Art Market Matters: The Most Expensive Photograph in the World and Peter Lik

Art Market Matters: The Most Expensive Photograph in the World and Peter Lik

When you type in the words “world’s most expensive photograph” you don’t actually get the Koons result. I wasn’t entirely sure why this should be but can only surmise that google hasn’t caught up yet. What you do find when you type in the above …

Art Market Matters: The Most Expensive Photograph and Jeff Koons

Art Market Matters: The Most Expensive Photograph and Jeff Koons

I was doing some reading recently and came across a figure retrieved from a report on the Global Photography Market. [1] Because I don’t pay for exclusive access to sites like ArtTactic or Artnet’s price database, I had to do some digging. As it turned …

Art Market Matters: The Last da Vinci

Art Market Matters: The Last da Vinci

Unusually, I’m breaking my pure-photo-blog ethic just this once so we can all observe an anniversary that no one reading this will ever care about. I don’t care much either, but it’s an excuse to talk about a thing that happened a year-and-a-bit ago that …

Photo History: Diane Arbus’s Early Years

Photo History: Diane Arbus’s Early Years

Last week I made a rare London excursion to visit a close friend and see an exhibition together, which is our thing. We try to see photography exhibitions, but sometimes slum it with art. Anyway, this time we met up at the Hayward Gallery to …

Auction Talk: The Consignment

Auction Talk: The Consignment

I suppose this is a bit of a fluffy issue really because it’s based on my somewhat limited experience working in an auction house and doesn’t go into intense detail… It’s like an intro! Just think of it as an intro. It’s not specific to …

Auction Talk: The Catalogue Cover

Auction Talk: The Catalogue Cover

I usually don’t stoop so low as to employ overused cliches, but that saying, “Don’t judge a book by its cover,” is surprisingly apt here. The cover of anything, be it book, album (I ran out of examples) is what everyone sees first. It’s a …

Auction Talk: The Auction Catalogue

Auction Talk: The Auction Catalogue

I thought I’d take a look at the auction house catalogue, what’s inside and what the inside stuff means. Here, I focus slightly less on photographs as I present the case of The Temple Singer and cover a little bit of Contemporary Art. Don’t worry, …

Photo History: Auguste Salzmann, Frenchman in Jerusalem

Photo History: Auguste Salzmann, Frenchman in Jerusalem

This issue is a bit about a French photographer, Auguste Salzmann, but mostly about how my emotional reactions to a specific print he made, and the history behind the print. The History Bit Auguste Salzmann was an artist and archaeologist who waded into the scholarly …