MOTIVASI & INSPIRASI KEPADA KAKI KAMERA FOTOGRAFI

Gambar pemandangan dilelong RM13.5 juta

INILAH foto Sungai Rhine yang dirakam oleh Gursky dan dicetak di atas kaca akrilik.

NEW YORK, Amerika Syarikat (AS) - Sekeping gambar pemandangan Sungai Rhine di Jerman yang dirakam pada tahun 1999 oleh artis Jerman, Andreas Gursky dijual pada harga AS$4.3 juta (RM13.5 juta) di sini, sekali gus mencatat rekod lelongan gambar termahal di dunia.

Bertajuk Rhein II, gambar warna itu dijual pada Selasa lalu dalam satu lelongan oleh firma Christie.

Agensi lelongan berkenaan bagaimanapun enggan mendedahkan identiti pembeli tersebut.

Rekod gambar termahal yang pernah dijual dalam lelongan sebelum ini ialah sekeping gambar yang dirakam oleh Cindy Sherman bertajuk Untitled.

Foto berkenaan dijual pada harga AS$3.8 juta (RM11.9 juta) oleh firma lelongan Christie pada Mei lalu.

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Why is Andreas Gursky's Rhine II the most expensive photograph?

11 Nov 2011 : Had I a disposable £2.7 million to spend on chromogenic dye and paper, and the necessary balls to do so (I would like to think I do, but until you’re in a crowded room waving an auction paddle…) then yesterday Andreas Gursky’s Rhine II would have had my money.

The three metre-wide print took the top spot on the most expensive photograph list when it sold for $4.3m at Christie’s New York. And that not six months after the last photography record was set; Cindy Sherman’s Untitled #97 was sold, also by Christie’s New York, in May for £2.4m. There’s good reason to believe that photography prices will continue to rise, with more people willing to invest large sums in it. In September, the National Gallery announced their first ever major blockbuster exhibition of photography next year, cementing the art form as a medium of major historic and cultural significance that now even the naysayers can’t deny.

That said, it could be a long time before a photograph comes along that will top Gursky’s print. This image is a vibrant, beautiful and memorable – I should say unforgettable - contemporary twist on Germany’s famed genre and favourite theme: the romantic landscape, and man’s relationship with nature.

But it is more than that. For all its apparent simplicity, the photograph is a statement of dedication to its craft. The late 1980s, when Gursky shot to attention, was a time when photography was first entering gallery spaces, and photographs were taking their place alongside paintings. Photography “as art”, at the time, was still brave and new, and the simplicity of this image shows a great deal of confidence in its effectiveness and potential for creating atmospheric, hyper-real scenarios that in turn teach us to see - and read - the world around us anew. The scale, attention to colour and form of his photography can be read as a deliberate challenge to painting's status as a higher art form. On top of that, Gursky’s images are extraordinary technical accomplishments, which take months to set up in advance, and require a lot of digital doctoring to get just right.