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99 CENT by Andreas Gursky
It may seem ironic that a photograph of cheap goods
would set a record for the most expensive contemporary
photograph ever sold, but Andreas Gursky’s 99 Cent is far
more than a visual inventory. In a single large-scale image
digitally stitched together from multiple images taken in a
99 Cents Only store in Los Angeles, the seemingly endless
rows of stuf, with shoppers’ heads floating anonymously
above the merchandise, more closely resemble abstract
or Impressionist painting than contemporary photogra-
phy. Which was precisely Gursky’s point. From the Tokyo
stock exchange to a Mexico City landfill, the German ar-
chitect and photographer uses digital manipulation and a
distinct sense of composition to turn everyday experiences
into art. As the curator Peter Galassi wrote in the catalog