I have entered some photographs in an amateur exhibit. This is a first for me. As I have said in previous blogs, my photography has always been a hobby and an adjunct to my painting. Why I chose this time to dive in I am not sure but it was in so many ways the wrong time. I have a new computer that will not talk to my old printer and new photo editing software I am not totally comfortable with. But dive I did.
I decided to have my digital images professionally printed and so looked up in the phone book first to see if their was a "local" service beyond Wally World. The digital era has changed what a photography studio looks like. I found a photographic gallery in Taos that did printing of digital images. I checked out their website and e-mailed as to prices then sent them 4 digital images. They e-mailed back they were done and I said I would pick them up.
So yesterday I drove over the mountain to get them only to find the photographer I had been communicating with has moved to Bend, Oregon and that was where my prints were. But I had a long chat with the photographer who bought the business, and to make a long story short I decided to just send him my images. He was rather upset to find that contrary to purchase agreement that the former owner's website still stated the Taos address.
While there in part waiting for an e-mail response from the former proprietor we talked various options for printing like on canvas or even silk for a hanging. And we talked giclee's and posters. I am rather opposed to giclee's because they are not limited editions and have been mass marketed to death and usually mean the death of your originals. However, he brought up Ansel Adam's use of the poster to get his name before the public. So I am now considering doing a poster of one of my works with it's title and my name large at the bottom. I could sell them at a very reasonable price. And they could be a draw at fairs. Every fair a new poster. Sell enough and my name would be out there.
Something to think about. Any thoughts?
I wouldn't use the word some because that totally kills your original sales. And not the giclee prints by the multitude. Just a poster now and then. A very different animal from compromising my originals with mass production.
ReplyDeleteI love to paint and I don't want to sideline that activity by becoming a purveyor of prints.
Just know that you'll be giving people the option of buying the poster rather than an original. Even if there isn't a broad selection of them.
ReplyDeleteAs it won't be a giclee print I am thinking of it more as an advertising item but I have in no way made up my mind. I ran it up the flag pole here and have been rather turned off by some people that think I am doing a poster of every painting which is definitely not my intention.
ReplyDeleteMy originals are cheap enough. Like you I do not see myself doing prints. If I do the poster it will look like a poster. But currently leaning the other way. Against.