Digital BW, The Print

At 01:54 PM 11/18/2002 EST, you wrote:
>In a message dated 11/18/2002 8:31:43 AM Pacific Standard Time, 
>mark@... writes:
>
>> #1You don't get it. It's not about keeping your costs down. It's about 
>> keeping your quality up. And also about maintaining your 
>> credibility.
>> 
>> #2 I maintain if you're serious about entering the fine art market, 
>> then you've got to bring some solid rules and practices to the 
>> table.
>> 
>> # 3 If you're gonna live in the "Edition mentality", then the only true 
>> way to know that the edition is consistent is to print them all at 
>> once. (Whether you then trash the file is another conversation). 
>> That's what it means to be an Edition, at least to me. 
>> 
>> #4 If you're gonna print "on demand", then I'd say you're one notch 
>> up from a commercial photo lab. You've deviated completely 
>> from the spirit of the artist; you're just an order taker.
>> 
>> #5 If you don't want to play by those rules, then fine, no problem. I'd 
>> advise at that point to have Open Editions, lower prices, but then 
>> know that you're killing your future potential in the gallery world. 
>> Just try going for representation at a gallery, and tell them that 
>> you practice Open Editions, and see if they take you on.
>> 
>> Crafts fairs are one thing; galleries are quite another.
>> 
>> MT
>> #1. Hey if you sign it, it passed your quality control, and credibility 
>> test  didn't it? Certainly you wouldn't sign a piece your not proud of. 
>> Your signature is your own endorsement. Comercial work is ultimately 
>> approved(or not)by the client paying for the work. This art gallery work or 
>> personel work YOU decide what the final is eather the gallery likes your 
>> choices or not. Its personal work remember! 
>> #2  Solid practices, yes! Rules? hardly. Rules and creative photography 
>> seem like a contradiction. You bring your images and print work to the 
>> table, and your in or your out. A certain level of quality is expected as a 
>> balance with the image. Countless images of the highest quality and 
>> integrity have been rejected.
>#3. Very rarely done. Except those that edition under 15 prints.
>#4 Please! That's a little extreme don't you think. Print on demand does not 
>mean there is no consistency. Its the same image after all! printed hopefully 
>by the same person. Just have Nash Editions print your work, you get more 
>money for the prints and have weaker blacks and more sales! And can have 
>print on demand.
>#5 Sure galleries like numbered prints! Its all for increasing the prices 
>nothing more. There is an implication to the buyer that these are somewhat 
>limited and that is why you have to pay more. I'll bet if they liked your 
>work enough, the open editions would fly just fine.
>Just tell them there are over 800 AA "moonrise" prints out there, Or that 
>your in poor health and expected to die very soon :)
>Sure there is a big difference in craft fair vs. galleries, craft fair 
>editions run in the hundreds and galleries in the 10's. 
>I know of a couple APIAD (living)blue chip photographers that have many 
>editions of the same image. Silver, Platinum, Iris, Lightjet. There each 
>different and should be editioned separately. When a customer buys a print 
>from the gallery wall, they are expecting to get the one hanging, or one 
>pretty close to the same if not identical.
>So if they buy a silver print, that's what they expect to get, not an IRIS or 
>platinum print.
>Just because you get a gallery show booked doesn't mean your work is 
>collectable, Collectors are actually a very small part of the contemporary 
>gallery scene,
>let your estate worry about collectors, work is really only collectable after 
>there is no more available, as in death of an artist. People that tend to 
>number there prints to 10 or less are going strictly for the collector market 
>and trying to get lucky. Unless your Michael Kenna ;0) but he has a 20year 
>exhibit history.
>#6 Give them a nice print at a fair price with some assurance that there 
>neighbor won't have the same image.
>Mark, are there any living(or dead) photographers that follow your standards 
>for editioning an credibility? names?
>I really do no what your saying, only the highest standards are allowed at 
>the gallery level and the market insures that.
>Before you hang it ask why would someone buy or not buy this print. Not buy 
>because the blacks are weak? maybe! but doubtful.
>Time for my meds!
>Steve M.
>

Thank you Steve!!!  Welcome to Planet Earth.  

A bit of a change of subject.  I saw an excellent photo exhibit recently
where the artist had a printer's chop (embossed symbol). It went near the
bottom left, in the rebate, slightly overlapping the image. I thought it
gave a kind of exclusive - extra classy finish. Can anyone elaborate on the
professional use practice of that? Fine art (intaglio, etc.) prints have
them to indicate who did the printing. 

AZ

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