As a Fine Artist You are Only Selling the Print

[by Thomas Werner]

Whether selling editioned or uneditioned prints at a gallery, store, or as an individual it is important to remember that when you set the price for your work you are only setting the price for an individual print. Mounting, matting, framing, laminating, shipping, or other expenses should be charged accordingly. This may seem like common sense, but we become so excited about selling our prints that “Sure I’ll put a mat on that for your” or “Sure I can mount that, no problem” slips out without our ever asking for additional funds or explaining the additional cost. This is bad business at best, and at worst undermines the value of your work.

So when someone asks you how much it costs to purchase your artwork, remember to quote them a price for an individual print, and to quote an additional amount for each additional request. Other businesses do it, and you should as well. Your art is a personal expression, but the sale of it is business and if you want to gain respect and turn your art into a revenue stream, it should be treated that way.

Social Media: Relax…

[by Thomas Werner]

Much has been made of social media and it’s importance in terms of building your market and creating greater visibility for yourself and your business. While I agree social media has become essential to a well-rounded marketing a program, I find the emphasis many have placed on this topic a little extreme.

While giving lectures I often hear people say they have been told to spend one hour a day on social media. That is an extraordinary amount of time to devote to what should become a consistent but casual interaction in which relationships are developed over the course of time. If you spend a couple of hours a week reaching out, creating new connections, and letting people know what you are doing via Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter, you should find your network slowly growing and the benefits to yourself and your business growing as well.

Leave the five or seven hour a week to those who want to become online  “experts” in this field. Get out, create images, have lunch with an old client, find new ways to partner with an expanded network of creatives in your city.  Develop your marketing plan and relax when it comes to social media; grow your social network in a manner that you are comfortable with and your “friends” and “contacts” will be comfortable as well.

What is a Professional?

[by Thomas Werner]

A lot of people with guitars can play guitar. The person who plays at the coffee shop is a professional to some, the person who plays at the wedding is a pro to others, the guy doing tours of local or national clubs is a pro to others, and then you have the rock star. The point being that what a Pro is, is often in the eyes of the client or the audience.

The client wants what they want, and in an increasing number of instances they don’t care where it comes from as long as the image works. This goes for editorial, advertising, fine art, video,  and other forms of what we do. This has always been the case, it is just that in the past clients had access to a smaller number of shooters and a different type of imagery was acceptable for public consumption.

So maybe the question isn’t what we think a professional is, that is easy, maybe the question is what does each client think a professional is, when do certain skill sets matter, or not, and what will be the definition of a professional photographer in the future.

Think Different

[by Thomas Werner]

Think of video as more than documentary or an interview; think about how you can use video to create physical and emotional space, architecture, think of ways to immerse people, control their experience. Begin to use video in more ways than just a moving version of your still imagery. Get one step ahead of the game in video instead of playing catch-up for the next ten years.

What About Flickr?

[by Thomas Werner]

Art buyers and art directors look for photos in the places they are most familiar and comfortable with. Put your photos up on Flickr, a large number of art buyers and photo researchers look for, and purchase, images there.

Make it Personal or It Isn’t a Gift

[by Thomas Werner]

When giving a gift to client don’t give something that is too expensive and don’t give something that is a self promotion. Expensive may make a client nervous, and self promotion really isn’t a gift.

Try a small ten or twelve dollar book of photography. It feels more personal, can be tailored to each client’s personal taste, and relates to your business without saying “business.”  The goal is to say thank you and connect in a way that your self promotion does not.

Good luck, and the best to all over the holidays!

A Week Focused on Creative Thinking

[by Thomas Werner]

This is an artists statement from an exhibition at my gallery a few years ago. The only time that I used an artists statement in promoting an exhibition was this one. I came across it again the other day and think that it addresses something essential about our work and wanted to share with with you.

Artist Statement – Gabriela Maj

There once existed an idea that articulated the human capacity for a particular type of transcendental experience. An experience in which nature, at its most fierce, most violent and most monumental would allow for a brief glimpse of the divine. It was an idea that offered the possibility of the most utterly private experience. It was about enlightenment, about the soul and about beauty in its most painful of definitions.

Today we are left with residue. Dead philosophers, old poems.

Nature is harnessed, we are irreverent. These images were created in quiet homage to an old idea.

Get Out of Your Routine

[by Thomas Werner]

Take 6 friends, drive into the forest, desert, to the ocean, a lake, and just photograph each other all day….feed off the energy, creativity and community, and do not worry about the outcome of the shoot.

Take a Look

This is not the usual group of portfolios, whether you find it commercial or not I will leave up to you, but I will say that some of these photographers are very successful….

Creativity

Learn to trust yourself, trust your talent, trust what your heart tells you to make and do, have faith in the future and things that you cannot see or yet imagine. Learn to believe again in the possibilities of the unknown.

Looking for a Little Work as a Photo Instructor?

I always suggest sending a resume, either mailed or online, or both, right after January, and in the middle of August, right before the spring and fall semesters begin. These are both times where a photo program may find themselves needing a good instructor or two on short notice due to someone moving, getting a grant, or a variety of other reasons. No need to call or write to follow-up, if the resume fits and the school needs you they will call.

It’s Not About Going to a Movie

As a professional Tweeting isn’t about going to a movie or where you are having dinner, it is about letting people know that you and your business is alive and vital. It is letting people know that you are shooting a job, making new work, traveling to different places, helping them understand what you can offer them by letting them know you are interesting and busy. I don’t get twitter on my Blackberry, but I do tweet from there at times.

Twitter is also about aggregating information and getting a good read on what is happening in your world; technically, social moments, visual trends, and the lives and work of your friends, clients, and vendors.

