Pricing Art- Andreas Gursky's "Rhein II" Sells For $4.3 million

German photographer Andreas Gursky, born in 1955, garners millions for his work.  He received $2.4 million for  "99 Cent",   a digitally maniplated photograph of a 99 cent discount store.  And his Rhein 11 (see above), created in 1999, was recently auctioned off at Christie's for a whopping  $4,338,500. Also digitally manipulated, it now holds the record for the highest selling photograph in history.  Granted it's huge, at 73 x 143in , and mounted on Plexiglas (as are most of his works) but many seem to think it falls into the "I could have done that" category.

So what makes someone's artwork worth millions while others struggle to sell for a paltry sum? That's a question most artists struggle with on a daily basis.  For those of us who sell on sites like Etsy, Artfire and the myriad of other websites out there, trying to stay competitive influences how much we sell our product for.  When you have photographers selling their 8 x10 prints for under $20.00,  prices have to be adjusted if one wants to sell.  But most people have no clue how to price their work,  and seem to be happy simply breaking even.  They fail to realize that when it comes to 'art' not only do you have to factor in your costs (and there are plenty) you have to take into the account the actual value of the work.  That, of course, is subjective, but if don't value our own work, you can't expect anyone else to.

With everything in life, you rise to the level of your feelings of self worth.  Gursky obviously felt his work had value, and that's why it now sells for millions.

The Hidden Beauty Of Pollination- by filmmaker Louie Schwartzberg

The photography in this is incredible. From filmmaker Louie Schwartzberg's film "Wings of Life".

When Photoshopping Goes Too far: UK Bans Lancome Julia Roberts Ad

The Julia Robert's photo for  L'Oreal's Lancome ad is beautiful in its own right. Flawless radiant skin, a great airbrushing and photoshop job, but it's not real.  Julia's aging face has flaws, as do all of ours over a certain age, and if an ad is going to tout an anti-ageing product, then you better dang well be sure that there is some truth in advertising.   As a result, Britain has banned both the Lancome ad and a Christy Turlington ad for Maybelline's "The Erasor", a product that claims to cover up flaws. 

Liberal Democrat MP Jo Swinson believes the ads are misleading, and rightfully so. If you are creating art, well then photoshop and airbrush away; but when you are advertising a product that can never achieve the same results as your edited photo, then that's just plain deception.  There is a place for minor digital manipulation, as in stray hairs, shadows or blemishes that the subject might not normally have, but  crows feet, or dark circles under the eyes? Nope. If the product claims to rid you of them (and it's highly doubtful it can), then there is no place for major editing.

According to the Guardian UK, to demonstrate what 'The Erasor' foundation can do the Maybelline ad featured certain parts of Christy's face covered with the product and the rest not covered. L'Oreal even admitted that the photo had been

 "....digitally retouched to lighten the skin, clean up makeup, reduce dark shadows and shading around the eyes, smooth the lips and darken the eyebrows". However, it claimed there were still signs of ageing, such as crow's feet, and that the image "accurately illustrated" the achievable results.

If I am going to pay good money for a product, I want to make sure that it does what it claims, since my skin isn't going to be 'lightened' and touched up in other ways.  I realize products work differently on different people, but if they have to touch up the image of a beautiful model, than how am I going to fare?

The company, which provided the ASA with pictures of both women "on the red carpet" to show that they were naturally beautiful, admitted that digital post-production techniques had been used on Roberts but maintained that the changes were not "directly relevant" and that the ad was an "aspirational picture".

Aspirational?  For whom? 

Good for Swinson. I think we're all tired of aspiring to stick thin, wrinkle-free models when, in truth, those wrinkles and that fat have been photoshopped out and off, by some very talented artists. 




Source:  GuardianUK

Super Moon March 19, 2011

Yesterday, the full moon was the brightest its been in almost 18 years. That's because it was the closest it's been to the earth in that amount of time. Dubbed the "Super Moon", and not expected to happen for another 18 or so years, it was something to behold.

We were blessed here in southeast Florida to have a cloudless sky, so I was able to capture it in all its glory. I wasn't set up in time to photograph it as it poked above the horizon in a blaze of bright orange color, but I did get some decent pics of what looked like an ever changing bowling ball in the sky. The golden yellowish orange colors came first and it evolved into a brilliant, bright white orb.

Unfortunately, I don't have a super telephoto lens, so I had to make do with my Canon EF-S 55-250 mm lens, and my tripod, although there was not much distinction, if any, between the tripod shots and the handheld ones.

I set it to manual and daylight for the whole shoot, but towards the end when it was plain white, I used a flash. I kept the ISO at 100 to 200. F8 to F11. 1/125 to 1/250. I bracketed some at the beginning, and then stopped.

These are cropped, big time, with some minimal tweaking in Photoshop.

My Stones By A Stream Made It To Front Page Of Etsy

This beautiful treasury made it to the coveted Front Page of Etsy early this morning. It was a tribute to the people of Japan during this terrible time.

I was honored to have my "Stones By A Stream" included.

Vivian Maier- Street Photographer From The 1950s to 1970s

Vivian Maier lived in relative obscurity as a 'street' photographer for her whole life, but some recently discovered photos and undeveloped film inspired Chicagoan John Maloof to create a blog dedicated to her work.  He is now trying to get financing to shoot a documentary film about Maier's life, which sounds fascinating.

Born in New York to a French mother, she worked as nanny/caretaker, but apparently loved photography, taking a ton of rolls of film, many of which were undeveloped when Maloof purchased a box of her things at an auction house for about $400.00. Little did he know what he would unearth. He claims there are anywhere from 30 to 40,000 negatives.

Many of her B&W photos are posted on Maloof's blog, and a Flickr discussion explains the beginnings. Well worth checking out. And if you feel you want to donate to the documentary film, you can click here.

Time Lapse Photography Of A Blizzard

This is a very cool time-lapse video of a blizzard, taken over a 20 hour period.

December 2010 Blizzard Timelapse from Michael Black on Vimeo.