Selling prints in the digital era

[monochromeFan]

SInce so many have been having issues with selling prints, i have to ask

What does anyone expect? Many on here sell prints through the webz.. but in honesty is it worth the hassle?

Sure some charge 400$ for an 8x10 print of a barn, but when i can go online to say fineartamerica, and get a barn photo fully framed for 180$ that is 30x24...

DO you feel there really is a chance at selling prints?

To make it worse look on ebay.. People selling digital prints of famous photos, scans of negatives they bought online, even a few taking screencaps of famous movies and selling photos.. for under 50$... Think there is a market for a real print?

[Pieter]

SInce so many have been having issues with selling prints, i have to ask

What does anyone expect? Many on here sell prints through the webz.. but in honesty is it worth the hassle?

Sure some charge 400$ for an 8x10 print of a barn, but when i can go online to say fineartamerica, and get a barn photo fully framed for 180$ that is 30x24...

DO you feel there really is a chance at selling prints?

To make it worse look on ebay.. People selling digital prints of famous photos, scans of negatives they bought online, even a few taking screencaps of famous movies and selling photos.. for under 50$... Think there is a market for a real print?

There is always a market if someone wants/likes the image and the price. Just don't expect to get rich or even make a living.

[bmikiten]

I think our audience is changing. In the past, buyers and collectors of fine photography (me as an example) would pay market values for Adams, Strand, Sexton, Weston and others partially for perceived "investment" value which also came with the pleasure of hanging the work on the wall. Most people who viewed the 45+ images in my old office had no idea who the photographers were or what the value was in the market. A few would recognize a Weston Shell or perhaps an Adams print but beyond that, they were just nice images in matching black frames. Now, people still want nice images but the artist associated with them has little value to the typical buyer. There are some pluses and minus to that but mostly negative for the photographer. Selling an inkjet (don't forget to call it a Giclee) print that has a hard cost of $25.00 with mat board for $90 with actually generate more revenue than that one sale a year for $800. Sure, iPhone photography and on-line printing services don't help our cause. I know a few people who have purchased 5-figure prints over the last few years but that group is dwindling. One of 10 is a photographer and none are photography pros. You have to determine your goal. Do you want to make a few extra dollars and feel good that people are putting your work in their homes and offices or do you want to sell one print a year?

[Peter Lewin]

I think that what has changed is that a silver gelatin print was a handmade “object” and a giclee print is an “image.” The object had added value because no two were exactly alike, burning and dodging were manually applied skills. Giclee prints, while beautiful, are machine made things, and each will be identical. What adds value to the giclee is the artist’s signature, if the artist has some degree of fame. Given this, the market places a lower price on the digital print, unless you are paying for a restricted print run signed by a photographer with market value.

[xkaes]

Add to this that A.I. will diminish this entire market tremendously as time goes on -- and it gets more sophisticated. People can already create their own images of exactly what they want -- the way they want it. All they need to do is type in a sentence, such as "scene of squaretop mountain in front of emerald lake in north west wyoming", and they get it.

https://tensor.art/

is just one example -- and it's free.

[jnantz]

If someone wants a photograph - hand printed, machine / digital c print, pigment/ink embroidered with hemp thread, hot cured laser toner or un-processed latent images they will pay for it. There is a market … you just have to find it. Selling photography has never been easy, especially since George Eastman made everyone with a camera a Photographer ( around 140 years ago ). The only "art fair" I participated in was in 1990. Archival handmade 11x14 custom 16x20 matted prints from 4x5 negatives ... I was told it was an "upscale" art fair ... some guy around the corner was selling 4x6 snapshots made a few hours before at the local CVS for 90¢ each ... affordable art on ArtinAmerica, on eBay, Etsy whatever .. just gotta find your audience .

[Tin Can]

I refuse to sell ANY ART!

I sold 4 pieces 26 years ago

I lost my set

I make ART for my soul

not yours

[jnantz]

I refuse to sell ANY ART!

I sold 4 pieces 26 years ago

I lost my set

I make ART for my soul

not yours

the trick is to sell it as commerce not art, save the art for yourself .

[paulbarden]

the trick is to sell it as commerce not art, save the art for yourself .

Agreed. Sell “commodity” prints and forget selling Art with a capital A.

[bmikiten]

I had a friend who was a very successful commercial photographer. He believed that his commercial work fed the family and his Art fed his soul. It was that balance that keeps you from selling out....