Displaying my Prints at Ottawa South Art show (Advice request too)

anandi

anandi

Gotta catch the light.
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Hello All,
I forget when I joined RFF exactly, but it seems like a looong time ago, and I'm glad to have found this community. In some small part it has spurred me to display my prints at a local art show in Ottawa. My wife was the bigger part, and very supportive with this. 🙂

I have been preparing for the last few weeks and it's tomorrow:
http://www.oosartfestival.ca/
If you're in Ottawa, drop by to see my stuff. If you're online you can comment here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/aanandi/sets/72157594274921220/
(please be gentle, though - most of these have been printed!)

So since I have bought gear from the RFF collective used in the show, you might be interested in the results (a of butch's and rover's gear used as well as jvx's 28mm nikkor). In any case, I am struggling with one question - pricing. I plan to sell 5x7 framed prints, and had 2 questions: 1. Should I display the prices and 2. I would appreciate some ranges of pricing that you think is reasonable. The frames are wood, black, and the prints are signed high-quality archival prints. I have a couple of numbers in mind and would really appreciate getting some feedback before the show.

Cheers!
 
Looks like a great festival. I'll try to drop by if I can. (I don't have any useful advice to offer with regards to pricing, but good luck with the sales.)
 
Anandi,
Are these limited, editioned prints? Obviously, limited prints are are worth more. Typically, fine art photogs will sell on a graduated scale with the price going up as the edition sells out.
Prints RC or Fiber?
Did you print them yourself or pay to have them done?
As Frank mentioned, framing costs..
What do YOU think they're worth?
 
The reason I asked about framing cost is because the is a huge diff in what you can ask for a print presented in a $4 frame versus a $20 frame. The difference is more than the $16 diff in framing cost.

Cheaply framed you can get maybe $20. With a high quality frame and matt, $80.
 
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Thanks for responding.

The frames including matting range from $15 to $25 (there are a couple of nicer frames and an 8x10), the paper was Ilford Gallerie stuff (negatives were scanned) and I printed them myself after endless tweaking and colour calibration. I plan to sell the 4x6 proofs as notecards for between $5 and $10 depending on the size. None of the frames look cheap, and am expecting not to sell very many and therefore had to like the frames enough to live with myself.

Cheers,
-Amit
 
How long will the digitally printed image last? This may just be my bias (and I recognise I have one), but I would not spend as much on a digital print ass on a silver geletin print, because of the archival issue. Yes, certain digital printing inks and paper claim impressive longevity, but these are not the consumer grade inks most of us use. I don't know your set-up.
 
25 years apparently. I've had prints using these inks under glass last 4 years without fading, but seen other prints from friends fade after a year (posted on our fridge) so I understand your bias.
 
Please disregard my suggestion of $80 for a well framed print. I made that suggestion thinking that the picture was a silver geletin print. It's got to be much less for a digital print, in my biased opinion.
 
Thanks for the replies folks. Hmm I guess I could have looked up my sig for my join date...
The day went really well. I should have been a little clearer Frank, 2 of the 16 prints I was showing were in fact silver gelatin but the rest were not.
The day was gorgeous and after a hurried putting up of the sunshade, I put up my prints. Traffic was a steady handful of people and sometimes even crowded.
It was really nice watching people look at my images and spend time looking at them. I had chosen a mix of accessible and 'out there' with 3 double exposures in particular that I liked but was sure that nobody would really enjoy but me. I was pleased to have been proven wrong as 2 of those were the ones that people looked at the most and commented on. The day wasn't about selling but nonetheless I was happy to have sold 4 of 16 prints and a bunch of notecards just to get some sense that local neighbours were willing to put my work on their walls and stare at it every day. I even got an inquiry to create a 4 foot by 3 foot version of one of my prints. I'm glad I still mainly shoot film, I'm fairly sure I couldn't even think of doing that with a single digital frame (from a camera that I could afford).

Next year I will try dusting off my Leitz Valloy II and hand printing some prints. Only one of my four buyers asked about the print and how it was made and what the run was. I think Frank is right in that hand prints have more intrinsic value than digital prints, it's the difference between buying homemade bread and storebought from the same recipie. That being said, there was no discernable difference between my silver gelatin prints and long-life colourfast inkjet prints on achival paper. If you're interested here's the final gallery
The framed prints that I sold are titled "i know", "Blue Mountain", "SWF", and "Prize every time". "Prize" was in 8x10 the rest in 5x7. Notecards that sold were "The Veil", "Jellyfish" (not shown online) "Life in a Bowl" and a diptych (sp?) of "Blackberries" and "I know"

Thanks for your kind attention.
-Amit
 
I set the prices of 5x7 Framed prints at $60 (CDN), 8x10 at $80 and Notecards at $10. I think next year I would have 8x10 and possibly a few larger ones as well.
 
anandi said:
I even got an inquiry to create a 4 foot by 3 foot version of one of my prints. I'm glad I still mainly shoot film, I'm fairly sure I couldn't even think of doing that with a single digital frame (from a camera that I could afford).
Click to expand...

I've made prints that size from a six megapixel camera, it's no problem with the right interpolation software.
 
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