selling photos are "Arts and Crafts Shows"

[Bill McMannis]

This photographer, W. Spencer Parshall, seems to have a lot of success. I own several of his images. His site is at www.wsparshall.com.

He is a retired banker who travels Europe with his camera and hits the Michigan art fair circuit in the summer. Last time we spoke, he was shooting 645 though he previosuly shot 35mm. I do not think he ever shot large format, but his images have the perspective control associated with large format.

What makes his images sell is that 1) they really are nice photographs and 2) they are of recognizable places that many of us would like to go to, but cannot.

He sells most of his images framed and matted. He offers them just matted, but they are standard size so the buyer can run to an inexpensive frame shop (Hobby Lobby or Michaels) and have a nice framed image for a reasonable cost. His pricing starts at say $14 for a matted 8x10-ish print to $395 for a 24x36 framed image. He uses a professional lab for his prints and buys in bulk to control costs. Unless something has changed in the last year or two, he is not using a large format inkjet to create his prints. I have always been impressed with how good his prints look despite the smaller format he shoots. His process is described at his site.

He has a lot of money tied up in inventory. I suspect he has 300 prints with him at a given show.

[Kirk Gittings]

"I have heard of artists going home after a weekend with $20.000 revenues."

I have heard of this too say with high end jewlers at the Indian Market in Santa Fe. But I have never ever heard of any photographer coming anywhere close to this. Most of the people I know say they are doing well to break even.

[Brian Ellis]

"do black and white prints sell better than color at these types of shows"

There's a saying among people who do these shows, the gist of which is "black and white wins the awards, color sells."

[Doug Dolde]

If Spencer Parshall can make money with the photos on his website....then so can my dog.

[Bill McMannis]

Doug,

Some dog!

Bill

[Bob Fowler]

I went to a show this past weekend (a potter friend was showing) and wound up buying a print from a local photographer. She told me that I was her second sale of the show (this was about an hour before the show ended).

[bglick]

Brian Ellis.... I always enjoy reading your wonderful posts, information is always accurate and always written with a tinge of humor... I agree 100% with your assessment.... but of course, I could have not presented it so well... you may consider a career as a "post" writer :-)

Bill Proud... You shoot the same scenes I have seen a thousand times, but your imagery looks better then most all I have seen, that's a sign of a great photographer...lets face it, it's challenging getting better "looks" vs. some of these scenes we have all seen thousands of times. Excellent work, and combined with your very compeitive pricing - will make you a prime candidate for success.... the problem is, as Brian points out, success is an elusive word in LF fine art market.....

I have heard of only a few LF fine art photographers that make a living with their art...but when you press hard enough to find their story, their is often a 20 year history of loosing money before that first year when they turn a tiny profit, enough to pay themselves $3 / hr. What's more depressing, the gallery market is not much easier than the art fairs, as the competition is fierce and the % take for the photographer is low. It seems the best chance of success of all the options is opening a gallery in a good location and work the gallery.... of course, you still need the right work, the right pricing and all the marketing as any business requires for success. Thomas Mangleson has proven this concept might be the safest and simplist hope for success.

[Kirk Gittings]

An interesting technical claim from the Spencer Parshall site mentioned above.

"Earlier work was shot on 35mm Nikon equipment, however, each image taken was transferred to a 4x5 inter-negative to create the final print, thus producing sharpness to rival medium format."

Making an interneg increases the sharpness of a 35 transparency?

Claims of financial success by photographers like this, I take with a grain of salt. After 35 years in this business I have come to know what BSrs photographers are about their fees and sales. How many times have I talked to some photographer who is bragging about their booming art sales or commercial business only to turn around a few months later to find them working the counter in a camera store.

[Mark Sampson]

I believe the original mention of Spencer Parshall stated that he was a "retired banker". Which brings up the old question- "How do you make a small fortune in photography?" answer- "Start with a large fortune". It also reminds me of a photographer, whose name escapes me right now. He spoke at RIT and showed his (very good) environmental portraits of Tibetan nomads, shot in b/w and then hand-colored. In his presentation, he revealed that he funded his photojournalism with the profits from his orthodontia practice. I wonder how many eager RIT students noticed that part...

[tim atherton]

"I believe the original mention of Spencer Parshall stated that he was a "retired banker". "

- exactly. I doubt the photo sales come anywhere close to covering the costs of his travels and living expenses. They possibly cover the cost of his photography - film, processing, printing, maybe cameras - it subsidises his hobby.

"He spoke at RIT and showed his (very good) environmental portraits of Tibetan nomads, shot in b/w and then hand-colored. In his presentation, he revealed that he funded his photojournalism with the profits from his orthodontia practice. I wonder how many eager RIT students noticed that part..."

Borges?

I know very very few photographers who are self supporting doing only good, personal work (as opposed to high end commercial etc or who use their commercial work to support their personal work) and living entirely off the proceeds.

I know I'm moving out of the craft fair milieu here, but even the likes of Shore and Sternfeld (I think) and Killip and others often have part or full time academic jobs which still allow them some freedom to pursue their work. Burtynsky owns a very successful pro lab. Others teach a lot of workshops etc. Only people like Friedlander or James or Basilico and some others seem to survive almost entirely on the fruits of their work - print sales, exhibitions, commissions and fellowships/awards