[foto / arte] As 10 fotos mais caras da história

Andreas Gursky, 99 Cent II Diptychon (2001), $3,346,456, February, 2007, Sotheby’s London auction.

Edward Steichen, The Pond-Moonlight (1904), $2,928,000, February 2006, Sotheby’s New York auction.

The picture shows moonlight between trees and reflecting on a pond, and appears to be in color. However, color photography did not begin until 1907, three years after the photograph was taken.

Steichen used layers of light-sensitive gum to create an impression of color. Only three prints exist, with the other two in museum collections.

Richard Prince, Untitled (Cowboy) (1989), $1,248,000, November 2005, Christie’s New York auction.

The photograph, which was taken in 1989, wasn’t original but a shot of part of a Marlboro ad. Prince had started shooting images of magazine ads while collating press clips for Time Life in the 1970s.

Joseph-Philibert Girault de Prangey, 113.Athènes, T[emple] de J[upiter] olympien pris de l’est (1842), $922,488, 2003, auction.

Shot in 1842, the daguerreotype is believed to be the oldest image of the temple still existing.

Gustave Le Gray, The Great Wave, Sete (1857), $838,000, 1999.

Le Gray’s image marked the first time that a photographer had managed to expose landscape and sky correctly in the same image. He did this by creating one negative for the sky and one for the sea, and printing them together on the same sheet of paper. In effect, he created a collage.

Robert Mapplethorpe, Andy Warhol (1987), $643,200, 2006.

Ansel Adams, Moonrise, Hernandez, New Mexico (1948), $609,600, Sotheby’s New York auction, 2006.

Andreas Gursky, Untitled 5 (1997), $559,724, 6 February 2002.

Gustave Le Gray, Tree (1855), $513,150, 1999.

Diane Arbus, Identical Twins, Roselle, New Jersey, 1967 (1967), $478,400, 27 April 2004.

Será que alguém está pensando que estes valores são um desperdício de dinheiro.

Concordo. Acho que essa quantidade poderia ter fins mais úteis.

Mas ao ver estas fotos é importante pensar que o seu valor vai além da beleza da imagem. Geralmente está relacionado ao estado do mercado, à fama do artista, ao número de impressões, quando foi impressa, as restrições impostas pelo negativo ou outros fatores que as tornem únicas.

Criar um foto de um (ou mais) milhões de dolares exige muito mais que conseguir o imagem correta.


*valores em dolar