Rheinland Rant

*BTB Road Movie Festival Intermission*Intermezzo*Przerwa*Unterbrechung*Intervalo*

Rhine II (Gursky)

That's Andreas Gursky's digital photograph, Rhine II, which just sold at auction for $4.3  Million--the most ever for a photograph. Gursky calls it his favorite photograph, commenting: "For me it is an allegorical picture about the meaning of life and how things are." No kidding. Things are such that an anonymous bidder has so much money he or she can spend $4,300,000 on a single photograph. Somehow that drains just a little more meaning out of the meaning life, which, if you ask me, was running pretty low already.

Gowanus II (Yariski)

To create the large photograph (143 x 73 inches), Gursky digitally removed everything except the river, the banks, and the sky, including dog walkers, bicyclists (!), and an old factory. I am now working on digitally removing everything from this photograph I took of the Gowanus Canal from the BQE so that all that will remain are the pristine banks of the canal, the aquamarine waters, the verdant shores of Staten Island in the distance, and the sky. When I'm done, I will make it available on this blog. Bidding will start at a paltry $1.3 Million, and I'll even throw in a coupon for 10% off your next oil change at Jiffy Lube (did Gursky ever do that?)