like the complete opposite of the models who usually pose for such publications. Many people claim that Sherman's facial expressions and body language demonstrate vulnerability and fear.
3. "Spiritual America" by Richard Prince
The photo at Christie’s auction was estimated at $ 3.9 million.
In one of the most controversial photographs in history, 10-year-old Brooke Shields posed for the photographer. Her nude childish body is in stark contrast to the seductive and mature expression on her face, which is covered with bright makeup.
The title Spiritual America comes from another work: a 1923 photograph of a castrated working horse by Alfred Stieglitz. The image and the title contrast with each other, comparing hard, honest work to the fact that people these days easily achieve fame and glory.
2. "Rhine II", Andreas Gursky
Price - $ 4.3 million.
The most expensive work of the German photographer Andreas Gursky is "Rhine II", sold at Christie’s auction in November 2011. It depicts the River Rhine flowing between green grassy fields and under a cloudy sky. This photo is the first number in a series of six photographs and shows a stretch of the Rhine River near Düsseldorf.
Until the 1990s, Gursky did not digitally alter his images, but Rhine II was an exception. Wanting to create a desert landscape, Gursky removed distractions, including a factory building, pedestrians and cyclists.
1. "Phantom" by Peter Lick
The cost of the photo is $ 6.5 million.
On December 9, 2014, a black and white image of Antelope Canyon in Arizona, USA, taken by renowned Australian landscape painter Peter Lick, allegedly broke all existing price records. We say "allegedly" because the deal was private, and we know about it only from Peter himself and from the lawyers who accompanied the deal.Therefore, the place of "Phantom" as the most expensive photography in the world is still hotly debated.
“The goal of all my photographs is to capture the power of nature and convey it in a way that inspires someone to feel excited and connected with this image,” Peter said of his work.
A private collector acquired not only the monochrome "Phantom", but also two more works by Lik - "Illusion" for $ 2.4 million and "Eternal Moods" for $ 1.1 million. The total amount of the deal was $ 10 million.