I can’t figure why anybody would pay so much for thisphoto. The photo does not even seem interesting. One can browse Flickr and find endless self-portraits of young ladies that are more interesting than this one.
Is this woman so famous or her work so revered that a simple shot of her can fetch this fortune? It seems so….
I googled the internet to learn about her and see examples of her work but failed to find anything that I thought would set her apart or clue me in. I don’t know that a photo of Ansel would sell for more than a few hundred bucks.
I admit that there is much about art that I don’t understand and this is the reason for my post. I’m hoping someone can educate me as to why this photo would command such a high price.
Return on investment and expectation for resale drives this market. At times, it seems the artwork has zip intrinsic quality worth $3-4 million to persons in general....like you and me. The hope is that it has some rare quality (name of the author, maybe...?) that will insure it holds or appreciates in value. Gadz....looking at this ...I am with you....good luck to that buyer!
I saw this on another site last week and I admit, I don't get it. But then it does give me hope for the cra... errr the art I produce.
Oh, and Sandy. No fair trying to undercut everyone here by offering a deal like that.
I ran across this a few days back and, deeply puzzled by the interest in what seemed a rather banal image to me, posed the question to a friend educated in art history. Sherman made her name as one of the originators of narcissistic art - photography in her case- before the likes of Myspace, Facebook, Twitter et al made such concepts as common as air. At the time it was considered groundbreaking work. Today, the imagery is all but invisible, lost in a sea of similar noise and the artistic merit, such as it is, no longer unique.
Sherman's history and famous associations (Warhol, Byrne, etc.) put her on the correct (and often very arbitrary) artistic map. The rest, as noted in the article, is driven by big money with even bigger egos. Note that the purchaser is also someone who advises clients on what art to buy. An additional interest here is the buyer likely setting the groundwork to build up the value of his future markets.
Craig Myers,
Yes I read that, but I would think that there would need to be something more substantial or important to trigger this rich guy itch, like an irreplaceable national treasure of Abe Lincoln or the first foot prints on the moon.
Some of this girls work is, IMHO, kind of creepy.
Posted by Ken Atkinson on May 20, 2011 at 12:06 PM
A couple of years ago, the Ovation Channel ran several hour long shows highlighting one photographer during each show. One episode was on Cindy Sherman. Apparently, all her photographs are self portraits with her in strange costumes, makeup and staged situations. And apparently, she rarely, if ever, leaves her apartment/studio. It seems she has created her own little niche in the art/photography world that some think will be worth a lot of $$ in the future.
It's funny, an object's value is whatever someone will pay for it, ultimately. So maybe someone with a dump truck of money got an emotional high and shot for the moon with this picture, I can almost understand that. What surprises me in the article is that Christie's estimated that it would sell for $1.5-$2 million from the getgo. What made them even think that? Or is it the Alan Greespan effect, since Christie's estimated that much, did that give it an instant perceived value already?
The other day I winced telling someone at work that I would charge them $400 for a large canvas wrap of one of my images. Turns out they were thrilled at such a fair price, they were expecting more.
I think that settles it right there: we as photographers know how to produce stuff that tourist shooters can't, and for some reason we don't think it has value because of how close we are to the actual process (OK, 4 million is a bit stretching it). But Peter Lik just got a million for one of his shots, and wedding photographer Mike Colón made a daring move last year: he announced that his base starting price for weddings would be $20,000, with options up to $50,000. He is now booked out for two years with the number of weddings he wants to shoot in a year, so he can do other things (speaking, humanitarian trips, etc). We can get these types of revenue, we just need to have the nerve to ask.
When Starbucks hit the scene, they didn't become successful by offering a bargain price on their coffee. They created an ambiance around the whole experience and decided to charge 600% more than Circle K at that time. Our problem is, we charge people what we can afford or would pay, no wonder we're broke.
I don't care who took that phot! I don't care who it is in the photo! I don't care about the history of it or it's provenance! It has no appeal to me, and I wouldn't pay ten bucks for it, unless I could sell it at auction for a few million to some other dumby! I've experienced this disregard for respect of the value of a hard earned buck. Excessively rich people always over pay in order to satisfy thier " gotta have it no matter the cost" desires. I also collect mineral specimens as a hobby. Believe it or not, but rocks can be very expensive. The upper echelon colectors out there have thier own little bidding wars on the best specimens(hundreds of thousands, and into the millions). The by product of this is the pricing of moderate specimens out of reach for most "normal" collectors. Over the last couple of years, due to the slow down in the economy, I have had to consign some of my best specimens to a dealer friend. He is a pretty reasonable guy, and I was a pretty careful collector, trying not to over pay for what I bought. He had a 2500.00 price on one of my pieces. A high end high profile dealer near by had a very similar piece priced at 35,000.00!!!!!!!!!! It's all about what you can get, or what people will pay. He prompty went and changed the price of my piece to 6500.00
Discussion
15 repliesIs this woman so famous or her work so revered that a simple shot of her can fetch this fortune? It seems so….
I googled the internet to learn about her and see examples of her work but failed to find anything that I thought would set her apart or clue me in. I don’t know that a photo of Ansel would sell for more than a few hundred bucks.
I admit that there is much about art that I don’t understand and this is the reason for my post. I’m hoping someone can educate me as to why this photo would command such a high price.
Or is it that the emperor wears no clothes?
Sandy
It’s like money in the bank. I’ll start taking my self-portraits tomorrow.
Oh, and Sandy. No fair trying to undercut everyone here by offering a deal like that.
Bruce
Sherman's history and famous associations (Warhol, Byrne, etc.) put her on the correct (and often very arbitrary) artistic map. The rest, as noted in the article, is driven by big money with even bigger egos. Note that the purchaser is also someone who advises clients on what art to buy. An additional interest here is the buyer likely setting the groundwork to build up the value of his future markets.
Yes I read that, but I would think that there would need to be something more substantial or important to trigger this rich guy itch, like an irreplaceable national treasure of Abe Lincoln or the first foot prints on the moon.
Some of this girls work is, IMHO, kind of creepy.
The other day I winced telling someone at work that I would charge them $400 for a large canvas wrap of one of my images. Turns out they were thrilled at such a fair price, they were expecting more.
I think that settles it right there: we as photographers know how to produce stuff that tourist shooters can't, and for some reason we don't think it has value because of how close we are to the actual process (OK, 4 million is a bit stretching it). But Peter Lik just got a million for one of his shots, and wedding photographer Mike Colón made a daring move last year: he announced that his base starting price for weddings would be $20,000, with options up to $50,000. He is now booked out for two years with the number of weddings he wants to shoot in a year, so he can do other things (speaking, humanitarian trips, etc). We can get these types of revenue, we just need to have the nerve to ask.
When Starbucks hit the scene, they didn't become successful by offering a bargain price on their coffee. They created an ambiance around the whole experience and decided to charge 600% more than Circle K at that time. Our problem is, we charge people what we can afford or would pay, no wonder we're broke.
Chris