Dear Listener

Gered Mankowitz is having a good retirement. After many years in London, he now lives in Cornwall and spends his life managing his archive. As one of the great photographers of rock bands over the last fifty years it is no surprise that his pictures of the Rolling Stones, the Beatles, Jimi Hendrix, and Marianne Faithfull are still in demand around the world. Many are considered the definitive image of the stars in their era. Asked what made a picture achieve that status Gered told the Nordic Light photography event in Norway this week “The line between an iconic image and an ordinary picture is very thin. And I don’t know what it is.” But Gered certainly knows how to do it.

It led me to wonder what an image or a photograph is worth. Along with the talks and lectures – including a wonderful account of the history of colour photography which we take so much for granted now – there were exhibitions of the work of dozens of photographers. Some like Gered were famous, others just starting out and forty or so students lined up as a human art gallery wearing their own favourite image on a tee-shirt hoping they would be discovered. Many pictures were on sale. So, what is a photograph worth?

In the past a photograph was just that – a piece of chemically treated paper with an image projected onto it to produce a print. Often a special edition of the photograph might be issued, 25 or 100 copies signed and perhaps even printed by the photographer him or herself. Those qualities gave it a rarity value and a clear link to the photographer. But not now. Most of the prints in these exhibitions were labelled ‘Digital print Epson Stylus Pro 9890’ – Epson was one of the Nordic Light sponsors. Despite that routine production method many were listed as an ‘edition’ of 25 or 100 although it was not completely clear to me what that restriction meant. And is a digital print that anyone could run off with a £99 printer really worth money? And will that value last?

The images were not cheap. Italian fashion photographer Amedeo M Turello charged €3500 for a 50cm square image of a woman in a red dress on a red car by a granite wall. Sharp, bright and beautifully finished it would decorate any home. But would it keep its value? And was it worth four times as much as a striking print by Kim Eskildsen of a Greek family at home? I do not know. But I tend to think that for that sort of money I would want a photographic print with some clear association with the photographer – apart from the fact the he or she had pressed the shutter.

***IN MONEY BOX THIS WEEK***

Nothing about photographs in Money Box this week. And as usual I am not quite sure at lunchtime on Friday what will be in the programme. But here is our agenda at the moment.

Payment protection Insurance: Lloyds Banking Group announced this week that it was setting aside £3.2 billion to meet its obligations to pay compensation to those who were mis-sold PPI. Lloyds has also said that it will pull out of the legal action being pursued on behalf of all the banks by the British Bankers’ Association to limit the redress which will be paid for mis-sales back to 2005. Hear what Money Box said about this issue ten (yes ten!) years ago. And why it could become the second biggest mis-selling scandal ever.

Hair and nails may not grow after death but DWP benefit payments can carry on being paid for some time. The question is should – and does – the DWP have the power to dip into the bank account of a dead person to recover money it says was overpaid? Or should it wait for probate to be granted?

If you buy a £500 holiday from a travel agent your debit card will be charged £500. But if you buy £500 of for foreign currency you could be charged £504.50. Why? And Money Box Live at 3pm on Wednesday with Vincent Duggleby will be taking your questions on holiday finance and travel rights. You can call the programme when lines open on Wednesday at 1330 GMT. The number to call is 03700 100 444 or send an e-mail through the programme page at http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/moneybox/9476276.stm

Millions of customers of Sony Playstation Network and Sony Online Entertainment could have had their personal and credit card details stolen after tens of millions of records worldwide were hacked. Sony is still not saying exactly what has gone missing. We advise on what you can do if you think you may be affected.

That’s it so far. Find out what we squeeze in and what we leave out by listening to Radio 4 on Saturday just after noon. The repeat is Sunday at 9pm and you can of course listen any time via the podcast page www.bbc.co.uk/podcasts/series/moneybox. There you can also listen to last week’s special programme on the death of final salary pension schemes. Check out our website www.bbc.co.uk/moneybox to follow links, download transcripts, send us stories or ideas you want us to look into and Have Your Say on the cost of foreign curency

This newsletter is available at bbc.co.uk/moneybox/newsletter around the time it hits your inbox (tell your friends who don’t subscribe) and you can join more than 6400 others who enjoy my random but timely thoughts on money and a few other things whenever I’m awake at  twitter.com/paullewismoney.

Best wishes,

Paul

PS Don’t forget the trail for the programme on BBC1 Breakfast just after 0845. And I am back on breakfast on Thursday around 0640 and around 0820 (though those times are very subject to change) with another story and answering emails from viewers.

e-mail Paul Lewis