Renowned Photographer Jeff Mitchum's Masterpiece "Third Day" Sells For $1.8 Million

Howdy All,

Here's a link to one of the articles about the sale : http://finance.yahoo.c​om …asterpiece-140000742.html

My brother, who owns Weldon Color Lab, made and mounted the print .

Goes to show that technical and artistic perfection don't always equate with value. But being in the right place at the right time is priceless. If the image in the link is the one that sold for $1.8 million, if it were posted in the critique corner here, lots of folks would say that it was oversaturated and it was a mistake to have the horizon split it exactly in half.

It give me hope that some of my flawed images might one day sell for lots of money.

Agree!!

Even if they say it was over saturated it wouldn't matter. The photo was made on a 4 x 5 negative large format film.

This may be an expensive photo, but these sold for even more...

http://freeyork.org …-photographs-in-the-world

$3.3 million for a shot taken inside a 99 cent store!

I have never "gotten" it. the 99 cent store is a classic example of why I don't. oh that's right, it's all about the "journey"

Good luck to anyone who can take a phtoto and earn that sort of coin though, but I'd probably argue that in most cases it isn't the photo, it's the name (although I wouldn't know any of those photogs from Adam) and the whole blah blah blah of the "journey" behind it that people seem to fall for.

Heck, i'd sit in a croc infested swamp for 4 months straight, get gangrene after a snake bite and have to cut my own leg off and feed on it because I didn't want to leave the spot until I got "the shot".......if I could sell it for a couple of mill!

Perfectly Frank wrote in post #16829521
This may be an expensive photo, but these sold for even more...

http://freeyork.org …-photographs-in-the-world

$3.3 million for a shot taken inside a 99 cent store!

I noticed that it was the same photographers that sell the images multiple times on that page.

catclaw wrote in post #16829615
I noticed that it was the same photographers that sell the images multiple times on that page.

Out of the 10 photos, Andreas Gursky sold 3 for a total of $10.5 million, and Cindy Sherman sold 2 for a total of $6.6 million. The other 5 were by different photographers.

It's a nice gig if you can get it.

pixelbasher wrote in post #16829536
I have never "gotten" it. the 99 cent store is a classic example of why I don't. oh that's right, it's all about the "journey"

Good luck to anyone who can take a phtoto and earn that sort of coin though, but I'd probably argue that in most cases it isn't the photo, it's the name (although I wouldn't know any of those photogs from Adam) and the whole blah blah blah of the "journey" behind it that people seem to fall for.

Heck, i'd sit in a croc infested swamp for 4 months straight, get gangrene after a snake bite and have to cut my own leg off and feed on it because I didn't want to leave the spot until I got "the shot".......if I could sell it for a couple of mill!

I will be the first to say it....Ive seen more impressive, moving and artistic images by members here. Im going to be honest...that is ridiculous. Maybe Im not getting something but calling that pic a "masterpiece" is absurd. To top it of the tone and delivery by the photographer in the article is incredibly arrogant... This guy ego must be bigger than Mount Everest.

Brain Mechanic wrote in post #16829643
I will be the first to say it....Ive seen more impressive, moving and artistic images by members here. Im going to be honest...that is ridiculous. Maybe Im not getting something but calling that pic a "masterpiece" is absurd. To top it of the tone and delivery by the photographer in the article is incredibly arrogant... This guy ego must be bigger than Mount Everest.

I suspect that these photographers in that article have somehow garnered the attention of some very wealthy circles. And it's probably friends, and friends of friends that keep buying the work of the same few photographers.

They have to wash the money somehow.....

catclaw wrote in post #16829695
I suspect that these photographers in that article have somehow garnered the attention of some very wealthy circles. And it's probably friends, and friends of friends that keep buying the work of the same few photographers.

I wish for a friend like that. I'd sell one of my crummy flickr shots for 5 grand.

I think the key to his success is in the details. If you read the article, it took him 15 years to finally get this spectacular image. You have to give him credit for envisioning the shot and the time and effort it took to finally get what he wanted. He deserves his fame and success.

I suppose I could say it's taken me my entire life to get the shot I took today.

I'm happy for the guy, he's made some money doing what he enjoys. It's hard to beat that.

Brain Mechanic wrote in post #16829643
I will be the first to say it....Ive seen more impressive, moving and artistic images by members here. Im going to be honest...that is ridiculous. Maybe Im not getting something but calling that pic a "masterpiece" is absurd. To top it of the tone and delivery by the photographer in the article is incredibly arrogant... This guy ego must be bigger than Mount Everest.

I would imagine you would have to see it in person in order to understand. I am sure it was blown up huge and looks stunning. A 6 inch picture on a computer screen probably doesn't do it justice.