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| Rhine II by Andreas Gursky |
One of my tutors was telling me about a discussion he had had with photography students about the most expensive photograph in the world - Andreas Gursky's Rhine II, which sold two years ago for 4.3 million US dollars.
The question he was asked was: "How can something that boring be worth that kind of money? It's just a photo of a strip of grass."
A sub-heading to a Guardian story reporting the sale seemed to suggest the same view: "Sum paid for sludgy image of desolate, featureless landscape sets new world record for a photograph".
But Telegraph journalist Florence Waters saw it differently. In an article on the sale, she wrote: "For all its apparent simplicity, the photograph is a statement of dedication to its craft".
