The Arbitrary Inflation of Value in Photographs that are Unobtainable

In a New Republic posting today we learn that a previously unknown photographer "secretly took some of the most moving photos of the twentieth century." I was quite excited to finally be discovered when I realized that they were talking about Vivian Maier. She is heralded now, but not when she was alive, because it was only after she had passed on that she had acquired notoriety.

The story is illustrative for what it contributes to our understanding of how things acquire value. Mystery, scarcity, aloofness, weirdness, and a backstory. That's what it takes. These are things one must master to understand valuation in its fullest measure.

More on Maier:
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/23/movies/a-documentary-looks-at-the-photographer-vivian-maier.html
http://www.newyorker.com/culture/culture-desk/vivian-maier-and-the-problem-of-difficult-women
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/06/arts/design/a-legal-battle-over-vivian-maiers-work.html

Warning: visiting the official web (www dot vivianmaier dot com) site may expose you to malware, according to Google.

I write about this in part because this blog always promises to be about "Art, science, and economics of the human condition" and yet it is so often more about the straight economics, without mentioning the art or the science. Where is the connection here? It is quite simple:  Artists are so frequently worth nothing during their lifetimes, and fortunes when they are gone. It is the mystery, scarcity, and weirdness that brings value, and most artists in their 20s and 30s are merely embarrassments to their families and hapless rivals (and losers) to their peers and members of the opposite sex. After the passage of 40 years, none of the lost possible mates are thinking about the old mating game anymore, and what's left of the artist are his renderings of world and its emotions. Or, in this case, the photographs, many of them black and white and of a lost lost time. One can't help but feel nostalgic for such ancient times, especially as the brain has a tendency to remember the good, and omit the bad memories. Result? High valuation for older things that are at least a little bit well done.