The Most Expensive Photo in the World

Christie’s, Andreas Gursky/Associated Press) - This 1999 photograph provided by Chrisitie’s shows the Rhine river by German artist Andreas Gursky. Titled “Rhein II,” the chromogenic color print face-mounted to acrylic glass was sold for $4.3 million Tuesday, Nov. 8, 2011, at Christie’s in New York City, setting a record for any photograph sold at auction.

Via BBC:


Glass-mounted panoramic colour print Rhein II, created in 1999, is one of an edition of six works.

Others hang at New York's Museum of Modern Art and London's Tate Modern.

It beat the previous record of $3.9m (£2.5m) achieved by an untitled 1981 colour print by Cindy Sherman, who is the subject of all her own works.


"The viewer is not invited to consider a specific place along the river but rather an almost 'platonic' ideal of the body of water as it navigates the landscape” -- Christies

Gursky's print had a pre-sale estimate of $2.5m-$3.5m (£1.6m-£2.2m).

Rhein II is the largest of the six photographs, which are produced in various sizes.

As well as in New York and London, other photographs in the edition are housed in Munich's Pinakothek der Moderne and Glenstone art museum in the US.

Gursky has spoken of "a particular place with a view over the Rhine which has somehow always fascinated me, but it didn't suffice for a picture as it basically constituted only part of a picture".

He said he "carried this idea for a picture around with me for a year-and-a-half".

"In the end I decided to digitalise the pictures and leave out the elements that bothered me," he added.

Christie's said the viewer was "not invited to consider a specific place along the river, but rather an almost 'platonic' ideal of the body of water as it navigates the landscape."

After last year's Fall aucton season, we posted "The just-completed Contemporary sales totaled over $1 BILLION dollars in sales (with Andy Warhol accounting for over $200 million alone); the Impressionist/Modern sales about another half - BILLION; and almost as an afterthought a Qianlong-dynasty vase sold for $85.9 MILLION dollars. The Fall photo auctions in New York brought in $16 million."

No matter how you look at it, the prices for the "masters" of photography are a fraction of the prices for the masters of art.  The reaction to the Gursky sale seems to be "Really? $4.3 Million for That Photo?"

Here are just a few reactions:

@jmcolberg many shocked tweets at Gursky's photo price tag. Would people be so shocked if it were a painting that sold for $4M? Difference?

Raw File is asking " Really? $4.3 Million for That Photo? Let us know what you think in the comments or tweet us @rawfileblog." So far, there are more than 80 comments.

Seattle Post Intelligencer:   Here’s the world’s most expensive (and boring?) photo
via The Atlantic Wire:  "Gursky's photo is also the reason you should have become an art broker, like yesterday", with comments.

Related: Wall Street Journal: "New Art Drives $1 Billion Fall Auctions"

How will you remember?

Eric Smith: Washington, DC, 2006

National Veterans Day Ceremony

The Veterans Day National Ceremony is held each year on November 11th at Arlington National Cemetery. The ceremony commences precisely at 11:00 a.m. with a wreath laying at the Tomb of the Unknowns and continues inside the Memorial Amphitheater with a parade of colors by veterans' organizations and remarks from dignitaries. The ceremony is intended to honor and thank all who served in the United States Armed Forces.

 Presidential Proclamation

Time LightBox: The  Art of War: Honoring the Fallen for a Lifetime

Remembering the wounded via Nina Berman: Purple Hearts


Need help, or someone to talk to? Real Warriors

J. Paul Getty Museum acquires seventy-two photographs by Andreas Feininger

Andreas Feininger, Stockholm (Shell sign at night), 1935. Gelatin silver print. 17.4 x 24.2 cm. © Estate of Gertrud E. Feininger. The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles, Gift of the Estate of Gertrud E. Feininger.

Via artdaily.org

LOS ANGELES, CA.- The J. Paul Getty Museum announced the acquisition of 72 photographs by 20th century photographer Andreas Feininger (American, born Paris, 1906–1999). Son of the Expressionist painter, printmaker, caricaturist, and Bauhaus instructor Lyonel Feininger (American, 1871–1956), Andreas Feininger is best known for his work for LIFE magazine, which spanned 20 years, and his considerable work in nature photography.

The gift from the Andreas Feininger Estate represents a range of subjects from Feininger’s long photographic career, which spanned seven decades, and includes work made in Germany and Stockholm in the late 1920s and early 1930s, most notably several nude studies and experiments with printing techniques. The donation also includes examples from Feininger’s 1942 documentation of weapons factories for the U.S. Office of War Information, his views of New York in the 1940s and 1950s, and his nature photographs, including studies of shells and trees from the 1960s and 1970s. Prior to this acquisition, the Getty held thirteen photographs by Andreas Feininger, as well as 56 photographs by his younger brother Theodore, nicknamed T. Lux (American, born Germany, 1910–2011).

