$5,000 Postcards

[tgtaylor]

That's a shot I would definitely take while it is still there. Point, counterpoint?

Thomas

[rdenney]

...The stuff is pretty much marketed as decorative art, if you see his galleries they are replete with his soi disant furniture, and viewing rooms that have adjustable lights to show how the prints look under different light.

You can tell it's marketed for decoration--the images are organized on his site by shape, not by content. They are designed to fill large expanses of Builder's Beige in suburban starter castles.

I don't know anybody who owns a house that looks like his galleries, though, adjustibility of the lights notwithstanding. They are designed to romanticize the setting with so much texture and color that the over-saturated images look at home. I try to imagine that color on that expanse of Builder's Beige and it makes my eyes hurt.

And I keep expecting to see "Success!" or "Perseverance!" emblazoned across his prints.

Rick "wondering if this stuff still has any value after several years of storage in an attic where it was put to relieve the owner's migraine" Denney

[rdenney]

You know guys, if you reread the text of Lik's photograph he DOES NOT say that he photographed the tree at the top of the mountain. He says how wonderful it is at the top. Then he says he left town in the morning on the way up. Then he says he photographed the tree. Not great writing perhaps and no doubt a bit of marketing-speak, but maybe not a lie?

--Darin

Don't forget that it was really freaking cold on top of the mountain!

All his photo journeys seem to require defying suffering or death. Part of the schtick.

What I don't like is that they are selling his stuff for its investment value, not because people want to buy it. I bet that 99% of people who'd pay $5000 for something that hurts their eyes are doing so only so that their friends can admire their artiness. Same as with Kinkade, though I know there are people who are genuinely moved by the sappiness of it. Call that the 1%.

"This one is priced really, really, really well. Just last week, one of these was sold for [fill in the blank of price 20% higher than currently being discussed]. Just this morning I had two noted collectors fighting over this print because it was special compared to the remainder of the run. They are trying to arrange the financing, but we don't hold prints so the opportunity is here right now!" Etc. Etc.

Rick "whose wife collects art prints and has heard the schtick before now" Denney

[Frank Petronio]

Without the tree, the picture would be reminiscent of several highly respected and valued contemporary painters. Thank goodness he stuck the tree silhouette in and printed it on photo media, which lowered its value... otherwise we'd be griping about how he got $100K for it.

Seriously, this guy is small change. Look at Gursky, et al getting $100K for a big Plexi-mount C-print of some banal view. That's really slopping the BS on thick.

Or art colleges charging $45K year....

And so on.

[cdholden]

Rick "whose wife collects art prints and has heard the schtick before now" Denney

Ah, you've got one of those too? At least her Kincaide is hanging in the bedroom.
I fought like hell to keep it out of the common areas seen by others.

[walter23]

How can over saturated colors countervail photographic content?

Johnny

The content is not bad in a lot of those images, but that saturation... yeesh. If it's anything like the on-screen image in reality... Almost as bad as a lot of the over-cooked HDR on all the photo forums.

Oh well. He does do that style well, you have to admit; minimal artifacts from all that ridiculous over-cooking.

Anyway, 90% of success as a photographer is marketing and contacts. The other 10% is technique and vision (and that might be charitable in some cases).

[Marko]

Even if he exaggerated that $200 million claim tenfold and he made "only" $20 million... No, I take it back, I strongly suspect that if he made only $1 million in reality, he would still be hugely successful compared to some 90% of the participants of this thread (to put it as charitably as Walter did).

No wonder, then, there's so much sour grapes.

I also suspect, not too strongly this time, that if the esteemed critics spent less time cultivating said grapes and more time working on their marketing mojo, maybe they could close the gap somewhat. Or perhaps not...

[Mark Sawyer]

Sad but inevitable, the value of art is always expressed in dollar signs...

[Brian C. Miller]

But, Marko, then they wouldn't be able to enjoy a fine whine!

Not a red or white whine, no, I think it's either green or blue whine.

[Marko]

Art is fine, not whine.

Whine isn't fine, it is all about dollar sign.



And besides, nobody accused PL of doing art...