selling photos are "Arts and Crafts Shows"

[Wayne Crider]

Kirk the 8x10's were matted only and the larger prints went for a lot more. I remember prices of 3 and 4 hundered dollars. He must have been doing enough sales to support himself as he took a double spot and had a 10 x 20 tent. I belive he also had friends or relatives in Italy to stay with, and I believe this is what you have to cultivate.

WG, I use to help manage a CW band and it was amazing what club owner's only wanted to pay. It wasn't worth the effort for me based on my percentage. But I will tell you based on my trade of air conditioning service that a simple life photographing and selling images beats crawling thru an attic in the middle of summer to fix equipment every day of the week.

[Hans Berkhout]

It doesn't mattere if you are a professional or an amateur, but if selling your work is of importance to you than you better spend an awful lot of time and energy in self promotion. Just putting your best work on display will not necessarily lead to significant sales. Ask yourself if you are able and willing to do this consistently. Nobody else will do it for you until you have marketed yourself all over the place. Howard Chapnick used to say that brown (sulfur) toned rural scenes sell best at art fairs etc. But that was a few years ago.

[David_Senesac]

As a serious non-careeer photographer in Northern California, I've been perusing these shows since the early 80s as well as galleries and museums. For years most selling in such shows seemed to all be doing about the same thing. Hit all the tourist spots and take icon shots. Make modest sized prints and sell them for between $19.95 and $79 bucks un a cheap mat board with shrinkwrap. Since my area of photography is natural landscapes I've always been keen on looking at those putting out such images. Most of what I used to see was not very good. However in the last 15 years a number of better photographers have gotten into it and until the dot com bubble burst there was a period when some of them were doing quite well.

In the last year I went back and took another look at getting into doing some of those shows. An acquaintence of mine has been doing these shows successfully for some years and manages to do ok though has not gotten rich. There certainly is some big money to be made at the better shows in wealthier locales. However there is a lot of competition too as lots of low end photographers that make that a lifestyle work really hard to get a piece of it. Many of course just do not have very good material but that doesn't seem to make a lot of difference since they sell an array of small art stuff. At one large area show last August in a well to do local city, there were about two dozen photography booths within a half mile long length of show tents. One fairly well known nature photographer that is shooting 617 now did a killing as he had several large LJ5k prints that were exceptional. I made three tours of the show over a couple days and his booth was always jammed whereas all the others were either just barely making enough to cover show fees or hardly anything. I did speak with several. A couple said it would be their last shows and were getting out. My friend made a modest profit. I've always thought someone with really top landscapes printed large would knock people out and do well and that show proved it.

Then there are issues like judging and submissions. Many of the more difficult to get into shows require a competitive entry of one's art. The judging is of course done in a ridiculous outdated way that works against fine art larger format. And there is often a bunch of limitations on how photography has to be packaged and presented that is not too realistic. For instance framing a 32x40 inch print in a 40x48 inch mat and frame will cost several hundred bucks. It ends up being huge and expensive then one needs a commercial van for transportation. Of course the standard 10x10 foot size of a booth will not allow a photographer of large prints with lots of material to show much because there is only so much booth space. ...David

[paulr]

It doesn't mattere if you are a professional or an amateur, but if selling your work is of importance to you than you better spend an awful lot of time and energy in self promotion.

This is an ugly, ugly truth.

It's true even if your priority is just getting a lot of people to LOOK at your work--shows, publications, collections, etc.

My artist friends with the most success getting work out into the world typically say only a third of their time goes into making art. Much of the rest is spent on grovelling ... I mean, um, promotion.

[Don Miller]

Interesting thread -- do black and white prints sell better than color at these types of shows? I've been to few sidewalk craft sales, and the color photographs all seem to be variations of the same themes -- sunsets, blurred water in streams, fall foliage, flowers, etc. But maybe that's what people want.

Color definitely sells better.

The better photographers at a show are often the B&W guys, however.

[Donald Qualls]

Color definitely sells better.

The better photographers at a show are often the B&W guys, however.

The words "at a show" in the above quote are redundant, IMO.

Disclaimer: I shoot about 99% B&W, and damned near 100% on film...

[Don Miller]

The words "at a show" in the above quote are redundant, IMO.

Disclaimer: I shoot about 99% B&W, and damned near 100% on film...

And all this time I thought they were just too lazy to find real subjects.....

[Graeme Hird]

Sorry for coming into this thread so late, but I do have some experience here which may be of benefit.

I ran a small stall at the local monthly market for a couple of years. I usually managed to cover my costs each month with 2 or 3 print sales worth a total of around $120 (Aussie dollars, so around US$85). I received follow-up sales of 4 to 6 prints during the month which were directly attributable to my exposure at the market, and I was usually remembered when weddings or portraits were required.

Of course, I was never adequately compensated for my time; just my financial outlays. However, I don't regret my time spent at the markets. I treated those days as "market research" for my current work.

In October 2003 I opened my own gallery in which I only stock my own work. I sell many of the same prints now for at least 3 times the price I was selling them for at the market, and I average 2 print sales a day. Some prints (which weren't available at the markets) now fetch $1600 plus framing.

The difference is in the customers' perception of the of the value my work: people now view my prints in a better environment (ie I control the lighting, sounds and smells in my gallery) and my gallery has an "air of permanency" (I'm an "artist" whose work might be worth collecting because I'll be around for a while). Selling at the markets is done by "unknown and second rate artists" (that's from the customers point of view, not mine ...)

So while I don't disagree with using markets as a spring-board for your career, don't expect to get rich at them. Use them to judge how your work will be received (just like the photographers that David_senesac mentioned) - if your work is not good enough, it's better to find out before investing $40,000 in your own gallery!

(Oh, and from my personal experience, colour sells. Everybody says they LOVE B&W, but when it comes time to pull the wallet out, it's a colour print they'll choose.)

Cheers,
Graeme

[John Kasaian]

FWIW I think it would be a real hoot to sit under one of those blue canopys and watch people people go by slurping snow cones and eating funnel cakes...

...but it wouldn't be as much fun as being somewhere outdoors making photographs with dead people's furniture ;-)

[bill proud]

BGlick,

Thanks for your compliment.

I've seen Graeme Hird's work over on F/32 site. Excellent material and I have a question for you. Now that you have your own gallery, do you man it or have you hired help? I have been considering that step but don't want to live at the gallery nor have to deal with hired help.

And an update from my earlier post. I passed on a coming show in Dolores, Colorado near my home. I'm going through some sort of, "don't care anymore", stage. I sold about $800.00 at last years show, netting about $400.00 after fees and cost of materials.

It has been a slow year so far.