“We are very pleased to accept this gift from the Andreas Feininger Estate,” said Judith Keller, senior curator in the Getty Museum’s Department of Photographs. “His contributions to the art of photography are significant, and this gift enhances our collection of photographs from the Bauhaus, in particular those by his brother T. Lux, as well as our strong holdings of depictions of New York.”

Born in Paris in 1906 and raised in Berlin, Feininger did not live in the United States until the age of 33. He studied architecture in Weimar, where his family moved when his father was appointed to teach at the Bauhaus, Germany’s innovative school for design, art, and architecture. Feininger took up photography at this time, setting up a darkroom with T. Lux in the family residence when the Bauhaus moved from Weimar to Dessau in 1926. After a brief career in architecture, Feininger turned increasingly to photography, setting up a studio for architectural photography in Stockholm in 1934. He moved to New York City in 1939, and took at position with LIFE magazine, where he completed 430 assignments over the span of 20 years. After leaving LIFE in 1962, he dedicated himself to the documentation of nature, focusing on the interrelatedness of natural forms as well as the potential for photographs of nature to inspire environmental action. Throughout his career, Feininger also wrote numerous technical manuals and essays about photography

In 1966, the American Society of Media Photographers (ASMP) awarded Feininger its highest distinction, the Robert Leavitt Award, and in 1991 the International Center of Photography awarded Feininger the Infinity Lifetime Achievement Award.

Feininger’s photographs reside in several museum collections, including those of the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the George Eastman House in Rochester, New York, the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., and the Victoria and Albert Museum in London.

Photographs by Lyonel and T. Lux Feininger, as well as those by other masters and students at the Bauhaus are included in the exhibition Lyonel Feininger: Photographs, 1928–1939, on view through March 11, 2012 at the Getty Center.

BBC Four explores the cultural legacy of 20th century America

Via BBC

From Hopper to Hollywood, Mississippi mud pies to music, Steinbeck and more, controller of BBC Four Richard Klein has announced an ambitious America Season, a collection of thought-provoking programming for Autumn/Winter 2011 which will explore the rich cultural heritage of 20th-century America.

The season will feature a broad range of American culture across visual arts, music, movies, gastronomy, photography and popular culture.

Programming ranges from Andrew Graham-Dixon on the Art Of America to Melvyn Bragg on Steinbeck; Rankin on the photography of Life Magazine to Rick Stein on food and blues in Mississippi; and from a series looking at African-American music legends of the Eighties to a documentary on diners.

America In Pictures (1x60-minute)

Established in 1936, LIFE was an iconic weekly magazine that specialized in extraordinarily vivid photojournalism. Through America's most dynamic decades – the 40s, 50s and 60s – read by over half the country, the magazine's influence on American people was unparalleled.

No other magazine in the world held the photograph in such high esteem; LIFE allowed the pictures, not the words, to do the talking.

As a result, at LIFE, the photographer was king.

In this film, the UK's leading fashion photographer, Rankin, looks at the work of LIFE's legendary photographers, including distinguished photographers Bill Eppridge, John Shearer, John Loengard, Burk Uzzle and Harry Benson, who between them have shot the biggest moments in American history from the assassination of Robert F Kennedy, the Civil Rights struggle and Vietnam to behind the scenes at the Playboy mansion and the greatest names of Hollywood.

Rankin discovers these photographers pioneered new forms of photojournalism like embedding – living with their subjects for weeks – and the Photo Essay, enabling them reveal intimate and compelling aspects of ordinary American life too; like 'The Small Town' or the life of 'The Country Doctor'. Rankin concludes that LIFE not only tells the story of America in pictures, but also taught America how to be American.

Video Shows Oakland Police Shooting Photographer

 Via PDN Pulse:

Video Shows Oakland Police Shooting Photographer

Yesterday we posted a story suggesting that the police are under pressure to respect constitutional rights, now that so many people are photographing their activities (especially at protests.)

But along comes this video of an Oakland policeman shooting the photographer for no obvious reason. The photographer, identified by the San Jose Mercury News as Oakland resident Scott Campbell, was filming the line of riot police last Thursday from a distance of about 50 feet. The police had moved in after Occupy Oakland protesters had defaced a nearby building, but the scene photographed by Campbell appears mostly calm.

As Campbell walked parallel to the line of police, the camera’s audio recorder picks up his voice asking, “Is this OK?” After about 30 seconds, one of the police fires a non-lethal projectile at Campbell, hitting him. As he falls, he cries out in pain and then says, “He shot me!” before the video cuts off.

Read more here.

