Fine art photography is a strange and volatile market that can change very quickly. While most photographs sell for reasonable prices, some inflate to prices most photographers can only dream of.
For example, in February 2018, a group of 10 investors paid $1 million for a cryptographic photograph called The Forever Rose, taken by Kevin Abosch. The Forever Rose is not a physical photograph, but the most expensive virtual image in the world. Each investor received a "token" that they could hold or sell.
However, even $1 million is small change compared to the amounts paid for the most expensive photographs in history.
10. "The Lake in the Moonlight" by Edward Steichen
The photo is valued at $2.9 million.
The list of the most expensive photographs in history begins with a picture taken back in 1904 and sold in 2006.
Steichen was one of the first photographers (if not the first) to use Autochrome. To colorize his photographs, he applied potato starch granules filled with different colors of ink to the film. Two copies of this photograph exist: one was sold at Sotheby's, and the other is in the permanent collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
9. "The Chicago Stock Exchange III" by Andreas Gursky
The photograph sold for $3.3 million.
Gursky's first, but not last, work in the collection of the world's most expensive photographs. The image depicts the trading floor of the Chicago Stock Exchange. To convey a sense of movement, the artist double-exposed several parts of the image.
As with his other photographs on this list, Gursky also altered the colors to make them more vibrant.
8. "99 Cents. Diptych" by Andreas Gursky
The photograph was sold at auction for $3.3 million.
This is a chromogenic color print, styled as a diptych and consisting of two photographs. It is very large—2.07 x 3.37 meters. The action takes place in a Los Angeles store where goods are sold for 99 cents.
Gursky uses semi-symmetrical lines and colorful packaging on the shelves to create a high-contrast image that is sure to attract attention.
7. "Untitled (Cowboy)" by Richard Prince
Sold at Christie's for $3.4 million.
Richard Prince began his foray into artistry at Time-Life, Inc., where his job involved clipping magazine articles for staff writers. As a budding photographer, Prince studied what remained of magazines after the articles were clipped—the advertising pages.
«"Cowboy" represents the pinnacle of Prince's fascination with American archetypes, and the photograph is actually a Time magazine ad featuring a Marlboro Man. The work is "in its broadest sense, a meditation on the culture's persistent attraction to spectacle over lived experience.".
Ironically, the photographer who took the first publicity photo didn't appreciate high art and sued Prince for using a copyrighted image. But the court ruled in Prince's favor.
6. "Conversations of Dead Soldiers" by Jeff Wall
Price: $3.6 million.
This photograph, taken by Canadian photographer Jeff Wall in 1992, depicts a fictional resurrection scene of a Red Army patrol ambushed near Moqor, Afghanistan, in the winter of 1986. The reanimated soldiers converse with each other, oblivious to their grievous wounds and severed limbs.
Wall had never been to Afghanistan, and the actors portraying the soldiers were filmed in a studio.
«"I didn't make dead soldiers talk to comment on the Afghan war. I did it because I wanted to photograph dead people talking. It was a theme or an image, or both, that arose spontaneously, I don't know why. So the painting had a personal or internal starting point," the photographer said in an interview with Photoworks.
5. For Her Majesty, Gilbert Proche and George Passmore
The photo costs $3.7 million.
Gilbert and George are partners in life and work in performance photography, but the couple are adamant that they are "two people, one artist," as George told Reuters.
And as a single artist, they created an entire collage of black-and-white photographs dedicated to the memory of the duo's alcoholic binge in the early 1970s. Thus, Gilbert and George are simultaneously subjects and objects, art and creators of their paintings, as they prefer to call them.
4. "Untitled No. 96" by Cindy Sherman
The photograph was purchased for $3.9 million.
Known for her provocative self-portraits, Sherman's works are extremely popular among collectors. According to Bloomberg, she once fetched $13.7 million at a single auction.
Sherman was responsible for all aspects of her photographs, including makeup, hair, lighting, staging, and the actual photography.
When creating "Untitled #96," the photographer was inspired by the spreads of men's erotic magazines. In the photograph, she appears the complete opposite of the models who typically pose for such publications. Many people claim that Sherman's facial expression and body language convey vulnerability and fear.
3. "Spiritual America" by Richard Prince
The photo was valued at $3.9 million at Christie's auction.
In one of the most controversial photographs in history, 10-year-old Brooke Shields posed for the photographer. Her naked, childish body contrasts sharply with her seductive, mature expression, accented by heavy makeup.
The title "Spiritual America" is taken from another work: a photograph of a gelded workhorse taken by Alfred Stieglitz in 1923. The image and title contrast each other, comparing hard, honest work with the easy way people today achieve fame and glory.
2. «Rhine II», Andreas Gursky
Price: $4.3 million.
The most expensive work by German photographer Andreas Gursky is "Rhine II," sold at Christie's in November 2011. It depicts the Rhine River flowing between green fields of grass under an overcast sky. This photograph is the first in a series of six and depicts a section of the Rhine River near Düsseldorf.
Until the 1990s, Gursky didn't digitally alter his images, but "Rhein II" was an exception. Wanting to create a desolate landscape, Gursky removed distracting elements, including a factory building, pedestrians, and cyclists.
1. «Phantom», Peter Lik
The photo is worth $6.5 million.
On December 9, 2014, a black-and-white image of Antelope Canyon in Arizona, USA, taken by renowned Australian landscape artist Peter Lik, allegedly broke all existing price records. We say "allegedly" because the sale was private, and only Peter himself and the lawyers involved in the transaction are known about it. Therefore, "Phantom"'s place as the most expensive photograph in the world is still hotly debated.
«The goal of all my photographs is to capture the power of nature and convey it in a way that inspires someone to feel moved and connected to the image,» Peter said of his work.
A private collector acquired not only the monochrome "Phantom" but also two other works by Lik: "Illusion" for $2.4 million and "Eternal Moods" for $1.1 million. The total transaction value was $10 million.