Some very interesting responses.... and obviously this is something that interest many of us. At one time or another, everyone of us "art" photographers have contemplated selling some work to justify this black hole for money....if not for ourselves, then for our family.
I think Vancamper has an excellent point, although, I am not sure the outcome is often sweet. In my travels I have always been intrigued by the retail viability of this art from, and have met a lot of people in the retial trade, and have learned a lot. As John mentioned above, just because a print has a $5k price tag, doesn't mean they sell.
I am very aware of two high profile landcape, LF photographers.... I can't mention names.... but one sold very expensive prints, $4k+. In one of his galleries, he sold 1 print in 3 years, and it certainly was not from mediocre images, the work was stellar. Every person walked out of the gallery in awe.
The other well know Landscape Photographer took another approach, prints for the masses. His prints were just as spectacular, all shot on 4x5 and matted and framed hanging in a gallery in a well visted area. He took the Walmart pricing approach, framed and matted 24 x 30 prints, which the exterior of the frame was quite large, (32x40+) sold for about $850. Less for print only.... At this price, he was giving the print away for free - and in essence was selling matting / framing service. It took 5 years of losses to reach his first break even year, and with very low overhead. I was quite shocked when I learned this.
As others have mentioned above, it seems art photography is a "passion to create" based interest, which if sales follow, so much the better. Another indicator of just how well these photograpers are doing is watching the superstars all become full time workshop leaders.... hauling wanna be's in a Van to all the key locations where they made nice photographs. As people will pay $5k for this trip, and carry another $20k in photo gear, but never consider buying one of the leaders prints for a few thousand dollars. More evidence that art photography motivates people to create the art, more so then buying the art. Some I have known through the years are full time workshop leaders, which is not a bad option at all.
I also have watched several tricks employed by art photographers, whereas they offer limited editiion prints. You can witness on their web site as certain editions have sold out, which leads you to beleive your desired print will sell out, or got to the next tier pricing. Most often the "sold out" - is not true. But it may stimulate interest in the next edition.
It is interesting though, that the one VERY successful "wildlife" art photographer (at least in retail) is Mangleson. I have no first hand knowledge of his success, but only drawing from the fact he now has 26 galleries in the USA. It's rare that anyone continues opening galleries whereas the existing ones are loosing money. In addition to a few other wildlife photographers I have come accross that have their own small galleries, have done quite well...no Bill Gates riches, but they can make a living, which in this field is considered a major success. Having polled many of the Mangleson gallery sales reps, it seems Manglesons wildlife prints outsells his landscape prints 20 to 1. Mangleson also has some fantastic landscape prints. This motivated me to buy a long 35mm wildlife lens to carry with my 8x10 gear. :-)
I think in general, all wall art is hard to sell. Even oil painters suffer the same failure rate, but they don't have to buy $50k worth of gear to try :-) The Kincaids are the rare, very rare, exception to the rule. His style, similar to the Beatles music in the late 60's just struck a chord with the public. Then add the best art marketing machine the world has ever seen and you have a Disney in the making, well, till the art investors run dry, which finally started happening.
Wall art is not a neccessity, it is not often even needed, as there is some art on the wall now.... (except for the small % of new home buyers, second home buyers) so to make a sale, in most cases, the person must be really moved by the piece, as it often replace another piece. This precludes the Kincaid buyer who is buying a piece, to re sell in ebay in 3 years when the edition runs out. As Vancamper pointed out above, quite often, to move someone enough to buy, they have to see the art in person and almost make an impulse purchase.
Of course, just as in yesteryear, most of the photographers mentioned above have very supportive and quite often financialy stable wives. This extra income or trust fund allows them the 20 year start up time to get something rolling :-)
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