RE: [Leica] Re: price of art prints (was re: kyle's fine art)

["B. D. Colen" <bdcolen@earthlink.net>]

I think there are several things being missed in all of this:

1. The vast majority of people have no real conception of good, bad, or ugly
when it comes to any form of art - just look at the mind-boggling popularity
of the guy whose factory churns out that execrable lighthouse and cottage
drech for 10s of thousands of dollars each. So what that means is that most
people, faced with a choice between paying $10K for a truly fine wedding
shoot, and $1500 for drech, will go for drech and save the money, saying
'this is really great, why should I spend more?'

2. Most - NOT ALL - of what is given away, or sold at really low prices, is
crap, be it art or software. Sure, there are some really wonderful freeware
programs out there. But freeware is not what runs most computers, most
business, etc., nor is it what most artists who are using computers use. And
most art that is given away could not be sold, and most art that is sold at
low prices could not be sold for higher prices - BUT it does draw work away
from people who do produce quality (see above.)

3. I suspect that much of the hue and cry about the need to have free and
cheap art comes from those who desperately wish they could produce high
quality, high priced, art, but can't - for one reason or another. (and it
may be that they can't because they chose to put most of their effort into a
high paying, and/or steady job rather than take the enormous risks involved
in earning a living in any artistic field. But of course having the ability
to take those risks is one of the things necessary to succeed commercially
in an artistic field of endeavor.

Anyway, the issue here isn't Kyle's prints sold on the LUG. First, as I
argued earlier, Kyle could certainly be selling his work for much higher
prices - whether you happen to like GothGurls or not, he's damn good.
And,more to the point, what we are really talking about is the person who
says, 'oh, hell, Sam and Jessica, I'll shoot your wedding if you just buy my
film. You don't need to waste all that money on some fancy dancy
photographer."

And the "fancy dancy photographer" is out a job.

BUT - that's the way the world works.

B. D.



- -----Original Message-----
From: owner-leica-users@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us
[mailto:owner-leica-users@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us]On Behalf Of Eric
Sent: Tuesday, March 12, 2002 7:03 AM
To: leica-users@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us
Subject: [Leica] Re: price of art prints (was re: kyle's fine art)


B.D.:

>when folks who don't depend upon their
>photography/painting/sculpture/writing/computer programing to make a living
>price it well below the market when compared to those who do those things
to
>make a living, it makes earning a living pretty difficult for the
>full-timers: particularly when the seller is someone like Kyle, whose
>photographic work is better than that of a goodly percentage of the
>full-time "pros" out there.

I don't understand this line of reasoning.  Since you included computer
programming, I'll use it as an example.  Free software is abundantly
available.  For zero cost.  Yet, programmers are still needed.

Switching back to photographer, stock images are also abundantly available
for a fraction of the cost of hiring somebody to go out and take a new
image.

Your clients, B.D., in your "day in the life" hire you rather than sift
through cheaper-priced stock images.

Ted touched on this a little while ago when he related the tale of a client
that decided he could do the job himself.  And then came crawling back to
Ted, needing Ted's expertise.

I think the last phrase in the previous sentence is the key.  People are
willing to pay to have their problems solved.  If you don't have a problem,
you're unlikely to pay to have it solved.  I don't have a problem with my
wall space lacking a $6000 piece of art.  I'm unlikely to have a problem
that needs a $1000+ piece of art, either.  Yet, I bought the services of a
photographer for something between $1-2k a few years ago.  I had a problem.
I wanted quality photos of my wedding.  He solved my problem.  Doesn't
matter how many art prints Kyle is selling for $40, none of those were going
to solve my problem.  :)

Doesn't matter how many stock images you could buy for the same price as
your clients pay, B.D.  None of those stock images will solve their
problems.  Doesn't matter how much free software my employer downloads.  By
themselves, none solve problems.

Luckily, the 2nd law of thermodynamics guarantees that there will always be
problems to solve.  :)


Eric
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