Where to sign a print? Where to write the legend?

**Awsiya** · 5-Mar-2002, 14:09

I thought when asking the question that it would entail a few answers, but not to that extent! I would like to add a few remarks to further the debate:

- If the photographer is also the printer, he could decide at a moment to print, say, 25 prints of a negative, to number them and to write the date of the printing. In this way, he or she could reprint in the future the same neg, but because the printing date would then be different, the various prints would have different money values: the first printing session being more valuable than the second, the second than the third, etc. It goes without saying that the value is merely from the collector's point of view. The numbering should perhaps not be used without the printing date, and vice versa?

- Also, the possibility for the photographer to have an image printed in series at different moments of his/her life allows the photographer to print differently. It is difficult to have the same result through one session, but to get the same result 10 years later is quite a task. Besides, we have all experienced that, our printing taste changes just like the pictures we take today are only possible because we took 10 years ago some images that we may not find as interesting today as we did in the past. This issue deals with the problem of reproductibility of photography: should a photograph look always the same, or could the photographer offer different prints of the same neg?

- If numbering were 'hype", what would be a vintage print then?

- Could it be that the numbering of prints is linked with the kind of images produced? Photographers whose style flirts with fine art (Witkin, Sarah Moon) number their prints, and I think Witkin even destroys the neg after he's completed the session. Understand that I am not saying that only creative photography should have numbered prints. But from these 2 examples, 2 people who don't say they are 'photographers" but that they use the photographic medium, we can observe the will to make a work, and not just to produce images. Could this approach (close to one of a painter) be the criterion for numbering.

For the sake of the debate, I hope these lines will further it. Awsiya.

**pudge** · 5-Mar-2002, 18:40

I suspect the collectors and dealers who benefit most from this system would hate the idea of numbering prints from each session. Without detailed knowledge of a photographer's work, who's to say how many prints are out there? That, after all, is the issue, from their point of view. Clearly it's quite different from the photographer's.

A "vintage" print, in practice, often means a print made before editioning was expected. So, early prints by many name photographers are uneditioned. Perversely, this often makes them more valuable, since no one knows how many prints are out there... This example should prove photographers have more leeway than they often realize.

Many photographers operatng in today's art world have chosen processes with built-in uniqueness--Polaroid, and even its grand- daddy,the Daugguereotype. Or "alternative" processes where no two prints are likely to be just the same. Which raises the point that an edition doesn't need to imply that all prints in the sequence be identical in every way. In many alternative processes, there would be inevitable shifts of tonality, etc. Seems to me a lot of this is about the tug-of-war between the hand and the machine made. Editioning as it's usually practiced means assembly line printing. If all the prints in an edition had slight differences, showing the touch of the printer's hand, I suspect dealers would find a way to ask more for them. But remember, although editioning may allow contemporary photographers to command higher prices for their work (even though many of those "editions" are never printed out), it's not the photographer who sees the most inflated prices this system allows. It's whoever resells those prints whose scarcity has been assured--the auctioneers, collectors and dealers of "vintage" prints.

It's easy to see why photographers not operating in this rarefied arena might prefer not to bother with it. It would be heartening to see more photographers bucking the editioning trend, since most of them are not likely to experience its benefits first hand. Unfortunately, it seems too many feel they must edition if their work is to be taken seriously. Their prints would remain more affordable to more potential buyers if they did thing things the old fashioned way and printed on demand, or as the spirit moves them. Epistle over.

**james mickelson** · 5-Mar-2002, 19:26

Chris, having just two weeks ago talked to Michael Kenna he in fact does limit his prints to 45 due to marketing. That is why print 45 sells for much more than print number one. The price increases as the edition sells. It is a good way of producing new work if you haven't the discipline but Michael uses the strategy of limiting the number of prints for marketing purposes. I feel it is an individual photographers own preferrence whether they number prints or not. I don't think it is arrogance. We all look at things differently and it isn't our bussiness if someone numbers their work or not. Someone calling someone else pretentious because they number their prints and print in editions is arrogant. James

**james mickelson** · 5-Mar-2002, 21:01

But you are forgetting one point here Stephen. Photographers who sell their prints as a way to make a living are not in it to make their art affordable to the masses. They are doing it to make a living. Is this pretentious or egotistical? A vintage print usually denotes a print made before the 1960's and usually denotes the artist is deceased or no longer making prints. You seldom see a print made in the 1970's called a vintage print except prints from the estates of personages such as Robert Mapplethorp. As I said before, most prints made by photographers great and small before the 1060's were made not in editions but printed say 10 or even one print. And have been in the market place long enough to gain value based on who the artist was. How many Peppers are there printed by Edward Weston as opposed to Cole? The prints made by Cole are far less valuable than the few made by Edward. And that makes them vauable. There weren't that many Moonrises printed By Ansel but there are 100's printed by Ross. Those printed by Ansel are prohibitively expensive. Ruth Brenhard printed her early works but Michael Kenna printed her later works. Those known to have been printed by her are not affordable by us but those printed by Michael are affordable. Bernhard printed Stieglitz work in the 20's(30's?)