Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2002/03/12
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]Don sed: >I think part of this thread is in response to an editorial in "Lenswork" if >I recall. What was being promoted was inexpensive art. The concept is that >the cost of another photographic print is relatively low compared to a >painting so why not do a Wal-mart? If the price is lower then more people >will buy and appreciate the work in question so the photographer in the end >makes more. i did read that essay and i do agree with it. basically it compared the art world to the music world and suggested that photographs should be treated like CD's, since you can make multiple copies of them, you can afford to sell more for less rather than art like paintings which must be created anew each time and therefore requires a high price. but i come from a strange art culture where we're always doing art for free because nobody will buy it. (those of you who missed it, check out the wildly successfull "steal this show" which linda and i were both in http://www.dissentia.com/dissentia.html linda got a really nice review, i got a really bad one, but it's terribly funny. and then there's also this photo of us getting busted by the cops while trying to hang free paintings in public: http://www.asc.upenn.edu/usr/cassidy/smbusted2.jpg) cindy sherman's selling unsigned prints for $100 out of her gallery in soho.... i'm not sure i'd put her in the Peoples Art Movement, but it's a step in a direction i like. $40 isn't really outrageously low for an unmatted, unframed RC print by a no-name photographer. (even if i did manage to get most of the dust off of the neg before i printed it.) figure i put a frame on it for $40 more and sold it in a gallery which took the standard 50% commission, it would be priced at $160 -- which may be on the low side, but nothing that would raise an eyebrow in one of philly's small galleries (which is where i'd be showing anyway, the real ones wouldn't touch me with a taser). here in philly you have two types of people going to first friday, your kyle cassidy types, who are mostly there for the free booze and to hobnob with their weirdo friends, be seen in public with models and show off their new vegan doc martins; they will buy stuff if it's cheap and they've had too much to drink. and then you have the chablis and bree crowd (wearing the turtleneck with hugo boss sport coat) -- if they buy a photo it's going to be from a repuitable gallery like Snyderman or Fan and it's going to be from someone they've read about in Art in America and they expect to drop $1200 on it and that's okay because they need something to go between the David Graham and the Sally Mann. in the end, it's less about the art than it is about the art movement.... have domke vest, will travel, kc - -- To unsubscribe, see http://mejac.palo-alto.ca.us/leica-users/unsub.html