"The Pond-Moonlight"

Myth is the public dream, and dream is the private myth. - Joseph Campbell
Photo: "The Pond-Moonlight," by Edward Steichen taken on Long Island in 1904.
What a lovely haunting quality this magnificent antique photo posesses. It is not hand tinted; it is actually a very early color photograph. It was recently sold by Sotheby's for $2,928.000, setting a world record as the highest priced photograph ever auctioned.

According to Estiasis.com,

The buyer's identity was not immediately disclosed.
The photograph shows a pond in a wooded area with light coming through the trees and reflected in the water. Pre-sale estimates priced the photo, which is slightly bigger than 16 inches by 19 inches, at up to $1 million. The only other two prints are in museum collections.
The previous record for highest price for a photograph at auction, $1,248,000, was set in November by Richard Prince's "Untitled (Cowboy)."
Also surpassing that record on Tuesday were two photographs of the artist Georgia O'Keeffe taken by Alfred Stieglitz, her husband. A photograph of her hands sold for $1,472,000, and a portrait of her nude sold for $1,360,000.

What a pair-Steichen & Stieglitz!

photography Edward Steichen
My "topical post" today at South by Southwest is about the South By Southwest festival in Austin, Texas.