Via San Jose Mercury News:  Experts in police use of force shocked by Oakland video

Photographic Truths and Other Illusions

Image copyright: Henry Aragoncillo, 2008

 

"Photographic Truths and Other Illusions”
Society for Photographic Education
2011 SPE Southwest Regional Conference: November 11-13, 2011
School of Arts & Design, Santa Fe Community College
Santa Fe, New Mexico

Details and information here.

A WEEKEND IN HISTORY

Photo by David Marks

On Friday evening, Bill Eppridge, one of the most accomplished photojournalists of the Twentieth Century, presented an eyewitness account of some of the most significant moments in American history he has covered: wars, political campaigns, riots, civil rights murders, heroin addiction, the arrival of the Beatles in the United States, Vietnam, Woodstock, the summer and winter Olympics, and perhaps the most dramatic moment of his career - the assassination of Senator Robert Kennedy in Los Angeles.

After a brief blackout Saturday morning, Bill returned to the gallery to sign copies of his book "A Time It Was: Bobby Kennedy in the Sixties" and meet with gallery viewers of the current exhibition celebrating his 2011 Lucie Award for Achievement in Photojournalism.

We will be posting highlights of Bill's conversations here in the near future. The exhibition continues through November 20, 2011

YouTube: Robert Kennedy's Last Days in Pictures by Bill Eppridge

History, Lived and Documented

The Beatles at the Plaza Hotel, February 7, 1964 Bill Eppridge

©The Albuquerue Journal North
By Malin Wilson Powell
on Fri, Nov 4, 2011

Ignorance of history, like many omissions, happens effortlessly and silently in the contemporary barrage of day-to-day life. The photojournalism of Bill Eppridge is a sobering reminder of the necessity of a common history to a civilized society. The Monroe Gallery is presenting three major Eppridge photo essays from the tumultuous ’60s when he was on assignment for Life magazine (1961-1972), plus a smattering of individual iconic images up to 2007.

One of the most striking aspects of Eppridge’s work is his impeccable instinct for orientation. Eppridge’s photographs bear witness to his ability for in capturing powerful images by constantly honing and adjusting his physical and ethical compass. He not only finds the right place to frame the uncertainties of life unfolding in front of him, but he does this by continually refining the right frame of mind. This holds true whether he might be hanging out of a helicopter with his editor holding onto his ankles, or “sticking with” the Beatles on their first 1964 American tour, or whether he could keep his bearings in the most extreme and devastating situation – Robert Kennedy’s assassination on June 5, 1968.

Bobby Kennedy’s extraordinary vitality and traumatic death were clearly defining experiences for Eppridge, who never accepted another political assignment after the senator’s death. His first assignment with Bobby Kennedy was in 1966 when the young politician was testing the waters for a presidential bid in 1968. During this grueling eight-month campaign Eppridge took thousands of photographs in both black-and-white and color, always “staying close” to the candidate every single day and night.

Robert F. Kennedy in front of a poster of his brother, Columbus, Ohio, 1968
Bill Eppridge ©Time Inc.

The access, rawness and intimacy of Eppridge’s photos are hard to comprehend while immersed in today’s packaged news. As the photographer has noted, “The press is controlled in such a way today that you almost never see the real person you are photographing. You’re taking pictures of what their handlers want you to see.”

Everywhere Bobby Kennedy campaigned he insisted on a convertible to greet the eager crowds. Looking at his exposure and absence of security, the question arises: How could he do this after his brother John’s death in Dallas from a sniper while riding in a convertible? Yet, here are images of Bobby’s courage and enthusiasm for meeting his supporters. His hands and arms reach for them with an appetite as strong as theirs reaching for him. In a time when politicians demonstrate so much disdain for the average voter, these photographs are riveting proof of mutual openness, respect, even admiration.

The Kennedy campaign travels through the Watts section of Los Angeles on the last day before the primary, 1968


For anyone who lived through the ’60s and the repeated blows of the assassinations of John Kennedy, Martin Luther King and Bobby Kennedy, their bankrupt slaughter still reverberates. Bobby was shot on the last night of his campaign, the evening he won the all-important California primary and when exhausted he left the press of the crowd by way of the Ambassador Hotel kitchen, where Sirhan Sirhan shot him and five others. Only 12 feet away, and almost certainly unhinged by the mayhem, Eppridge’s eye was steady and he remembers thinking: “You are not just a photojournalist; you’re a historian.” His photograph of the wounded senator is often described as a modern Pieta. It cannot be seen too often.

This is also true of Eppridge’s photo essay “Mississippi Burning: The James Chaney Funeral.” James Chaney was the one black civil-rights worker along with two young white civil rights workers who were kidnapped and murdered during “Freedom Summer” by the Ku Klux Klan on June 21, 1964. They were investigating the burning of Mt. Zion Methodist Church, a civil-rights training site. After an intense 44-day search, the bodies of Chaney, Andrew Goodman, and Michael Schwermer were found under 25 feet of dirt at a nearby earthen dam.

