Peter Lik’s “Phantom” Image Sells for $6.5 Million

Image courtesy of PR Newswire

by Chris Gampat  12/10/2014

I’m sure that we all aspire to one day have an image sold for a giant wad of money. Today, that award goes to Peter Lik, who now has the record for the most expensive photo sold. Peter’s “Phantom” image is very famous and there have been many trying to recreate and copy the photo, but the original sold for a whopping $6.5 Million. But that’s not all.
According to PRNewsWire:

“The purchase also included Lik’s masterworks “Illusion” for $2.4 million and “Eternal Moods” for $1.1 million.  With this $10 million sale, Lik now holds four of the top 20 spots for most expensive photographs ever sold.  He already has a position in the ranking with a previous $1 million sale of famed image, “One.”

$10,000,000. So why so much money? Peter is well known for his landscape photography and his color work. To see landscape and black and white together is very rare. Combine that with the very ghost-like look due to dust and the little sliver and light, and you’ve got yourself a winner. Technically, this is a very tough image to accomplish because of the high amounts of contrast. According to Lik’s news post today, it was shot in the Southwest part of the United States.
The buyer preferred not to be publicly identified for security reasons. And considering how much money was dropped on the photo, we don’t blame them.
Via PRNewsWire

Read more at http://www.thephoblographer.com/2014/12/10/peter-liks-phantom-image-sells-6-5-million/#K0uaZohPXJfBu0hP.99