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stock Photographs of China, asian
art, collectable art, investments art, art of asia, expensive art, stock Chinese
Photographs, China photos, photographs of China, corporate art, art for
corporations and businesses for investment sake,
fotos of
Xian, Shanghai, Hangzhou, Guilin,
beijing, bajing, chino., pictures of, pictures
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Proper scan coming soon, showing entire image and density ...
(music is in, and legible, in original)
Pianoman, Shanghai, China, '87
Sponsored by Tom Spinelli
When I first spied this scene, I was sick as a
dog and the hotel was having a fire!!!
Fever and 'bowel problems' from forgetting
that 'thou shalt not use spigot water to brush thy teeth" the first night there had me running
to the
bathrooms every few minutes a week, which is when I'd run across this scene. It was only my second time on my world wide
travels and I had
a lot to learn- and not only that, I was now lost in China.
I'd spent one week up in Ningbo, a small village of a million people, with Kay
Fang, a friend that owned a health food restaurant in Encinitas, before health
food restaurants were much heard of. She had offered me a chance to go to
China but the only problem
was was that it would cost over a thousand dollars, about a thousand more than I
had
north of Shanghai. It was six hours by slow boat (the way I got there) or
two hours by hydroplane, the way I
got back. On my return, I was to meet up with my 'tour group', but I had a few
hours to kill before I had to go
to the airport to find them. I hung at the hotel I believed I was going to stay
at and met a nice gentleman
that spoke English down in the lobby. I got his name and contact number
explaining I might return someday
with a group of photographers and I would need an interpreter/guide for that
trip.
I then went to the airport but was dismayed to find out they never showed up!!!
NOW WHAT?
I've pre-paid for three weeks in China and had no money. I started to call the
hotels in the phone book,
but in 1987 the phone system was pretty new and there was basically no pay
phones anywhere on the streets,
and the one I found at played havoc on my ears. First, no one spoke
English when they answered the phones,
and I could barely hear them when they did speak. But the worst part was
while waiting on hold while they went
to find someone that speak, a loud clacking would occur, deafening in it's
loudness, it was some sort of torture.
As the phone system would not work, and as much as I hated to,
I hired a taxi to drive me to the various hotels to
see if my name was on the registry; the group was leaving the next day for
Hangzhou and I wanted to be with them.
After I basically hit all the 'tourist' hotels I stopped at one last one before
heading back to the one I thought
was mine. I saw a man playing a piano and thought, combined with the
background, could make a splendid
image. I set up, took my light meter reading to set my exposure, and took the
shot (1 minute at f/32). I told him
during the long exposure, "this will be music to my eyes". He smiled and kept
playing. The rest is history, found
my group due to answered prayer the next morning (the guy I'd met ended up being
my guide-
what a 'God-incident', and made a tremendously
nice series of images. This image was the last of the 25 chosen. Tom said
when he picked it from the 10 choice left,
"I can't believe nobody picked it". Well, so many good one, all of the
actually. Funny thing is, it outsold all the
others except one, which equaled it, 'the Three Graces".
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About
the prices on the 1987
sponsored China originals.
Note:
All of the above images, except the two 'new' ones directly above, are from Seewald's
second 'sponsored' series, created back in
1987 and released in 1988.
Back then, 16x20's (40x51cm) were the only size Seewald made available, in editions of only (10)
each.
THUS, THESE IMAGES, editions wise,
ARE VERY, VERY RARE.
When these sell
out Michael will destroy the negative!!!
That is the reason the price increases with each sale.
Many years ago, the 25 sponsors of these
images invested, sight un-seen, at $350 per 16"x20". Now,
all of them are $20,000
minimum in value. Some of them
(2) are
up to $100,000 in value, due to
sales!! Seewald allows only 8 sponsors to pre-purchase images
'sight-unseen' these days! Prices for sponsoring increase every couple of years.
To sponsor your own, like over 350 other collectors have now done, see:
Sponsor Program, see:
Pricing History)
Current pricing schedule.
(Last adjustment made in January,
2002)
Note:
this schedule has been modified many times, increasing
dramatically over the
decades, and will probably continue to do so!
Again, all of which are only available in the 16"x20" (40x51cm) size.
#1 - Sponsors image.
#2 - Seewald keeps this one.
#3 - Museums get this one.
#4 - $20,000 (The first available image to the public.)
#5 - $30,000 (Next available image to the public, etc.)
#6 - $40,000 "
"
#7 - $50,000 "
"
#8 - $100,000
Pianoman is priced here, seven of 10 now
'gone'.
#9 - $500,000 "
"
#10 $1,000,000 "
" and then negative destroyed.
We
still have many in the series at the $20K price, but as each one sells it increases,
with some having reached the $30K, $40K, $50K and two even the $100K prices
now (Pianoman and
The Three Graces).
**************************
Seewald's original
1987 pricing schedule:
Believe
it or not, the following was the original price list schedule. It has been
revised a few times as Michael has completed more trips, won more major
international awards and watched photographic art come into 'it's own' over the past three
decades.
#1 - Sponsors image.
#2 - Seewald keeps this one.
#3 - Museums get this one.
#4 - $600 (opening night release price).
#5 - $700
#6 - $800
#7 - $900
#8 - $1,000
#9 - $1,500
#10 -$2,500 and then negative destroyed.
"Everyone who knew the art business side of photography
that I showed my 'proposed planned price increase chart' GASPED when they first saw
it back in 1987." Michael continued, "heck,
Ansel
Adams had some of his images still selling at that price ($1,500, which
was the low price on a lot of his art)!"
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reset 12.19.09
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