The Most Ever Paid For A Photograph

[Kirislin]

I was watching a program on the ABC last night and this photo was talked about. It's the most expensive photograph ever sold, or was at the time the doco was made. it's called The Pond - Moonlight and was taken almost 100 years ago.

$2.6 million (US I think)

http://cameraobscura.busdraghi.net/wp-cont...d-moonlight.jpg

[Nic oh lah]

It is beautiful. I dont know if it's $2.6mil beautiful, but lovel nonetheless.

[grace]

I like it but its a bit expensive.

[helen]

Sadly it is a bit out of my price range

[Clicking Mad]

it was a great BBC series, I only caught the last 3 or 4 but there were 6 episodes in all

I found it very good and very interesting

I've got the book on order ;)

How interesting was it with the guy that did those full-on street staged photo productions like a movie, and he didn't even touch the camera :D

[Ashanali]

But if it's made on a camera obscura it takes a whole lot of skill to do it AND have a beautiful image. Everything has to be perfect for it to work.

Camera obscuras can be fun. I've always wanted to set one up (just to sit in it, not to print an image). Google what they are.

(btw - I'm about to watch the doco, we recorded it. It's an awesome series. )

[alexandrite]

Wow that's pretty amazing! Beautiful image too, though, considering when it was made. I remember Edward Steichen's name from History of Photography classes at university.

According to Wikipedia (looked it up to refresh my memory from class! lol):

Steichen's The Pond—Moonlight

In February 2006, a print of Steichen's early pictorialist photograph, The Pond—Moonlight (1904), sold for what was then the highest price ever paid for a photograph at auction, U.S. $2.9 million. (See List of most expensive photographs).

Steichen took the photograph in Mamaroneck, New York near the home of his friend, art critic Charles Caffin. The photo features a wooded area and pond, with moonlight appearing between the trees and reflecting on the pond. While the print appears to be a color photograph, the first true color photographic process, the autochrome process, was not available until 1907. Steichen created the impression of color by manually applying layers of light-sensitive gums to the paper. In 1904, only a few photographers were using this experimental approach. Only three known versions of the Pond-Moonlight are still in existence and, as a result of the hand-layering of the gums, each is unique. In addition to the auctioned print, the other two versions are held in museum collections. The extraordinary sale price of the print is, in part, attributable to its one-of-a-kind character and to its rarity.[9]

[iltby]

It's just gorgeous. If I had the money to spend on that sort of thing I'd love to have it in my collection.