Grrrr, another one bites the dust.

[tom b]

There is a new Robert Mapplethorpe exhibition at AGNSW Sydney.

Long story short, I thought, AGNSW, lunch then a walk to Stills Gallery (Sydney's top commercial photography gallery) Paddington. I went online to see what was on only to see that the gallery is/has closed.

"After more than 25 years, the gallery will cease operation in its current form at the end of June this year."

Bugger,

[Rob C]

The French gentleman who owns the restaurant where I lunch (funny: that reminds me of the 80s phrase ladies who lunch) always comes over to say hello and to enquire about my state of health. Since the arrival of the iPad he has become accustomed to approaching me from the front so as not to startle me as I listen to music as I await attention. But that's not the point: the point is that his late father was a movie projectionist and had accumulated a nice collection of movie posters over the years, but had ever resisted offers to sell. Apparently, fickle public taste has left the collection commercially worthless.

I suspect it's perhaps mirrored in the change in attitude to photography and photographers. I'm sure some of us here may remember a period when our possibly more successful brothers were on a par with rock stars in the female psyche. Today, who gives a toss? Even we have lost the belief.

Perhaps that explains the closures...

Rob

[Alan Goldhammer]

The French gentleman who owns the restaurant where I lunch (funny: that reminds me of the 80s phrase ladies who lunch) always comes over to say hello and to enquire about my state of health. Since the arrival of the iPad he has become accustomed to approaching me from the front so as not to startle me as I listen to music as I await attention. But that's not the point: the point is that his late father was a movie projectionist and had accumulated a nice collection of movie posters over the years, but had ever resisted offers to sell. Apparently, fickle public taste has left the collection commercially worthless.

I suspect it's perhaps mirrored in the change in attitude to photography and photographers. I'm sure some of us here may remember a period when our possibly more successful brothers were on a par with rock stars in the female psyche. Today, who gives a toss? Even we have lost the belief.

Perhaps that explains the closures...

Rob

The same is true about postage stamp collections.  I was an avid collector for a number of years but now the collection is hardly worth anything at all.  There are very few stores left that deal with stamps and the only things that are worth anything are the very rare ones.  I took my USA collection into a local dealer and he would only give me about $25US for it and suggested that I find a collector who might want it.

[BrownBear]

Much the same fate of art prints, the limited editions that were so popular, expensive and collectible in recent decades.

A friend is leaving the country for retirement in a tropical Asian country and completely emptying his house. He has an extensive collection of very fine prints including over a dozen large Fred Machetanz, but they simply won't survive well in the tropics. He considered selling them, but current prices barely cover the cost of quality framing and matting, even if he paid thousands for them a couple of decades back. His solution was a very good one: He donated them to the local arts council (501:C3) for their upcoming fundraising auction and will get a nice tax write-off.