The dignity and sorrow that seep from Eppridge’s photos of the Chaney family bespeak wounds that can’t be healed. Suffused with an unflinching, upright gravitas, gallery viewers are noticeably stilled as they process through this deeply affecting black-and-white series: they whisper and stand taller. Not only is there the great graveside photo of Ben Chaney, the younger brother, shedding a tear in the embrace of his mother, there is an especially eerie photo of a troubled Ben looking straight at the camera, all alone with his grief in the middle of the image, bracketed by his parents and three sisters steeped in their own thoughts. Because of death threats, the Chaneys left Meridian, Miss., for New York City, and by 1969 Ben Chaney had joined the Black Panther Party. After 13 years in jail, he was paroled and has since established a foundation in his brother’s honor and worked as a legal clerk for former U.S. Attorney General Ramsey Clark, who secured his parole. As the gallery text notes, only one of the 10 men responsible for the murders was prosecuted and incarcerated by the state of Mississippi, and that was in 2005.

Mrs. Chaney and young Ben, James Chaney funeral, Meridian, Mississippi, 1964
©Bill Eppridge

Eppridge has written eloquently about his craft and his art, including the unimaginable freedom his generation of photographers had to pursue truth during the 1960s golden era of photojournalism, inserting such anecdotes of a robust participant/observer as the perfect, unchoreographed ballet of a three-man CBS crew filming the Bobby Kennedy motorcade while in motion.

Looking back, the ’60s were terrible and wonderful, and certainly fulfilled the Chinese adage “May you all live in interesting times.” History is always in the making, but there aren’t always visual historians of Eppridge’s highly developed sensibilities to frame resonant and crucial junctures for posterity.

On Oct. 24, Bill Eppridge, born Guillermo Alfredo Eduardo Eppridge in Buenos Aires, Argentina, to American parents, was awarded the 2011 Lucie Award for Achievement in Photojournalism at Lincoln Center in New York. He is currently visiting Santa Fe and will be at the Monroe Gallery for a discussion of his work from 5 to 7 p.m. tonight.

If you go WHAT: Bill Eppridge
WHERE: Monroe Gallery of Photography, 112 Don Gaspar
WHEN: Through Nov. 20.
HOURS: 10 a.m.-6 p.m. Monday-Saturday and 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Sunday.
Gallery discussion with Bill Eppridge 5-7 p.m. tonight. Limited seating on a first-come, first-served basis.
CONTACT: 505-992-0800 or info@monroegallery.com

PARIS PHOTO CELEBRATES 15TH ANNIVERSARY NOVEMBER 10 - 13

Paris Photo will celebrate its 15th anniversary at the Grand Palais — a major step ahead for the renowned international event.

117 galleries from some 23 countries will present the best of 19th century, modern and contemporary photography in the heart of the French capital. To complete this panorama of worldwide photography, a selection of 18 publishers will have a dedicated space in the fair.

Paris Photo will celebrate African photography from Bamako to Cape Town, unveiling the creative wealth of historic and contemporary African artists.

These exciting developments put forward the new energy that Paris Photo is displaying by reinventing itself. Four programmes will articulate Paris Photo's new identity: Institutions' recent photography acquisitions, the platfrom, Private Collection from Artur Walther, focus on the Photography Book and launching of the Paris Photo - Photo Book Prize.


>>> Buy your ticket online in advance and avoid waiting queue

Paris Photo website here.

AN EVENING WITH BILL EPPRIDGE

Monroe Gallery of Photography, 112 Don Gaspar, is honored to welcome Bill Eppridge, recipient of the 2011 Lucie Award for Achievement in Photojournalism, to Santa Fe for a gallery discussion of his work. The discussion takes place on Friday, November 4, from 5 to 7 PM. Seating is limited and will be on a first-come basis.

Bill Eppridge is one of the most accomplished photojournalists of the Twentieth Century and has captured some of the most significant moments in American history: he has covered wars, political campaigns, heroin addiction, the arrival of the Beatles in the United States, Vietnam, Woodstock, the summer and winter Olympics, and perhaps the most dramatic moment of his career - the assassination of Senator Robert Kennedy in Los Angeles. Over the last 50 years, his work has appeared in numerous publications, including National Geographic, Life, and Sports Illustrated; and has been exhibited in museums throughout the world.

Currently on exhibition: many of Eppridge's most important photo essays, including The Beatles arrival in America, Mississippi Burning: The James Cheney Funeral, and The Robert F. Kennedy 1968 presidential campaign and assassination; continues through November 20, 2011.

Gallery hours are 10 to 5 every day, Monday through Sunday. Admission is free. For further information, please call: 505.992.0800; E-mail: info@monroegallery.com