My end of year fundraiser print sale

[claudiocambon]

Hi folks,

Through the end of this year, and into January, I am hosting a special print offer on my website, www.claudiocambon.com , to fundraise for a new photographic project I will undertake in Mexico sometime in 2007.
I invite you to take a look at new work on my site, much of which was made with the support I received in prior, similar offers held in these last few years. I am an artist supported by his extended community.
As with the past sales that I have held, I have listed much of my work at almost half its gallery price. Some prints are as low as $125, as I am offering some of the older portfolios, such as the shipbreaking and ranch series, in new, smaller sizes. Everything is under $400 in an effort to make the work as affordable and accessible as possible.
I continue to make my own black and white silver gelatin prints in a traditional, fume filled darkroom, but have added color archival inkjet prints to my vocabulary recently; these are made for me with great care by the one and only Digital Fusion here in the Los Angeles area. The prints are part of my standard editions that are to be found in museum and private collections worldwide.
All proceeds will fund this new project, which I am very excited about. Two years ago I traveled with a friend to a remote village in the state of Veracruz, Mexico called “El Porvenir, #2”, which loosely translates to “The Future, #2”. (There is one portrait in the Mexico section that comes from there.) I came to learn that ‘El Porvenir’ is a common name for small towns and villages in Mexico, and it occurred to me that I would like to photograph in every one of them, from the Texas border to the edge of Guatemala! Simply put, I have always been interested in how much of a person’s past shows in a photograph, which is instead very much a moment in the present. Why not in a place called the future?!
I should note that this simple verbal conceit offers me more than a way of navigating the country’s geographical and cultural differences. Mexico has always been a land of paradoxes for me: effusive and reserved, serene and severe, lyrical and ascetic. This project allows me to consider the vital tension of these inherent contradictions.
By all means distribute this information to absolutely anyone you know who might be remotely interested; many of my clients have in fact come to me as referrals from friends.
With all my best wishes for a peaceful and happy holiday season,

Claudio Cambon
www.claudiocambon.com

[Brian Ellis]

"All proceeds will fund this new project"

I kept reading this message waiting to see the worthy cause to which you planned to donate the photographs made on your trip or the proceeds from the sale of the photographs. But I never saw any worthy cause. All I saw was a request that people buy your prints so that you would have enough money to make this trip you'd like to make. Why should I give you money so that you can make this great photography trip (and presumably sell the resulting photographs) when there are so many places I'd like to photograph myself? It seemed to make a lot more sense for me to keep the money I otherwise would have paid to you and instead use it to finance my own trip. So I decided not to buy a print. But you'll be happy to know that the money I saved by not buying a print from you will be applied to a trip I plan to make to the Alabama Hills and Death Valley later this year.

[Photomax]

Jeesh Brian,

Just being a little judgmental aren't you? The concept of fund-raising is a pretty broad concept. Sure the term is used for good works, charities, and civic projects etc. Girl-scouts raise money for fun trips, churches raise money for bells and anyone can raise money to buy stuff or do almost anything.

Claudio does a pretty thorough job of describing what he is selling and what he plans on doing with the proceeds: take a cool sounding trip and produce more photographs. Its not like you found out that he was "raising" the money to support homeless kids and then spent it all in a brothel. He is just selling some prints is all. Folks can purchase them or not.

Some folks might read your sarcastic words and then have second thoughts about buying prints from you...

Max

[claudiocambon]

Brian,

I think making new art IS a worthy cause, and the many people who have bought prints from me over the years, among whom many are fellow photographers, think that buying a print from me at a reasonable price is a good deal for them and me. Kim Weston told me once how Grandpa Edward used to have one image a month on sale (I think for $25.00!), and he used to pass the news around to everyone he knew. Kim chuckled and said, "If it was good enough for him, it is for me too!" Ditto.

I never said that it had to be worthy to you. I merely put if forth in case it might be of interest to members of this forum, some of whom I am sure collect photographs. I also do not understand why you suggest that I am asking you to spend money on my work instead of on making your own work. The offer is there for those who are interested and able. If you are not interested, so be it; no one said you had to be, or holds it against you in any way. I do however question why you feel you need to explain that in such a public, and somewhat unpleasant manner, because I think it diminishes the standards of this forum, which I have otherwise found to be highly informative, courteous and overall very positive.

