I was doing a bit of research on famous paintings the other day and ran across an oil painting by artist Amadeo Modigliani titled Nude Sitting on a Divan (The Beautiful Roman Woman) which sold in 2010 for $68.9 million dollars (link below).
Now, first thing that comes to mind when I look at the image is that "Wow, I bet lots of DPCers and snobs at ModelMayhem would kill this image for the crop on the legs."
Secondly, the composition is rather, well, boring. Nothing strikes me as dramatic about the image.
Yet, it sold for damn near $70 million, less than a year ago, and $16.7 million dollars a little over a decade ago. Ofcourse, I know the image has appeal in that it was created during the explosion of modernism, but still....
I frequently have similar thoughts. I look through the photo magazines and National Geographic, and a lot of those pics are very good, and quite interesting, but would only do so-so on DPC.
You should watch Exit Through the Gift Shop. At it's heart, it's a discussion of the art world, what is art, and how it relates particularly to street art and the explosion of Banksy on the fine art scene.Give it some time, it starts out in a direction contrary to the end. Good stuff, excellent food for thought.
You don't tell the whole story. It was one in a series. In a gallery exhibition. It is remarkable in its context. "The Paris show of 1917 was Modigliani's only solo exhibition during his life, and is "notorious" in modern art history for its sensational public reception and the attendant issues of obscenity.[6] The show was closed by police on its opening day, but continued thereafter, most likely after the removal of paintings from the gallery's streetfront window."
So, next I googled "photography exhibition closed by police" just to see what would pop up. Can you guess? If I asked you to create a photography exhibition that would be closed by police the moment it opened, what would you set up?
Now, first thing that comes to mind when I look at the image is that "Wow, I bet lots of DPCers and snobs at ModelMayhem would kill this image for the crop on the legs."
Secondly, the composition is rather, well, boring. Nothing strikes me as dramatic about the image.
Doubtless that's because the really cool tattoo was on the portion of leg that Modigliani removed when he made such an insensate crop of his original canvas.
Now, first thing that comes to mind when I look at the image is that "Wow, I bet lots of DPCers and snobs at ModelMayhem would kill this image for the crop on the legs."
That's because most people don't understand art. In photography, there are tons of photographs that get overlooked or "killed" because most people don't get it.
DPC, ModelMayhem, and even the "vaunted" 1x, are not the final judges of what is good, or not good. Even the art world, itself, goes through fads where a certain artist or style is hot for a period of time.
I think a good example here is the much maligned water drop/wine glass shot. Here we've seen it done to death. So they have a hard time scoring well. Others would be highly impressed with the same images, where they are less common. Simply put, our eyes get bored when we see similar subjects and styles over and over.
I had an audiophile friend that kept two sets of speakers for his system. His point was that when you went down to the stereo store (serious large dollar stereo store), the speakers there would sound "better". Why, because your ears were bored. They had heard the same speakers every day with the same tonal representation. So rather than buy new speakers over and over, he simply swapped them out every six months.
None of the photography sites are the "real world". We see litterally hundred of pictures a week. Most people don't. What is overdone, and cliche here, is what will amaze your neighbors and non-DPC friends.
Now, first thing that comes to mind when I look at the image is that "Wow, I bet lots of DPCers and snobs at ModelMayhem would kill this image for the crop on the legs."
Now, first thing that comes to mind when I look at the image is that "Wow, I bet lots of DPCers and snobs at ModelMayhem would kill this image for the crop on the legs."
Yeah, and he made her butt look big!
LOL, I thought that too... I can see the comments now, "The pose is unflattering to her butt."
You should watch Exit Through the Gift Shop. At it's heart, it's a discussion of the art world, what is art, and how it relates particularly to street art and the explosion of Banksy on the fine art scene.Give it some time, it starts out in a direction contrary to the end. Good stuff, excellent food for thought.
I've had this on my Netflix queue for a while and decided to watch it last night. Great film. VERY enjoyable, interesting, and thought provoking.
