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Giving prints away...

marciofs

Member
Allowing Ads
Joined
Jul 8, 2011
Messages
802
Location
Hamburg
Format
Medium Format
I have too many prints and I want give them away.

First because I don't know where to put them.
Second because I don't want keep buying more folders until my room has nothing only folders with prints in them.
Third, I am not brave anough to bin them because I believe my prints doesn't deserve it.
Forth, it is sad to see my prints hiden in folders where nobody see them.

So I want give them to people who actually would like to use them on their home or office walls.

But I guess it is very hard to give stuff for free. I have offered in shops, cafe, etc and people don't want my prints.

Is there any strategy to successiful get people interested on my free prints?

I don't want give to friends and relatives because I am sure most of them will hide the print in some folder if not bin them.
 
Art or

I assume you consider your prints as art. Well, you are moving from art to interior decorating. I am afraid the average person's idea of what makes a fine print to adorn his/her walls is pretty low on the "art" scale. They are more concerned if the colors will match the couch than if the person who created the art had any talent. I had a spouse who told me I could not put any of my photos on the walls, something I had no intention of doing. I was a photojournalist at the time and most were not sutible for the living room. I solved that problem -- I got rid of the wife. You don't mentiion what kind of subjects are in your prints so it is hard for us to know how you might solve your dilemma. Landscapes? Gritty street photography? Macro closeups of bug eyes?
 
if you don't want to keep them and other don't want them for free,maybe they are not worth keeping.figure out why that is. is it the subject matter or the print quality? maybe there is a message on how to mprove your photography in there somewhere.I have no trouble giving them away.I even got them stolen while hanging in a gallery
 
Marcio, I checked out your website, and you have many fine images!

I noticed that you live in the city where I was born.
 
I've witnessed how people sometimes respond when offered something for free, and it used to surprise me, but now I understand. If you tell someone they can have it for free, the subliminal message you're sending is that you yourself place no value on the item, and so others tend to respond in kind: they lean towards assuming it has no value. If you ask for a small sum, it suddenly takes on value! If you ask for more money, it's value in the minds of others escalates considerably.

so - perhaps "free" isn't the way to go.

Case in point:
i grow some rare and highly unusual tropical plants in my greenhouse (the genus Nepenthes) and I often encourage the plants to produce seed, which - in most collection - is relatively rare. I used to offer to give away batches of the seeds to other growers and people rarely took advantage of the offer. I changed to advertising the seeds for $5 a packet and I couldn't meet the demand!
 
Ask 2000$ per print, and then give it for free. Might work?
 
As Paul suggests, sell them rather than give them away. The buyer will treasure them more, and you will recover some of the expense of making and presenting them. Perhaps there are affordable art fairs in your area where you can sell. This also gives you an opportunity to discuss photography with interested people, a good learning experience for both you and potential buyers.
 

Ha... I must have your wife now; mine said the same right before buying a fake David Whatshisname for over the couch

Op, have you considered donating them or hiring an agent to sell them or offering them to Frank?
 
People are funny. If you try to give something away for free, they figure it isn't worth anything. If you sell them the same thing at a high price, they think its worth more (even though its the same thing you were trying to give away for free).

My advice would be to take some decent pics of the pics, put them for sale on eBait on an auction at a reasonable starting price (but not TOO low, or no one will want them), and if you don't need the money, donate it to a no-kill animal shelter. Those poor little animals need all the help they can get. Or better yet, take the money, adopt one, and give it a good home. You'll be repaid a thousand times over.
 
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I used to offer my prints for sale but to do it in Germany I have to open a business, declare tax and hire a tax agent to do the crazy burocratic paper work. It took months for me to find out how to sell prints legaly, then it took more months to find out that what Germans call website registration is actually a open a business. Then it took more months to find out how to fill the heavy tax declaration. Then I went after some tax lawer to help me but ot is hard to find one who is not too busy to receive your case. And when I found one I had to pay more money than the amount of prints I could sell.

It is defenetly not worth at all the stress and the money that goes on hire professional to deal with red tapes. And it is very annoying have to often hear people asking me if I "have registered my website" when they see prices tags in it.

So it is much better for me to give prints away than sell them.
 
BrianShaw said:
Ha... I must have your wife now; mine said the same right before buying a fake David Whatshisname for over the couch

Op, have you considered donating them or hiring an agent to sell them or offering them to Frank?
Click to expand...

I imagine agent are very pick about artists and photographers they want work for. I have never seen one in my life, I only hear about them on news about rich successiful artists.
 

Do you thinks most or many ongs would accept my prints and make them worth any help?
 
You could suggest that any potential 'future owners' of your prints do two things. First is that they sign a contract recognising your copyright explicitly. Second, that they furnish proof of a donation between 250 and 1000 euros to a charity selected from a small list which you will provide.

That way you are protected and the new owners have a 'valuable' item, with many perhaps able to set a charitable-donation against some tax bill then everyone is happy (except the tax man, possibly).
 
Hello neighbour,
I've seen (and commented) your work before and I still love your pinhole work. I think we "met" before on the pinhole group on Facebook?
Anyway: if you have too many pinhole prints I would love to hang one in my secret hide-out/darkroom as inspiration. For instance: "Deep in the woods", "Dreaming Tree", "Titisee Winter", "Hunger with Fruits", a panorama inside a cathedral, "Old broken bridge" are great, but also some images from your series "Water".

And if you're gonna give it away for free, then let the lucky ones at least make a donation to APUG or some other charity (I would).

Bert from Holland

Edit: or did you consider trading some prints for some film?
 
My prints get sold through the local home decor center, or donated to charity fund raisers. Most folks around here are familiar with my work from seeing my prints at local showings, the charity donations typically selling for more than the ones at the store. I occasionally give a matted and framed print as a gift, the very few that have gone out as gifts are displayed in "special" places. Most of my personal prints are on my bathroom wall
 
I once read that the difference between the peasant farmer who works on the land and is at one with farming the land has a totally different attitude to a farmer who owns the land and regards it and the crops as material wealth. It’s only free to those who appreciate its real worth. The other is an artificial value. Perhaps this is analogous to the OP of this thread.
 
My take on it is this...most people are too busy in their lives to give a crap about others. I spent a great deal of time at a gallery in LA once during an Ansel Adams
exhibition. After I'd enjoyed the work to it's fullest for the second or third time, I stood around and watched people looking at the iconic artwork. I was amazed at
the number of people who walked by "Monolith: Face of Half Dome", "Clearing Winter Storm" or "Moonrise Hernandez" and gave them but a slight pause before moving on.

The above mentioned prints, arguably some of the greatest photographs ever taken had little effect on the lost souls who decided to fill an afternoon "Looking at some art".
As much as you want to walk up, smack them in the back of the head and wake their senses...sometimes it's just a waste of time. We all value our images...if everyone
else did, we'd all be household names.

I
 
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Seems to be a good idea. But I guess I would still have to pay somebody to fill the tax papers every year. Because I had to do it even when I haven't sold a silgle thing. Because if you hang a price on something you have to fill the papers as far as I understand, no matter what.
 

Thank you very much.

Send me a address, by private message, where I can send some of my prints and where you can pick them.

I like the idea of trading but as far I am concern it still would have to fill tax duties. I also have tried trading for other things other than money but no luck.

Any way. All that I ask is if eventually, for any reason, you don't want the print anymore, to send back to me or to give as charity to any organisation you trust.
 

This thread is inspiring me today.
I will look for and try to contact local ONGs to see I can get a agreement with them.

 

PM sent, thanks!!
 
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