I hope you enjoy Death Valley and the Alabama Hills, areas where I have also spent some time. I gladly share any info I can, so please feel free to ask me any questions if you have any. Safe travels, happy shooting, and happy holidays.

Claudio Cambon
www.claudiocambon.com

[Jorge Gasteazoro]

I think Brian's objection is to the word "fundraiser" which implies raising funds for a charity or "worthy" cause. You really only needed to say "end of the year sale" since most people do not care what use you are going to give to the money. I too was confused about your title and was looking for the reason you were fundraising other than to "take more pics".

WHat you have done is not unheard of, many photographers do what you do to raise funds for their project, but the title was misleading. If it had been me I would have made the title "end of the year sale to fund future project".

Anyhow, good luck in your project. If you are comming to Mexico please, please do not come to photograph poor people, it has been done before and frankly many of us here in Mexico are tired of seeing this kind of pictures and the photogs comming here on winter to do it.....

[Steven Barall]

Well Brian, I hope there's room under your tree for that lump of coal. Ho Ho Ho

[Claude Sapp]

Come on guys, in Brian's defense, you have to admit that semantically 'fundraiser' implies a much more selfless cause than 'my upcoming trip to Mexico'.

An unexplained lump of coal moving mysteriously across the Death Valley desert and leaving trails would be a cool picture though.

[Michael Graves]

Personally, I can say with enthusiasm, that if I was financially sound enough, I would buy one of Claudio's prints in a heartbeat. I checked out his website and was very impressed with his images. I see no problem with him offering prints for sale to finance another trip. I personally am trying to raise funds to visit every brothel in the southwest, so I'm welcoming contributions. (Secretly, however, I'm really going to spend the money supporting homeless people.)

Hang in there, Claudio. I hope you do well.

[Brian Ellis]

As I understand it Claudio is a professional or semi-professional photographer who makes prints and sells them through his web site and by other means. He's now asking people to help him finance a trip to Mexico so that he can make more prints, which he can then sell to more clients. And if other people buy prints they wouldn't otherwise buy then there will be virtually no out-of-pocket cost to him and he'll make an exceptionally nice profit on the sales of the prints he makes on his trip . That's not what I would call a "fund raiser" in the usual sense of the word. It's what I'd call a good business deal for Claudio - someone else pays for the cost of the trip and he keeps all the proceeds from the sale of photographs made on the trip.

I did take offense at reading a message which in the subject line implied (I thought) that a fund raiser for some non-profit organization was being held and then finding out that the only beneficiary of the "fund raiser" was the photographer himself. But if that doesn't bother anyone else that's o.k. Different things offend different people. It did bother me and I posted a message to that effect. I thought it was a fairly mild message. I didn't call Claudio a liar or a cheat or any other names and if he can induce people to help him pay for his trip more power to him.

[sanking]

Brian,

I will be spending three weeks in Mexico in January and hope you will be able to contribute to my “just cause.” OK, I really don’t need the money for ordinary expenses, but I was thinking that if you could contribute $500-1000 to the King Fund this would allow me to have a much better life style. For example, instead of the rot gut tequila and mezcal I usually drink when in Mexico I could step up to some of the really vinatge brands, and in place of tacos off the local stands I could have the squash blossom soup at the best restaurants. Hell, I might even meet up with Jorge and make a toast with him to your name with the best tequila in all of Mexico.

No need to worry that your money might be thrown away on wild women. On this trip I will be with my wife most of the time, and in any event the brothel thing is something I tend to avoid.


Sandy King


eficiary of the "fund raiser" was the photographer himself. But if that doesn't bother anyone else that's o.k. Different things offend different people. It did bother me and I posted a message to that effect. I thought it was a fairly mild message. I didn't call Claudio a liar or a cheat or any other names and if he can induce people to help him pay for his trip more power to him.[/QUOTE]