ITAP Photography 6

Genius of photography 6

1.How many photographs are taken in a year?

It is estimated that for the year of the program 80,000,000,000,000 would be taken, that’s working on the premise of an English billion, i.e. a million million.

2.What is Gregory Crewdsons modus operandi?

He goes large. He uses Hollywood production techniques “to capture a perfect moment”, to use his own words, which is a bit bogus really, as he uses multiple exposures of different moments, then digitally overlays them to fabricate his perfect moment.

He works to incredible detail and meticulous planning, has a full production cast, including a photographer, not liking to hold a camera himself. He will publish 6 images from each set, at $60,000 each, so that $360,000 or £237,000 for the set at todays rates.   

3.Which prints command the highest price & what are they called?

Prints that command the highest prices “are those that were taken by the photographer himself closest to the time it was taken”, as reported in the program. Sounds a bit annual, but then it is, it is market speak to help structure value. What the market is looking for is the original treatment of a “Vintage” published image, or the closest it can get to it, and have the provenance to establish value.

4.What is a Fake photograph? Give an example and explain how & why it is fake.

“Fake” as described in the series, is subjective term to validate the market. In this context a photograph cannot be a fake by actuality of the fact that it is from the original negative. Fake in this context applies to authorization, who is/was authorised to print the image, or is the number of issues faithful to amount stated at sale.

For an example, Peter McGill bought a print, Power House Mechanic by Hines, believing it to be 1 of 2, so very limited and high in value. He became aware that that more were coming to market, i.e Fakes. It transpired that a darkroom assistant, Walter Rosenblum, who worked for Hines, was printing off these additions from the original negative that were indistinguishable from the original, only to be discovered by a physicist, who found a chemical in the photographic paper that wasn’t prevalent at the time of purported publication.    

Walter Rosenblum, was a celebrated photographer in his own right, as well as renowned authority on Hines work, being used by the art industry to validate Hines work, oops. Effectively Rosenblum was a market insider who used his knowledge to defraud the market, the size of which is shrouded in secrecy, bound on all sides of a gaging clause in an out of court settlement, that all parties agreed to. It is suspected that this could have been the biggest fraud within the market involving multiples of millions.  

5.Who is Li Zhensheng and what is he famous for?

Li Zhensheng was in Chinas Red Army, as a photographic soldier, during the Cultural Revolution. He secretly photographed events at his own peril, having to hide them from Mows dictatorial murderous regime. He now lives and works in America where he has sold many of those images, but they remain unpublished in China.     

6.What is the photographers “holy of holies”?

The photographic agency, Magnum.

7.How does Ben Lewis see Jeff Walls photography?

Jeff Wall was the first photographer to get international recognition for his large-scale prints, in the 1980’s, which was the period that art photography was getting displayed in art galleries. Ben Lewis says of Wall’s works, “he’s not reinventing photography, but taking it back to 19 century painting, where everything is created or constructed for a meaning”.

8.Which famous photograph was taken by “Frank Mustard”?

This would be referring to the image that Camille Silvy heavily edited and titled River Scene France. The image was first exhibited 1858 and was acclaimed as a triumph of art. The extent of the editing, the merging of two images, was none to Ansell Adams, it also became clear that the image wasn’t even taken by Silvy, but Frank Mustard.