[Leica] Giving away pictures.

[lrzeitlin at gmail.com (Lawrence Zeitlin)]

Tina writes:

"You are right, Peter.  I was there telling you not to give your photos away

for nothing.  How do you know it had no commercial value?  I sell photos

every day that would be considered throwaway home happy snaps.  If you give

them away for nothing, you will never know if you could have sold them and

you diminish the value of all photography by giving your creative work

away..  Credit is worth demanding but only if it is accompanied by actual

money!!


I'll get off my soapbox now, but I hope no one ever gives their photos away

for only a credit :-("


Tina, I fully agree with your position but you are not describing the world
as it is. It is harder to make a decent living as an independent
professional photographer than it is as an actor or even a poet. Considering
the number of professional quality cameras out there, only the tiniest
fraction deliver pictures that are ever published. Given the quality
standards imposed by stock agencies, vanishingly few P&S pictures will ever
make the grade regardless of merit unless of a particularly newsworthy
event.



I serve as an art critic for several newspapers in the art rich northeast
and visit dozens of art and photography shows annually. Far fewer than 10%
of the artworks and photos exhibited sell. Those that do depict a narrow
range of subjects, usually locally defined. Animals, children and nostalgia
sell. Marine scenes sell along the Atlantic coast, western and frontier
scenes in Texas, and faux Hudson River art in the Hudson Valley. But few
portraits, or historical event pictures. Bright colors sell, muted grays
don't. And forget about B&W unless your last name is Adams or Weston. To
sell artworks, you must forget about your internal muse and conform to the
desires of your audience. The virtue of a site like the LUG is that there
are no jurors who filter the content. Many of the pictures are truly
excellent but would be hard pressed to find a commercial outlet. But on the
LUG they don't have to.


So if a photographer is offered an opportunity to have his/her pictures
published in a national forum, grab at the chance. Even if there is no
payment. It may be the only way to get recognition in an overcrowded
field. Isn't that why we produce the LUG yearbook?


Perhaps it is harder to make a living as a poet than as a photographer. But
not much.


Larry Z