Luminous Landscape Forum
Equipment & Techniques => Pro Business Discussion => Topic started by: KevinA on December 07, 2017, 06:48:44 am
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I have been looking at various Galleries from online to top end and I have a couple of questions for anyone that has any degree of success selling photography.
I have been told that Galleries prefer traditional wet prints over digital, is this true?
I have a working darkroom so not a problem other than its a lot of work if it doesn't make any commercial difference.
How do you prove that you are only producing 100 prints, do you have to produce the 100 in one session or do you print to order and stop at 100?
Cheers,
Kev.
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Hi Kevin,
I had my work in several very small local galleries so this may not apply, but they had no problem with the digital aspect, in fact, a couple of them commented on the fact that they felt it was much easier to get consistency from print to print. In my limited exposure to galleries the limited edition question never came up.
Hope that was helpful and good luck!!
Kevin in CT
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I think this varies by market and how you plan on selling your work.
For the average person looking to hang images in the their place of business or home, the amount of prints of the same image in the market place is not going to matter, nor is the process of making the print. Certain people may prefer certain types of prints, but overall how you print them is not going to matter.
With this market though, which will be low to mid-end, you are really looking to make money on scale.
For the high end markets, especially those in NYC, things are different. Once again, the print methods do not have an advantage over another, but all galleries will have a preferred print method. For instance, a gallery may be selling only silver gelatin prints and therefore would not be interested in inkjet, or vice versa.
All galleries in this market will prefer limited series though. You will probably only be allowed to print 25 versions in each of three or four different sizes of any one image and you will need to number them. This is because high-end buyers want to make sure their purchase will appreciate in price; this would not be possible if an unlimited amount of prints could exist. As an image grows in popularity, you will be able to sell those remaining prints at higher prices.
Typically photographers in this market will also make three to five additional prints of a different size they will mark as artist's prints. This is partly meant to allow the photographer to keep a printed record of his work, but also sell later on. As you could imagine, if all of the prints sell and then 10 years down the line, the price in the private market goes up considerably and buyers are now making much more money from selling your work, you would be left with a bad taste in your mouth. In this case, the photographer would sell the artist's prints to cash in.
But, as you can imagine, if you start printing them off again, the price will go down, so the limit here is really five.
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What does count as an 'edition'?
Is a different size print a different edition?
What about a b&w version?
Different crop?
Printed on a different medium (canvas wrap vs framed, glass-covered)?
Are there standards? or does everybody's interpretation hold equal validity?
Asking because I am just contemplating responding to a local 'call for submissions' to a local (Canada) art show that specifies limited editions as a requirement.
I assume that 1/10 (for example) does not mean that 10 have to actually exist, but limits future production to 10 ?
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What does count as an 'edition'?
Is a different size print a different edition?
What about a b&w version?
Different crop?
Printed on a different medium (canvas wrap vs framed, glass-covered)?
Are there standards? or does everybody's interpretation hold equal validity?
Asking because I am just contemplating responding to a local 'call for submissions' to a local (Canada) art show that specifies limited editions as a requirement.
I assume that 1/10 (for example) does not mean that 10 have to actually exist, but limits future production to 10 ?
I suppose anything you want. Seems as long as you clearly define it in writing then there is an understanding between buyer and seller.
Most selling limited editions have simplified it to a specific number of prints from a specific image, regardless of size or media. Others make it more complicated, and I suppose there are some that don't spell it out clearly enough.
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I don't think that anyone would care or even know if they were wet or dry printed.
A limited edition of say 100 means a hundred of that image to me. Any size. A record is kept.
Anything else is stupid and hypocritical. A lifted edition of 100 8x10 followed by a limited edition of 10x12 would put your reputation in the toilet.
Ken Duncan says that if someone buys a limited edition of one size and then wants another size he takes back the first and destroys it. A charge is made for the change.
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Thank you for your replies