Has anyone been stung by show competitors selling low-quality photo prints?
I have been "hanging" my photograqphy at regional galleries and juried art shows for several years. Clearly there is a wide range of style, quality and methodology. What bothers me is that not all show photographers are offering gallery-quality work, by that I mean created with archival inks and papers (with acid-free mounting naturally).
Those that go the cheap route (sending digital images off inexpensive print houses for routine shapshot quality inks and paper) do not advertise their lower-cost, lower-quality approach. The quality will mainly be in how long the images regain their color and vibrancy so not obvious to buyers at the outset. Thus people attending an "art" or "fine art" show feeling their have purchased quality are being fooled.
The questions "Was this work printed with archival ink" and "was it printed on archival paper" are asked about all photography in competitions at the Torpedo Factory Art League gallery in Alexandria VA. Other show sponsors need to be pushed in that direction to protect the buyers and the sellers of quality work.
I'd like to hear form other artists on their experience and opinion.
Replies
There was a guy showed up at one of my first shows, not a fine art show but a craft show (I quickly learned the difference). He was selling 3 matted 5x7s for $10. I'm sure he was using the cheapest paper and mats he could get his hands on. I was selling one matted 8x10 for $25 and using archival materials. He radically outsold me. The next time I ran into him was at a fine art show (not sure how he got in). I radically outsold him. I have come to understand that if he and I are at the same show, one of us is at the wrong show.
a very good point.
Unfortunately there are some nice shows that have quality requirements for other work, such as limited prints of paintings and no buy/sell for crafts, yet apparently do not understand there are differences in photography offerings beyond the visually obvious.
Except for the few silver gelatin prints I have left I do all my prints on rag paper with archival inks and Ive also thought about the same things that you are asking. I will continue to print this way no matter what others are doing. I have never used rc paper for art prints and never will.
Dont mean to hijack your thread but whats concerns me more is price. Alison said she is higher than some people that have set up next to her and whats she is charging is a lot lower than what Im charging. At the Clayton show I was getting $125.00 for an 8x10 print in a 16x20 matte. I like to use a lot of matte and dont use stock mattes. I custom cut all my own mattes. Is this a price I can hope to get at other shows? I dont think its a good idea to change my prices from location to location and I did well at Clayton but Im afraid not everyone is going to want to pay that much. Ive only done a few shows so I dont have much experience with this.
That was several years ago and my prices have gone up since then. A lot depends on your audience. At the craft show I spoke of I don't think anyone cared that I used archival paper or acid-free mats so my price was a determining factor.
To anyone who seriously asks me about starting to do art shows I give this standard advice, before you do anything else decide whether you want to be Wal-Mart or Tiffanys or somewhere in between. That decision drives every decision you make after that from process and materials to what kind of tent you buy. The Wal-Mart model, low price high volume won't get you into Coconut Grove and the Tiffanys model will have you zeroing at the local craft show.
My business model is the "somewhere in between" model. Sounds like yours is Tiffanys. They are both valid.
I started using rag mat board (made from cotton waste, thus no incipient chemicals that are found in regular mats made from trees, nor do trees have to get cut down for the rag mats) back in the '80s. Other photographers used to make rude comments about "arrogant attitude; holier than thou, etc." But now most are using archival mat board. It just cuts better and is consistent in color and density. And it protects the print (see below).
One thing that bothers me is that some photographers claim to use "archival inks" but don't say if the paper is archival. It doesn't do any good to have one without the other. And the mat board the photo/art work is mounted on should be archival, also. I print my work on Fujicolor Crystal Archive, which is good for more than 60 years. After that, I tell the customer if there is a color fade or shift, to bring back the photo and they'll get a full refund (they always laugh - and then buy the print!).
Color photographs are on RC (resin coated) paper. They can be mounted on an archival substrate using a dry mount method (heat of about 175F activating the layer of film between the back of the photo and the mount board), cold mount (using some kind of pressure on the face of the photo), vacuum mounting (using a vacuum press to activate the tissue or spray between the back of the photo and the mount board), and hinge taping (using acid free tape to adhere the photo, either front or back, to the mount board). According to Hal Gould, one of the pre-eminent collectors and gallery owners of archival photographs, the first - dry mount - and the last - hinge mount - are the best for preservation of the materials. If you use masking or blue tape, the tape will dry out and the print will slide down the inside of the mat. Classy!
Rag board doesn't cost that much more than standard clay-based, lignin soaked board; it's worth it. Who wants to sell a photo or other type of print, matted with a clay mat, and see the bevel turn yellow in just a few years, then transmit that chemical decontamination to the edge of the print? Bad for repeat business!
I forgot to add: Never, never use cardboard to either back your prints or to frame with. The chemicals are so pervasive, they could "eat through" the print or even the mount board in just a few years. I know that some ready made frames, such as from Hobby Lobby, often use cardboard or masonite to act as a stiffener for the artwork, but if you use these frames, toss the cardboard and masonite. And suggest that step to a customer if he/she buys a bin print and mentions using a ready made frame
Where is the "like" button.
LOL! Great response, Alison...love the last sentence.
I'm with Larry on this. Image is primary.
Toot your own horn, tell the customers about archival on the "artists statement" hanging in your booth, some people do read them. If patrons buy something not made well, they may find you the next time. It doesn't affect you any more than someone working on newsprint affects me, heaven forbid they use bad ink, soon as they lose the reds they will be thinking to replace.
When you apply to a show that requires archival quality, (Torpedo Factory) then it is up to the show committee to enforce the standard, take issue with rule enforcement. If you have proof someone is not following stated rules, turn them in.
BTW I did an ink jet reproduction heavy with red, standard HP inks, put it in a western window for over a year with no color change. With 25% rag copy paper it could last an awfully long time.
thanks terry
-
1
-
2
of 2 Next