Time Magazine has a very interesting issue out this week. It is titled:
“The Most Influential Photos of all time”
Pretty tall order! I saw the editors on a morning news show this week, and they explained that it took three years to edit down to 100. Most of them are very good, some are Ok and some have some historical significance ( cellphone photograph of a guys newborn that was the first photo tweeted out! So I guess we can blame him!!!)
There is one that is really bothersome.. It is titled “The Ultimate Appropriation.”
Richard Prince was working in the Time Magazine Tear Sheet Department, deconstructing magazines and filing the articles in appropriate file drawers. His eyes were drawn to the advertisements, one, in particular, the Marlboro Man riding across the plains. In a process that he called “rephotography” he photographed the ad, cropping out the type.
As the magazine says, “That Prince didn’t take the picture meant little to collectors. In 2005, The image, titled: Untitled (Cowboy0 sold for $1.2 million at auction!!!!!!!!
Prince started a new art form- he titled it photography of photography
Prince went on to gain fame for stealing Instagram photographs from the web, enlarging them to 3 feet square and selling them in galleries. (He became very rich doing this)
As he said on Twitter just 15 hours ago:
Being sued: They say I don’t care. That’s not exactly true. I just don’t care about what they want me to care about.
What a country we live in! He has been sued many times, and always wins for some reason.