Has Your Photo Been Published or Exhibited?

I've had dozens of photos published nationally and hundreds published locally, but I've never heard anyone talk about them -- except for subjects asking me, "Why did you send in that one where I look so fat?"
 
rogue_designer said:
Jon - I find that the lower the price is on a photo, the more people complain about it.

I've never understood why - I suppose it's a perceived value thing. For an experiment, next time you have a show multiply your price by 5 or 10x and gauge the responses.

I think you'll be suprised. Worst case scenario you still don't sell any. Best case, you do, and you attract a less price concious clientelle who won't gripe over paying more than materials "cost" for a piece of art.
Click to expand...

There's a lot of logic to this. Many years ago, when I did more writing, I wrote a magazine article in which I interviewed local artists about how they priced their work. One of the most interesting was a young painter who was already quite successful and since then has become even more successful. He had thought a lot about this and had several interesting insights.

One was that when he was first getting started, he did NOT price his work low to "build a clientele." Instead, he surveyed the market, noted the prices asked by the highest-priced, most-established local painters, and then priced his work just below theirs. He said this was his way of showing potential buyers that he considered his work to be of the same caliber as the top guys; if he had priced his paintings too low, they wouldn't have had confidence in them.

He also said something that ties in with the comment above about attracting the right clientele. The number of people who actually buy paintings is fairly small, he said -- but the people who do buy them have the ability to pay, and they aren't especially price-sensitive. They're happy to pay $5,500 for a painting they like a lot, rather than $3,500 for a painting they don't like as much... so you might as well price it at what you think it's worth, rather than discounting it in hopes of luring buyers.

A third point he made that's similar: "You never want to be the cheapest painter in town." He explained that if you let people get used to thinking of you as, say, a $500 painter, it's going to be really hard to make the step up to being a $1,500 painter or a $3,500 painter. The customers who were buying your $500 paintings aren't going to be able to afford you anymore, and the customers who can afford $3,500 paintings aren't going to spend that much money for the work of someone they consider a $500 painter. You have to figure out where you belong in the price spectrum, and then position yourself there right from the start.



It's very hard to apply that excellent logic to selling photography, though, since in most parts of the country it lacks perceived value except as "wall decor." I used to be in a gallery run by a lady who was trying very hard to develop a fine-art photography market, but she just couldn't get any traction. A veteran of the industry told her that in most parts of the country, the only photos that sell are flowers, landscapes and nudes; the first two categories go on the wall, and the third into "private collections" for the owners' personal jollies. Even within those three categories, she was told, most people won't pay much more for an original print than they'd pay for a poster, so the only way to make it work is to stick to the obvious and sell in volume. She didn't like that, and neither did the artists she represented, but after bucking reality for a couple of years she had to fold her tent. Sad, but I think that's still the reality except in a handful of "sophisticated" art markets (where they're vulnerable to other ailments, such as susceptibility to trendy trash.)
 
I think pricing high is the answer.

I already do that for my consultancy work (non-photo) and don't get many clients, but at my prices I don't need many clients.
 
I haven't had any photos I was proud of published yet, but one shot I took at a retreat event did go in the local paper once.

I've had some exhibited at the civic center through a photography club I'm a member of, and I just donated two framed prints for auction at a convention. I've also entered work in the county and state fairs, and won some ribbons and prize money a few times (won $50 this year at the state fair, two blue ribbons - one of them got a best of show and judge's choice, too)

Only sold two prints so far, though. One for $100 and one for $50. I'm going to step it up and get all of the prints for the next civic center show professionally printed, matted and framed, and price them at about $300.
 
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I worked at newsapers for years then switched to sports freelancing. I've had a fair bit of work published. In the fall I got three shots in Sports Illustrated in three weeks... that was kind of fun.
I worked on two books already this year, they're not my books, just books that I contributed the photography for. All in all I've been in 36 books... I don't even keep them anymore... just sell them at the annual garage sale.
The coolest thing I've ever had published was the Wheaties Cereal Box. They put a photo of Roger Clemens on the box and it was one of my shots.

I've keep the cereal all these years.

-Rob Skeoch
www.bigcameraworkshops.com
 
This is an advertisement for a high-tech underwater remote operated vehicle:

http://www.videoray.com/Press_Room/ladyluck_032007.htm

Illustrated in part with a picture I took with my 30+ year-old Canonet GIII-17! I'm pretty stoked, even though no money changed hands (my amateur status is undeniable). The caption data for the photo is mostly right.

A few years ago, a picture I took became a 1/2 page in the Boston Globe entertainment section, but that was taken with a modern camera. Even though the audience for this ad is a lot smaller, this seems just as exciting to me.

Ed
 
Two covers on a literary magazine (out of three issues before they went bust...)
And one in a real newspaper! (also went bust later...)
Quite a few in university newspapers.
Several in other university stuff.
(one of the colleges is out of business...)
Ad for a local business (owner later jailed...)
One in a report for a town in Rhode Island (mayor later jailed...)
Several in reports for the City of Detroit (now America's armpit...mayor "unindited conspirator" )

Perhaps publishing my photos isn't such a good idea...
 
I have about a dozen or so photos published in magazines and what not under my belt. A lot of art magazines and stuff like that. Also I do about 8 exhibitions a year.
 
Not rangefinder shots, but I had a digital shot used on a website of an all volunteer railroad group to which I belong. They also used one of my film shots in their brochure. I haven't seen the 2007 version, but it was in the 2006 version.
 
What is interesting about this thread is how surprising it is. There are people I believe are excellent that aren't 'out there' and a whole crew of published / active members of RFF who I never suspected were being published.

Who knew, who suspected? Not me.
 
tkluck said:
Two covers on a literary magazine (out of three issues before they went bust...)
And one in a real newspaper! (also went bust later...)
Quite a few in university newspapers.
Several in other university stuff.
(one of the colleges is out of business...)
Ad for a local business (owner later jailed...)
One in a report for a town in Rhode Island (mayor later jailed...)
Several in reports for the City of Detroit (now America's armpit...mayor "unindited conspirator" )

Perhaps publishing my photos isn't such a good idea...
Click to expand...


I think Barack Obama would like to engage you to take a portrait of George Bush.... I also think that Stephan Dion would like to engage you to take the official portrait of the Prime Minister Stephen Harper... sorry but how could anyone not take you up on your wonderful observations. I image they both would settle for 'going out of business' like one of the colleges you did photography for.
 
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Of course, there's the last RFF book...

I realized a month ago that a photo I took of a friend's Jazz band was published on a local weekly publication.

Also, a photo of mine is apparently to be exhibited, along with hundreds of others, in the Family of Man 2 exhibition. I have heard nothing in over a year, though.

I lack the American assertiveness to market myself. I should start drinking more of whatever it is I'm not drinking. 😛
 
I have many images in Museums and collections all over the world. I've had many exhibitions but what I'm most proud of is that I have 250 images in the Library of Congress from Viet-Nam. I was a grunt and carried an M4 and an M16 and made many images. After I returned some of the images were used for the Winter Solder Investigation. Then they were submitted to The Library of Congress where they still live, cataloged and to this day, I have not even viewed them at all. I have the code to view them and I never used it.....Maybe after I die, my kids can make a book and make some money....me, they live in my brain and heart and I don't need to see them.....I have 4 shows this year and a publisher wants to do a book but I just want to keep on making images......we'll see.......

I ain't bragging...it's just how I live through and with photography....

I still teach and better...learn every day....don
 
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