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Thread: Photographers who buy other photographers' prints

  1. #1
    alec4444's Avatar
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    Thumbs up Photographers who buy other photographers' prints

    As I contemplate purchasing a couple of Bill Zorn's prints (and perhaps Chris Honeysett's as well....man) I wondered how many other photographers out there also collect & display prints from other photographers? If you're one of these people, do you actively look for prints or do you impulsively buy something that catches your eye?

    Cheers!
    --A

  2. #2
    Greg Lockrey's Avatar
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    Re: Photographers who buy other photographers' prints

    Yes. Usually impulse. The piece has to "hit" me and if I can afford it. Artists and photographers buy and trade with me all the time. I do draw the line when they want to pay me with prints I had made for them though.
    Greg Lockrey

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  3. #3
    Robert A. Zeichner's Avatar
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    Re: Photographers who buy other photographers' prints

    I have certainly made a few purchases and I sometimes trade prints with other photographers. I've even traded an entire portfolio. I've also made a number of print sales to other photographers and artists.

  4. #4

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    Re: Photographers who buy other photographers' prints

    I do not actively search for prints to buy, but would be on a impulse, if I really liked something I would buy it and I have a few from some well known photographers. And recently I had a well known photographer contact me and wanted one of my humble prints, He wanted to trade a print with, which I said absolutely.

    BR

  5. #5

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    Re: Photographers who buy other photographers' prints

    I have some Erskine Wood prints of the Northwest I bought in the early 1980's when I was transferred to the Southwest with little hope of coming back for a few years (it took 5 years) and one Ansel Adams poster print. The Wood prints are of places I've been and photographed, just not as well, and the Adam poster is my favorite of his, "Sunrise over the Sierras from Lone Pine." Otherwise, the rest are my attempts at something.

  6. #6
    Resident Heretic Bruce Watson's Avatar
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    Re: Photographers who buy other photographers' prints

    I've bought a number of prints in the past when I could. To answer your last question, I do both. I actively look for prints that catch my eye.

    Now that I'm doing much more with my own photography I put most of that money into my own work so I tend to trade with other photographers to get prints. I display a mix of prints on my walls; some of mine and some of theirs. I rehang the house every once in a while, like when I want to see a print I haven't seen for a while or when my wife wants certain prints up for a party.

    What makes me interested in a print is the image itself. I don't care much how it's printed. As a result I've got prints that run from dye transfers to silver to platinum to inkjet prints. One of my favorites is one I found in Toronto one summer -- it was the first print that photographer sold of her own work (she was her co-op's Iris printer operator so had made a lot of prints for other people that had sold). She was so excited! I still laugh about that.

    One of my other favorites is an "estate print." It's a print that George Tice made from a Steichen negative for the Steichen heirs to sell -- this one is Lotus, Mount Kisco, New York, 1915 and is rather famous (the USPO made a commemorative stamp of it for example). There are only a few of the original 8x10 contact prints around and they are shall we say rather pricey. Even if I could have found a seller (very doubtful, that) I would have had to sell the house to be able to afford it. Let's just say that my wife looked at me askance

    An estate print has no value to a collector looking for an investment because the collector world seems to think of them as "cheap knock-offs." But it is a fine print (Tice does know a few things about printing on silver) of an outstanding image. It's a joy to view, and that's what I'm really looking for when you get down to it.

    Bruce Watson

  7. #7

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    Re: Photographers who buy other photographers' prints

    I have started buying prints in the past year. So far, I have tried to support young artists in order to help them get started. As business gets better and retirement becomes more secure, I imagine my budget for photographs will increase and I may collect some of the photographers I have always wanted to own, but that are currently priced out of my budget.

  8. #8

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    Re: Photographers who buy other photographers' prints

    Trading is usually easier but when you can get some newbie excited about selling a >$250 print then it's a win-win, provided it is a kick ass print.

    But really I... err... we... like buying other media so when I do hang some of mine they have a contrast. Painters and printmakers are starving as much as, if not more than, photographers.

    Commercial illustration is a good thing to collect, especially old corporate and wildlife (hunting) prints.

  9. #9
    darr's Avatar
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    Re: Photographers who buy other photographers' prints

    I collect prints from past masters (Edward S. Curtis is a favorite), and I do impulse buy if a wonderful work catches my attention. I have found myself holding onto funds (after I liked a piece) if an artist spouts off political opinions, etc. Maybe for me, collecting photography is partly about tuning that stuff out.

  10. #10

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    Re: Photographers who buy other photographers' prints

    So don't go see "The Good Shepard" Alec Baldwin in a CIA movie... how perverse.

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