The world was thrown into shock recently as a photo of an organic Solanum tuberosum, better known as the common Irish potato, shattered the world record for the 15thmost expensive photograph ever sold.This bumped Edward Weston’s “Nautilus (1927)” down the list to number 16 by just a few dollars. The work, titled “Potato #345” was officially purchased for an astonishing one million € (approx. 1.5 million USD,) by an unnamed European businessman earlier this week, making the headlines of newspapers worldwide.
The starchy Irish star was photographed by the renowned portrait photographer, Kevin Abosch, who found his fame in shooting celebrity portraits. In his past, Abosch worked with many notable figures such as actor Johnny Depp, Nobel Prize laureate Malala Yousafzai, singer Yoko Ono, and Chief Operating Officer of Facebook Sheryl Sandburg, placing his fees anywhere from $150,000 to $500,000 per portrait. “Potato #345” is a simple photo that was shot in Abosch’s signature style, featuring a well-lit subject on a simple black background. The famous photograph is a part of a series comprising of two other brother photographs, one of which was donated to a Serbian museum, while the other sits in Abosch’s private collection. According to Abosch himself, the piece caught the current owner’s eye as they were having dinner together at Abosche’s residence in Paris, which in turn lead to the purchase of this extraordinary piece of art.
“I see commonalities between humans and potatoes that speak to our relationship as individuals within a collective species. Generally, the life of a harvested potato is violent and taken for granted.” Said Abosch in an interview with the Irish Times explaining his odd choice of subject. “I use the potato as a proxy for the ontological study of the human experience,”.
During the interview, Abosch also disclosed that the potato arrived at his house in a batch of organic vegetables in 2010, but neglected to mention the fate of the now iconic spud.
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