“Kevin Abosch likes potatoes because they, like people are all different yet immediately identifiable as being essentially of the same species,” his studio tells PetaPixel. “He has photographed many potatoes. This one is one of his favorites.” http://petapixel.com/2016/01/21/this-photo-of-a-potato-sold-for-over-1000000/
Could this be another example of how correct P. T. Barnum was when he said "there's a sucker born every minute"? I don't know but the scale seems to tip in that direction in my opinion!
I have to admit I totally agree this looks like a joke. But I also happened to see some of Rothko's early work, one of which was essentially a textured white painting -- which to me looked like an empty frame. And there it was hanging in the Art Institute of Chicago. And he's a respected innovative artist. I find it hard to understand at time -- or explain -- some of the pieces I've seen that are considered art. All that said, a potato???? And at that price????? Richard @vignouse said it best!
Amazing what you can pull off once you have made a "name" for yourself. Can you imagine the pick-up line? 'Come up to my place and look at my potato!' ;-)
Many years ago when I first got into photography and before the Internet was what it is today, I subscribed to two photography magazines to learn photography. One of them allowed subscribers to submit their work for a chance to be published. After some time I worked up enough courage to submit one of mine which I was trying to pattern after Ansel Adams' work, a b/w. I waited patiently, with some excitement at the possibility of seeing my image on one of the pages. It didn't make it and I was dejected. What made it even worse was in that issue they did an article featuring some photographer I never heard of, who put clothes on dogs and photographed them. I guess there is a market for everything because people have different tastes, but even if I was the winner of the last Powerball lottery ($1.6 trillion) I wouldn't spend a million €s, £s or $s for this photograph. I guess the two idioms are true: "One man's meat is another man's poison" and "One man's trash is another man's treasure".
@northy - I like your potato better. At least you have some shading.
@mastermek - Sorry Christopher my ship hasn't come in yet! ;-)
@vignouse - You are so right Richard! As I mentioned above, a couple weeks ago one of the lotteries in the U.S. (The Powerball) jackpot reached a value of near $1.6 trillion U.S. dollars. I don't know how far reaching that story was. Local TV stations were sending crews out to businesses that sell lottery tickets to ask some of the people standing in long lines what they would do with the money if they won? Many of the people said they would help the homeless and poor. Within days of the winners being announced I saw someone post on Facebook; "A can of tuna cost $1.70 and a loaf of bread $2.00. You don't need to win the Powerball to feed the poor."
@vignouse I completely agree with what you said, that sort of lunacy is absolutely obscene. More fool the idiot who paid out for that travesty of art. BTW that massive Powerball prize and winner got quite a bit of press coverage in Australia. Maybe that was due to January's summer holiday shortage of serious news coverage, maybe not.
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Very much comparable with that expensive potato photo
btw. I don't see any difference between the two portraits on the linked page...
@mastermek - Sorry Christopher my ship hasn't come in yet! ;-)
@vignouse - You are so right Richard! As I mentioned above, a couple weeks ago one of the lotteries in the U.S. (The Powerball) jackpot reached a value of near $1.6 trillion U.S. dollars. I don't know how far reaching that story was. Local TV stations were sending crews out to businesses that sell lottery tickets to ask some of the people standing in long lines what they would do with the money if they won? Many of the people said they would help the homeless and poor. Within days of the winners being announced I saw someone post on Facebook; "A can of tuna cost $1.70 and a loaf of bread $2.00. You don't need to win the Powerball to feed the poor."