Bet you’d like a photo of yourself at work to be priced just shy of a cool million…
Forbes reports: At a Sept. 9 Christie’s auction in New York a rare photograph by celebrated contemporary artist Cindy Sherman sold for over $900,000–three times Christie’s asking price. In “Untitled Film Still #13,” Sherman poses as a librarian, gazing beyond the shelves of books that surround her.
On the other hand, you are a ~real librarian~, a priceless commodity in my book.
please explain *rare* photo– I just copied this one for free!
If you define rare as printed by the artist herself, then okay, I understand. But otherwise, it’s a photo, and there’s a negative, so someone can print off as many images as they want.
again, unless she printed one copy and destroyed the negative. if so, I bet she’s kicking herself right now.
It’s probably like Andy Warhol’s work
He didn’t print it himself, it wasn’t even done in ‘the factory’ but as it’s been authenticated by the people who do such things it’s important and valuable.
Maybe it’s the copyright to the photo that makes it valuable?
I think it’s more along the lines of it’s limitability. That it’s one that yes the photographer did themselves and there aren’t going to be anymore printed.
Rare Photo
I must be old….who in the heck is Cindy Sherman??????? What did I miss?
@effinglibrarian &
@effinglibrarian & opaqueeternity: yes, IIRC, Cindy Sherman pulls her own prints – or at least, did at the time of the Film Stills series. This is probably a unique print or one of a very limited number.
@Auntie Nanuuq: Sherman is one of the best- and longest-known pop artists living today – she’s a MacArthur Fellow, among other awards. This photo is one of a pretty famous series from the late ’70s, where she used black-and-white self-portraits reminiscent of stills from film noir to interrogate gender stereotypes in popular culture. Neat stuff.
I would LOVE to have a nice print. I’ve seen a lot of the Film Stills, but I didn’t know about this one.
Meme inspiration
I can feel a meme coming on. Will we see a slew of similarly posed librarians appearing on Flickr?
Hmm
A *real* librarian would actually be looking at the book to check to make sure it was the correct one, not posing with a dreamy eyed stare at something off camera. I wouldn’t pay 9 cents for it.