Photographer is an artist

Ansel Adams was an greatest artist of the last century.Will an original "classic" photograph fetch a multi-dollars price tag liked an oil painting by a well-known artist? Do you know any photograph worth that price ?

Interesting to consider.

The inherent difference, of course, is that with a photograph there is a negative - which means any "original classic" can always be reproduced. If I really wanted a silver-gelatin print of a great shot by AA (or Weston, Sudak et al) I think I'd be just as pleased getting a new print from the original negative, as opposed to paying potentially crazy big bucks for one of the first few prints made from it. Archival stability and all that. I believe Weston's sons still print his images and I doubt it's cheap!

I bet more non-photographers would pay for an older print, thinking it more "an original". An oil painting can be copied, but it's never going to have the same nuances as the original oil painting, or be signed by the actual artist.

What do you consider a classic, top-dollar photograph, skoobdo?

Interesting thread you've got going. I personally don't have that kind of pocket change, but photographs have already broken into the multi-million territory. Last year images by Andreas Gursky went for 2.something million--twice!--and an Edward Steichen last November for 2.928 million. The Gursky's were of the same image that was editioned in a run of six, so all the prints of one image might go for a total of 10+ mil. They're striking works, but think of all the talented emerging photographers out there who can't sell their prints for 3-digit prices let alone s-digit ones!

As far as the Weston images, I think Cole stopped printing them a while before his death. And now that he's died, the rarity machine is kicking in, with prices for father-son prints going for pretty big bucks at last January's Photo LA.

Maybe that's why we collect their books?

Gentlemen & Ladies in the "Photography" group:

I keep trying to ADD digitally photographed covers
of books in my collection and keep getting "that file too large" message in reply. Does anyone have any hints or suggestions? I am more of a silver halide guy myself and not real familiar with either the degital format or computers, so ploease keep any replies as simple as you can. Thanx !

Steve P. on L.T. as "tommyarmour"

Just save it as a lesser quality JPEG in photoshop.

Or resize it/scale it down.

I have a hard time saving any high resolution picture to my profile page also. I used Flickr and choose the small option and that worked. The medium option works for posting pictures in the middle of threads.

I would use a flat bed scanner for best results.