Photographers Get No Respect. Stiffed Again

[Bill_1856]

Watching the CBS Sunday Morning program, they had a long segment on books for Christmas. For every other category, the author was prominently named, but for the photography books there was no mention of the photographers. Stiffed again!

[naturephoto1]

Hi Bill,

What do you expect? Isn't photography still considered to be the b*st*rd child to painting by many? I participate in many Art shows and though I get strong positive comments (and sales are way off at present), I still get the comments at times where the wife says to the husband "honey, you should blow yours up, it will just like that".

Rich

[Bruce Watson]

My favorite comment is "I could have made that photograph."

My standard reply is, "Maybe, but you didn't. Maybe you could have painted Starry Night too. But you didn't. What's your point?"

[Wayne Crider]

But then again wasn't it not so long ago that they had a whole segment on Annie Leibowitz.

[Jim collum]

My favorite comment is "I could have made that photograph."

My standard reply is, "Maybe, but you didn't. Maybe you could have painted Starry Night too. But you didn't. What's your point?"

I'd say photographers are among the most often to say this... Visit any thread about a sale of an image (anything from a few thousand $ and up).. and you'll see many posts of disbelief and the familiar "i could have done that..."

[Brian Ellis]

My favorite comment is "I could have made that photograph."

My standard reply is, "Maybe, but you didn't. Maybe you could have painted Starry Night too. But you didn't. What's your point?"

And does that response generate a lot of sales? : - )

[chris jordan]

My favorite is when people call my prints "shots." As in, "Nice shot." Kind of like with a pistol, you know? Draw and fire without even aiming, and it's all done in a quarter of a second, including the print. Ahhhhh, if they only knew...

[Jack Flesher]

My favorite is when people call my prints "shots." As in, "Nice shot." Kind of like with a pistol, you know? Draw and fire without even aiming, and it's all done in a quarter of a second, including the print. Ahhhhh, if they only knew...

Hey Chris!

I was up at San Fransico Camerawork's new gallery last week and there on the benefactor's wall was your Katrina Bathtub print! I also noted it was offered as a "gift" for new members selecting over a certain level of membership contribution.

Only really two points to make here... The first is I think you deserve special kudos for contributing your work to such a great cause -- so as they say somewhere further south, good on you for doing that! Second one is, I just wanted you to know when I saw your print, I exclaimed to the president, "Hey, that's a Chris Jordan print!" So just FTR, I did not refer to it as a "shot"

Cheers and congrats,

[Bruce Watson]

And does that response generate a lot of sales? : - )

An excellent point. And one that I have actually thought about, and talked to others about.

The few gallery owners I've dealt with and know well enough to discuss such things with honestly seem to be in agreement (certainly not a scientifically significant sample, but it's what I have). They say they never sell anything to people who make these kinds of comments. Not photography, oils, acrylics, watercolors, ceramics,... Consensus is that the "potential customer" has already made up his/her mind about the object in question before they say something like that.

So it doesn't directly increase sales, no. What it does, is get me out of lengthy discussions (I've tried to educate people about how much work it is, and given them the back story on the image they've just insulted, but you can tell from the body language that they just don't want to hear it) with people who aren't actually potential customers, and lets me put in more time with people who are actually interested. So yes, it might just increase sales in an indirect way.

[Greg Lockrey]

Oh come on! The only hard thing about photography is getting the exposure correct. If you bracket, you're bound to get that right.