New York Times:
A little over 30 years ago, the Japanese photographer Kishin Shinoyama walked through Central Park with one of the most famous couples in the world. It was sunset, autumn; they sat on a bench just in front of the pond, bordered by trees, a sliver of New York skyline visible in the distance, including the building where they lived. He asked them to kiss, and he clicked the shutter. Three months later, on Dec. 8, 1980, John Lennon was fatally shot at the entrance to the Dakota, home to him and his wife, Yoko Ono. Just three weeks prior to Lennon’s death, Shinoyama’s photograph of John and Yoko’s kiss at Central Park Pond had appeared on the cover of what would be their final studio album, “Double Fantasy.” Shinoyama made other photographs that day, of course — 800 in all, in fact — but many of them have never been shown until now, on the occasion of Taschen’s forthcoming publication of “Kishin Shinoyama. John Lennon & Yoko Ono. Double Fantasy” ($700), out this month.
I find this appalling. Who would buy such a book? Someone with strong emotional ties to John Lennon (and, of course, with $700 to burn). This feels like emotional blackmail. I have rare photos of your hero. You will only see them (and copies of them, not original prints you might hang in your home) if you pay out $700.
Amazing to me that the review makes no mention of the price.
It’s Taschen. They specialize is high-end art books. Their extra large-format book of Helmut Newton photographs, SUMO, was 20″x27″, weighted 66 pounds, and came with it’s own stand, designed by Philippe Stark. The signed/number copies were $18,000. $700 for the Lennon book is actually a bargain by comparison, it’s signed and limited to 1,730 copies. The 250 copes of the two “art editions” of this are $1,800, but they include a print. Don’t worry, next Spring a softcover smaller-format printing will be released that will run $95.
blackmail?! You don’t have to buy the book…
In the Amsterdam Taschen store, there’s a whole floor containing only these high price books, i just go to the other floor where the pages are not A2 sized(and priced)…
It’s art photography. Pictures of John & Yoko aren’t public domain.
Two things:
1) People that buy this book will do so because it will be a rare object. They will be able to show it off to their friends and be able to hold it up as a symbol of their fandom. It will be something that they have that their friends cannot.
2) The pictures in this book will be all over the Internet as soon as someone on Reddit that can justify the cost gets hold of a copy.
$700 for a phone? I find this appalling. Who would buy such a phone?
See how that works? People who see the value in it will buy it.
Within a month of it being released, there’ll be scans on the internet, I’m sure.
I have to agree with the other comments here Dave – I think you’re a bit off the mark. Art books like that cost a lot to make, and they will sell very few, hence the price. Hey, if they toss in all 800 photos it ends up being less than a buck a photo, that’s a deal, right? 🙂
http://i.imgur.com/91sn32Q.jpg