This might not be the appropriate forum for my question (I've seen the Call for entries forum, but I don't think that's the right place), but since I'm printing almost exclusively with alternative processes and know that a number of highly respectable printers frequent this forum, I thought I'd ask here 
I'm very new to the idea of exhibiting my prints. Like for many people, there's the aspect of "am I good enough?", but there's also the question whether anybody else would enjoy what I have to say (show). Anyhow, a couple of years ago, a friend of mine - and highly regarded alt process printer - told me that I NEEDED to show my prints. She asked me what I am doing with my prints. They go in a drawer or on my wall (and my facebook page). She pushed and said that they needed to get 'out there'. While I didn't immediately push anything, the thought remained in the back of my head...
Then I submitted an image to an exhibition judged by Diana Bloomfield (whom I hold in very high regard as a printer) and one of my images was accepted. I was very excited. Since I've seen some of the alt process printers that I admire having their work shown on the MyDailyPhotograph newsletter, I submitted a few images there and was featured a couple times or so (no sales, though). I was then contacted earlier this year by Duncan Miller Gallery (who runs the YourDailyPhotograph newsletter) with the proposal to do a single-artist feature in the YourDailyPhotograph newsletter. I sold two prints of the 7 featured.
In the last 6 weeks or so, 2 of my prints were accepted in 2 separate exhibitions in the US and the logistics involved prompted me to write this post.
I want to ask for thoughts and feedback on the general 'business' of exhibiting your work. If you have experience, I would love to hear about it.
I'll briefly outline my (very limited) experiences thus far and then post my thoughts and questions.
Exhibiting usually brings with it the option of selling your prints (but this is not always a requirement). So the first consideration is how to price your prints. I think that a healthy dose of commonsense and some modesty go a long way in this regard. So, the prints I'm showing are 8x10 and both include some form of palladium (one is a cyanotype over palladium print, the other a gum over palladium-toned kallitype print). I priced them at $500 each - which seems like a lot of money to ask for from an unknown artist. It wasn't easy for me to set this price point. It felt - well - high.
But now, that I've gone through the process of actually packing, shipping, etc. of the prints, this potential $500 appear in a different light. Let me explain...
I live in New Zealand and the exhibitions are in the US. Shipping a well-packaged print costs in the vicinity of $100 one way to the US. If the print does not sell, it needs to be shipped back. One gallery covers the return postage, the other does not. So, that's potentially $200 just in shipping if the print does not sell (and no income at all, since the print did not sell). That's a lot of money. On top of that comes matting and framing. IF the print sells, gallery commissions are generally 40-50%. Mostly 50%. That reduces the 'income' from that $500 print to $250 for the artist, and in my case to $150 since I had to pay $100 to get the print there in the first place. This is if the print sells. If it doesn't sell, I as the artist incur a $200 cost due to shipping. To compensate for that, I would need to sell more than one print in possible future exhibitions (with the same conditions). If I step back and look at this with some detachment, then I can see that this is not a very good situation. It looks like it could get expensive really quickly if I kept doing this. But what are the alternatives? I could increase the print's price. But to me, that seems unjustified (not for me as the artist knowing the inherent costs, but from the perspective of a potential buyer who buys a print from an unknown artist).
What are your thoughts? Or your experiences? It could well be that shipping within your own country is a negligible cost, so the issues I write about don't apply. Or that exhibiting is just a vanity activity that you're expected to pay for. Or that you just need to price your prints accordingly, regardless of personal morals...
I'm keen to hear any thoughts, since I'm a bit at a loss of how to approach this situation. It's great to get some appreciation and recognition (all judges/curators in the exhibitions I got accepted in were people I admire), but if it ends up just costing me a considerable amount of money for the privilege, I'd rather buy more chemistry to actually make more prints.
I'm very new to the idea of exhibiting my prints. Like for many people, there's the aspect of "am I good enough?", but there's also the question whether anybody else would enjoy what I have to say (show). Anyhow, a couple of years ago, a friend of mine - and highly regarded alt process printer - told me that I NEEDED to show my prints. She asked me what I am doing with my prints. They go in a drawer or on my wall (and my facebook page). She pushed and said that they needed to get 'out there'. While I didn't immediately push anything, the thought remained in the back of my head...
Then I submitted an image to an exhibition judged by Diana Bloomfield (whom I hold in very high regard as a printer) and one of my images was accepted. I was very excited. Since I've seen some of the alt process printers that I admire having their work shown on the MyDailyPhotograph newsletter, I submitted a few images there and was featured a couple times or so (no sales, though). I was then contacted earlier this year by Duncan Miller Gallery (who runs the YourDailyPhotograph newsletter) with the proposal to do a single-artist feature in the YourDailyPhotograph newsletter. I sold two prints of the 7 featured.
In the last 6 weeks or so, 2 of my prints were accepted in 2 separate exhibitions in the US and the logistics involved prompted me to write this post.
I want to ask for thoughts and feedback on the general 'business' of exhibiting your work. If you have experience, I would love to hear about it.
I'll briefly outline my (very limited) experiences thus far and then post my thoughts and questions.
Exhibiting usually brings with it the option of selling your prints (but this is not always a requirement). So the first consideration is how to price your prints. I think that a healthy dose of commonsense and some modesty go a long way in this regard. So, the prints I'm showing are 8x10 and both include some form of palladium (one is a cyanotype over palladium print, the other a gum over palladium-toned kallitype print). I priced them at $500 each - which seems like a lot of money to ask for from an unknown artist. It wasn't easy for me to set this price point. It felt - well - high.
But now, that I've gone through the process of actually packing, shipping, etc. of the prints, this potential $500 appear in a different light. Let me explain...
I live in New Zealand and the exhibitions are in the US. Shipping a well-packaged print costs in the vicinity of $100 one way to the US. If the print does not sell, it needs to be shipped back. One gallery covers the return postage, the other does not. So, that's potentially $200 just in shipping if the print does not sell (and no income at all, since the print did not sell). That's a lot of money. On top of that comes matting and framing. IF the print sells, gallery commissions are generally 40-50%. Mostly 50%. That reduces the 'income' from that $500 print to $250 for the artist, and in my case to $150 since I had to pay $100 to get the print there in the first place. This is if the print sells. If it doesn't sell, I as the artist incur a $200 cost due to shipping. To compensate for that, I would need to sell more than one print in possible future exhibitions (with the same conditions). If I step back and look at this with some detachment, then I can see that this is not a very good situation. It looks like it could get expensive really quickly if I kept doing this. But what are the alternatives? I could increase the print's price. But to me, that seems unjustified (not for me as the artist knowing the inherent costs, but from the perspective of a potential buyer who buys a print from an unknown artist).
What are your thoughts? Or your experiences? It could well be that shipping within your own country is a negligible cost, so the issues I write about don't apply. Or that exhibiting is just a vanity activity that you're expected to pay for. Or that you just need to price your prints accordingly, regardless of personal morals...
I'm keen to hear any thoughts, since I'm a bit at a loss of how to approach this situation. It's great to get some appreciation and recognition (all judges/curators in the exhibitions I got accepted in were people I admire), but if it ends up just costing me a considerable amount of money for the privilege, I'd rather buy more chemistry to actually make more prints.
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