Buying photography you hate!

[Peter Schrager]

Well I have bring this up but please buy all the photographs you hate. It might just make you rich. Back in the eighties when Cindy Sherman first appeared on the scene I was like what the hell is this stuff?? Well I was wrong on 2 counts.
Firstly I have come around to be a fan of hers
Secondly one of her self styled poses just sold at auction for $400,000
While I have a few Alvarez Bravos which I love and adore they are worth a mere pittance of Cindy's work ...who would have thought!!

 

[Mainecoonmaniac]

2 types of art buyers I know of. Those who buy as an investment and those who buy what they enjoy. Since I prefer to treat art as an investment vehicle, I'd rather buy art I enjoy.

 

[Maris]

As a sometime past director of a photographic gallery I tried to be sensitive to the reasons why some people would pay big money for what looked to be photographs of very modest accomplishment. In the end I came to the conclusion that the photograph itself had little to do with it.

People buy photographs:
To fill an empty space on the wall or an empty space in their lives.
To announce their financial success through the conspicuous spending of extravagant resources.
To wield cultural and social power by owning and displaying what others may covet but cannot gain.
To demonstrate to friends and rivals a refinement of taste and an assertive connoisseurship of prestigious things.
To deflect suspicion that having great wealth goes with being a venal jerk.
Because they want to show the fortitude to buy the art the timid majority dismisses as rubbish.

Ultimately someone will buy a photograph for 10 million dollars because it costs 10 million dollars.

 

[removed account4]

i only do things i hate to do
i learned it from yossarian

 

[Vaughn]

...i learned it from yossarian

Catchy...

I won't get rich that way. I rarely can work up that much emotion to actually hate an inaminate object...not even the ones I stub my toe on.

 

[removed account4]

Catchy

!

 

[Peter Schrager]

As a sometime past director of a photographic gallery I tried to be sensitive to the reasons why some people would pay big money for what looked to be photographs of very modest accomplishment. In the end I came to the conclusion that the photograph itself had little to do with it.

People buy photographs:
To fill an empty space on the wall or an empty space in their lives.
To announce their financial success through the conspicuous spending of extravagant resources.
To wield cultural and social power by owning and displaying what others may covet but cannot gain.
To demonstrate to friends and rivals a refinement of taste and an assertive connoisseurship of prestigious things.
To deflect suspicion that having great wealth goes with being a venal jerk.
Because they want to show the fortitude to buy the art the timid majority dismisses as rubbish.

Ultimately someone will buy a photograph for 10 million dollars because it costs 10 million dollars.

Maris my post is all tongue in cheek....although a few Cindy Shermans in the closet are just fine; don't even have to take them out!!!

 

[Alan Edward Klein]

As a sometime past director of a photographic gallery I tried to be sensitive to the reasons why some people would pay big money for what looked to be photographs of very modest accomplishment. In the end I came to the conclusion that the photograph itself had little to do with it.

People buy photographs:
To fill an empty space on the wall or an empty space in their lives.
To announce their financial success through the conspicuous spending of extravagant resources.
To wield cultural and social power by owning and displaying what others may covet but cannot gain.
To demonstrate to friends and rivals a refinement of taste and an assertive connoisseurship of prestigious things.
To deflect suspicion that having great wealth goes with being a venal jerk.
Because they want to show the fortitude to buy the art the timid majority dismisses as rubbish.

Ultimately someone will buy a photograph for 10 million dollars because it costs 10 million dollars.

You forgot one. To get girls.

Once, I was at an annual AIPAD photo show in NYC where all the prestigious US and international galleries were represented. The were at least 4-5 booths that were selling original Ansel Adams prints. So, I'm standing by one of them. It was Moonrise over Hernandez with a price of around $80,000 posted. So a well dress older gentleman comes along, with this hot, young blonde chick in his arm. They're laughing and having a grand old time. So they stop at this booth. The guy looks at the Hernandez and with a sweep of his arm states to the young, blonde chick in his arm, that his Hernandez cost him $150,000. Well, as they strolled away, I could see how impressed the young, blonde chick was and the satisfied smile on this art connoisseur's face.

 

[John51]

There was an episode of 'Absolutely Fabulous' where Edina visits an art gallery. When asked what she wants to buy, Edina replies on the lines of: 'I don't care, give me stuff I can sell for a good profit in a few years time.'

 

[bushpig]

i only do things i hate to do
i learned it from yossarian

Catchy...

I want you both to know that I love you.

Anywho...
While I understand people who but as an investment, I could never bring myself to do so. I've never actually bought original prints, but I've bought other collectibles. I like comic books, but I've never bought anything I didn't intend to open and read. I love collecting things, but not as a means to just sell later.

 

[jjphoto]

The ethics of art (especially contemporary art) are a bit beyond my small mind. The notion that it is 'art' simply because it was created by a person accepted and deemed by the 'art world' to be a 'artist' doesn't sit well with me but it is the reality.

 

[Pieter12]

Well I have bring this up but please buy all the photographs you hate. It might just make you rich. Back in the eighties when Cindy Sherman first appeared on the scene I was like what the hell is this stuff?? Well I was wrong on 2 counts.
Firstly I have come around to be a fan of hers
Secondly one of her self styled poses just sold at auction for $400,000
While I have a few Alvarez Bravos which I love and adore they are worth a mere pittance of Cindy's work ...who would have thought!!

Look at it this way: you buy art because you like (or love) it. And it's less expensive than the stuff you don't like (as much). You win!

 

[Vaughn]

...Anywho...

And anyone who says anywho is okay in my book, if I ever write one.

I own a couple photographs that are worth considerably more than all the prints I have made and put my signature on. If I could not have found another way, I would have sold them to pay for my sons' college education, or an operation or similar thing. Otherwise, I am highly attached to the images, prints and framing -- and would not sell them. I'll will one to each boy and they can worry about them since I'll won't be looking at them.

I really have enough stuff already.

 

[TheFlyingCamera]

Every once in a blue moon I come across a "deal" on a photograph by someone famous and noteworthy. I've walked away from most of them because I wasn't in love with the image. In the end, if I'm going to spend money on it, it IS going up on the wall. And if it's going on the wall and I have to look at it every day, then I better damn well like to look at it. So the answer is no - I wouldn't buy something I didn't like to look at, unless I knew I could flip it right away and double my money (or better).