It is being said that the uprising in Iran making Twitter a valid resource. Are we looking at a new version of our next evening news?How will this change affect your business, your ability to make and sell imagery. Is “citizen journalism” going to trend further into “citizen editorial and advertising imagery”? Yes, Twitter is important.

Signing Your Prints on the Reverse, Part 2 of 3

As noted in my last post, photographs exhibited in higher end contemporary galleries are signed on the back, or reverse of the print. In addition to contemporary practices, there are two other reasons that you should consider when deciding whether to sign the back of your print as opposed to the front, these are; market and concept. This post will briefly discuss concept.

When you create a photograph to hang in a contemporary space you need to realize that everything about your work has a “meaning”. Everything that you do “contextualizes” your photograph, and how it is viewed and interpreted by the viewer. This includes the signature on your print as well as your decision whether or not to use a mat and frame. If you sign and/or edition your work on the front you are “referencing” a certain time period in photography. If you frame your photographs in black frames with a mat, and under glass you are “referencing” a specific period of photography. If you are going to reference that time, then you need to be able to explain “why” you are doing so. Are you commenting on that period? Are you addressing social issues of the time, creating nostalgia, or speaking about memory or loss, creating an homage in reference to an artist or photographic style? Is your signature on the front part of your concept? Does it move you closer to the “why” of your photography?

Much of contemporary photography is not about creating images that represent something, it is about creating photographs that comment on something. When you are making commentary, every choice, every symbol (and your signature is a symbol), every detail, is part of that commentary. So the decision to sign on the front goes beyond whether you or your client simply likes it there, it becomes part of your concept, part of the conversation that the photograph creates.

Signing Your Prints

Photographers exhibiting in contemporary galleries sign their prints on the back of the print, also called the reverse, or verso, and not on the front of the print. (more on that in another post)

Sign in the upper left hand or lower right hand corner of the print, inside the print area (remember on the back of the print), and not on the border.
You should include the following:
Title of the piece
Year that the image was taken
Edition size
Year that the image was printed (If you desire)
Copyright (Suggested)
Your signature

Let’s Work Together!

I spent an afternoon two weeks ago meeting with the owners of one of the largest studio and equipment rental houses in New York. Halfway through the afternoon they showed me a presentation that they give to new clients, the presentation and the accompanying conversation were eye opening.

It turns out that studio rentals to photographers creating traditional photographs is now only 20 percent of their business, and something that they support and hold onto with a certain nostalgia. No longer just a rental studio they are now a full service creative center offering everything from; full concept development, to 3D and imaging and digital support services ( they just hired one of Pixar’s best known digital technicians ), image creation for the advertising, editorial and corporate marketplace, providing photographers and staff for shoots, and more. The creative scope is mind boggling, advertising agencies are coming to them for ideas or suggestions on how to articulate and manifest the agency’s idea, as are many of the largest magazines, retail chains, and web sites.

Sorry all of you product shooters out there, but virtually all of the product work being done is with 3D rendering. They are even creating magazine covers and full spreads in 3D as opposed to taking the time to hire a photographer. Why? Cost and control, it was cheaper and easier to render the shoot than to have someone go shoot the cover. Think about that, we are talking editorial here, not advertising.

So what does this mean for you? Well, your first thoughts are probably either, “More bad news, game over, what am I going to do now,” “ Who are these guys, I want to work with them” or “Where do I learn 3D.” The second two answers may be partially right, but I want you to look at this story another way. Maybe we need to work together a little more instead of on our own, teams instead of individuals. Maybe we need to embrace the creative control and possibilities that the new marketplace offers and we have always craved. We need to become better educated in terms of idea creation and application across multiple platforms. We need to let go of old business models, add new skill sets to our businesses, and embrace the opportunities offered by running a broad based business driven from the creative side as opposed to being a service provider in a diminishing marketplace. We need to become mini versions of this rental house, work together with the designers, retouchers, and animators to form creative groups that create exciting, innovative work that can compete.

Do it now, get up from your chair, walk slowly away from the computer and look outside your window. Be brave, move away from the inkjet printer and out of the cube that we all call a studio, it will all still be there when you return, only when you come back you may have a fresh perspective.

Call a few friends or business associates, set up a meeting at a coffee shop with a designer, art director, gallerist or artist that you know and begin to find synergies, and put together your own creative team. Be flexible and work together to find new paths to success.

Maybe it is Time to Reconnect

Trying to decide how to change your business? Thinking about how to find new clients and reach into new markets? Stop for a minute. Walk over to your book shelf, dust off your books and look at the pictures that you love. Go online and look at pictures from contemporary photographers that you have never hear of. Look at imagery that you don’t really like or understand. Go to a local museum, or sit with a few friends and talk about creating and not about making images for clients.

Maybe the way to revitalize your business is not with one more e-mail, phone call, or mailer, maybe it is time to let your work grow and change a little. Maybe it is time to put the heart, love and passion back into your work that brought you to this profession in the first place. Take some new pictures, make some mistakes, shoot things that are not perfectly resolved, fail, and find new paths within that failure. Think about why you chose this profession, and why you still need to do it beyond the need to make a living. Remember your desire to create and let it run free again, but let it happen in a way that you have not done before.

Over time you may be surprised at the reaction you receive when people begin to see your new images in addition to your current work. How people will react to imagery that feels more personal and connected. More important, how your clients react to a photographer who is positive and passionate about his or her work in all the best ways. We all love to work with someone who is caring and creative.

Maybe this is the time to change your business, but maybe that change needs to start inside of you instead of out in the world. Maybe it is time to remember why we do this, create some images for yourself, and challenge your friends to so the same.