An art auction like you’ve never seen.

Canon were launching their first A2 photo printer, and needed to prove to the professional photography community that it could produce incredible images and potentially be indispensable to their business.

So we created a unique art auction where all of the works were blank pieces of paper, each one reserved for an image by one of Australia’s most respected photographers.

Photographers Toby Burrows, Stephen Dupont, Simon Harsent, Gary Heery, Ted O’Donnell and Vicki Lee, Anna Pogossova, Jackie Ranken, Graham Shearer, Eugene Tan and James Tolich were invited to present their photograph for auction.  However, it wasn’t until after their photographs were purchased that the artwork was revealed. The successful bidder then saw their image for the first time as it was printed live.

All artworks were sold at the event, raising $22,000 for charity and proving the potential of the printer to our professional photography audience.

“There’s something magical that happens when a photograph is printed. What started out as a figment of imagination, or an impulse, or a flash of inspiration, becomes real. Moments ago, it was merely a blank piece of paper. Now it’s a work of art.”

To celebrate the evening we create a limited edition Sight Unseen photo book, designed to recreate the auction experience in printed form. Each of the eleven artworks were first described in an abstract manner by the artist, followed by a blank page, before being revealed on the following page.