Don't know whether this thread will fly, but here goes...
For many photographers, the dream is to make a living doing their own creative work. Few achieve this, but many of us flitter around the edges or think of making the plunge in the future. It's something I think of, and hope the list will be added to.
Up for discussion then are the "Rules," the facts of life and responsibilities of the working fine art photographer trying to make it in the world of the private gallery, public museum, critic, collector, publisher, and grant-awarding art foundation.
(General disclaimer: all rules are up for discussion, and just because I started this mess doesn't mean I know what I'm talking about.)
The Rules:
Rule: If you're going to show in a private gallery, your work must meet the approval of the gallery owner/director, and be marketable to a buying audience. The gallery is theirs, not yours, and they have the responsibility of keeping it financially viable and aesthetically sound.
Rule: If you are represented by a gallery, you will not sell your work in that gallery's area (geographic area, audience area, etc.) except through that gallery.
Rule: A 50% gallery commission is the current standard, but by long-standing principle, a gallery should never take more that 50%.
Rule: When a gallery accepts you as an artist it will represent, you have accepted a continuing responsibility to produce new work in cohesive bodies that is both critically successful and saleable.
Rule: Work produced for sale will be archivally processed and mounted, whatever that means to the gallery/customer.
Rule: Only your very best prints will go to the gallery. If it takes 100 tries to get the best print, they get that one, not a near miss, even if you're the only one that can tell.
Rule: You must promote yourself to galleries, publishers, etc., especially as a new artist. No one will seek you out.
Rule: Grants to support your work from art foundations will not come until you are already an established and published artist.
Rule: You will produce substantive artist's statements, and articulately explain and defend your work. You should be able to converse in the language of the art-literate if you are to build and keep the relationships necessary to success.
Bookmarks