Digital BW, The Print

At 8:44 AM -0700 11/18/02, Roger L Sopher wrote:
>Hi Mark,
>
>Except for the misguided souls that "limit" their editions many of 
>the successful photographer/printmakers (silver gelatin) I know or 
>know about print on demand. They may print a goodly number at a 
>session but when the box gets low there is no reticence to refill 
>it. ...
>
I think some of the squeeze in thinking comes from the common 
practice of lithographers and the like to deface their stones after 
pulling a number of prints from them. ....

>
>To my thinking, limiting an edition is ego over pocketbook. If one 
>is successful the prints will increase in value. Press prints of 
>many famous photographs are readily available but it hasn't dropped 
>the price of an "original" (what ever that may be) one whit.

>
>.... Unless it were a rotogravure press or the like the number isn't 
>going to be astronomical and should have little effect on the 
>ultimate pricing. The quality of the image and the print are, one 
>would hope, the ultimate driving force.
>
Roger

Roger, I agree with a lot of what you said.

Mark is being a super purist when he asks that all the printing for 
the edition/image be done in one 24 hour period then that is the end 
of it forever.  This won't work for the market as a whole.  It is 
only practical to print them on demand with a small initial batch.

Problem with this limited edition approach is unless you are A Adams 
at the top of your game and renown...the artist never gets anything 
but peanuts for the prints.  It takes time for a reputation to be 
built and prices to escalate....Galleries love the limited edition 
because they can sell and resell many times...the artist usually 
sells only once near the beginning of the cycle.  Unless you have the 
capital to print all those images and the space to inventory 
them...Mark's system is impractical..

What in the hell is wrong with technology and the issue of mechanical 
or digital reproduction.  After all there are different levels of 
this inkjet game.  There is a big gap between some kid with a pierced 
eyebrow printing prints for his school buddies for $5 each from a 
$200 Epson printer using dye inks and someone who has done a lot of 
testing to find an archival inkjet combination of paper and ink PLUS 
HAS THE ABILITY TO MAKE GREAT IMAGES.

Numbers are a self regulating thing.  If you flood the market with 
cheap reproductions, the value stays low.  If you limit it in some 
way, print on high end papers with archival inks,  the value will 
increase.

Painters make one painting and before the inkjet technology arrived 
could only sell to one client.  (I have seen several who repaint the 
same scene over and over again if the first on is very popular}  Now 
they can make a high end photo of the painting and sell lower priced 
inkjet prints to many people who love the work but can't afford the 
original.  What's wrong with that?

To hell with this Taliban Photography Gallery mentality.  They are 
stuck in the past as are most photo galleries that grew up in the 
past 25 years.  They worship the alter of SG, platinum and some 
alternative processes.. Find the progressive galleries that work in 
mixed media.

Bill Agee
-- 

bill agee studio
capistrano beach, ca / laguna beach, ca

http://www.redsilver.com