Peter Lik’s “Phantom” Image Sells for $6.5 Million
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.
Read more at http://www.thephoblographer.com/2014/12/10/peter-liks-phantom-image-sells-6-5-million/#81B5KRimjkzqZMOO.99
The photo is at the link, of course. Keep shooting, everyone!
= new reply since forum marked as read
It looks a lot like Antelope Canyon in AZ. They didn't identify the spot, but I'll bet it's one of the slot canyons there.
Thanks for sharing this, my dear bluedigger!
It came up on my FB feed this morning, and I think the original post also indicated Antelope Canyon. Have a great day, CP!
I went to his gallery at Caesar's in Las Vegas, and it was impressive. Not really to my taste, but then I don't have a lot of wall space in my mansion to fill up, either. 
When I saw his pieces in real life that was exactly what I thought - "oversaturated". I thought they were backlit they were so bright. 
...as can be found in this thread.
Notice how he paints this vivid word picture of how he, through sheer dint of effort, pulled off this moonrise shot. Except, of course, that he's got a front-lit moon with a sunset behind it. And the dark segment of the moon is darker than the surrounding sky. And there are clouds on the horizon, behind the moon. And, although the foreground is from Utah, the moon is positioned as it would be if you shot it from Alaska.
I guess if you can convince people that a photograph like that wasn't a composite of several different shots from different times and places, convincing them that someone bought one of your prints for $6.5 million should be child's play...
