Digital BW, The Print

Hello Tom,

>I've recently begun to show my photographs publicly and have a 
>question about signed and numbered prints.  I've seen that done.  I 
>think it would be a bit silly for my prints.  What is the 
>conventional wisdom about signing and/or numbering prints to show or 
>sell?  

There are several approaches and no hard and fast rules.  You can
basically do whatever you want.  Also, there is a difference between
simple numbering and limited editions.  If you are selling prints as
art that you want to be tracable back to you as the artist, then there
should at least be a signature somewhere.  Otherwise it's not much
different than selling postcards or greeting cards, and even those
have an author and copyright notice.

Regarding numbering, I like to number my prints because I keep track
of print sales in a database and want them to be uniquely
identifiable.  I believe it also adds to the impression for the buyer
that they are individually made and not mass produced.  It also is an
aid to them if they are listing household items for insurance
purposes.  I don't do limited editions.  

As far as where to sign, I leave a 1" border around the image and put
the print title in pencil on the left, just under the image bottom
border, and my signature with print # on the right.  When I mat a
print, I make the window slightly bigger than the image so the title
and signature are visible.  This is a very common approach for
photography as frameable art.

Regards,
Clayton


Info on black and white digital printing at    
http://www.cjcom.net/digiprnarts.htm