How to market ones self to retail stores

[ted_smith]

Hi all

There's a few 'home ware' stores here in the UK (and elsewhere of course) like IKEA, Dunelm etc that sell enlarged photographs to customers.

Having looked at many of these photos, I've recently approached a few stores to ask how they obtain the prints and whether they'd consider any of my work for sale in their stores. I've even approached a large eBay trader who sells prints online.

Having asked several, the reply always seems to be along the lines of "we obtain photographic pieces from a supplier and we do not purchase directly".

How does one become such a supplier, other than signing up to a stock site? (I do have a stock membership with www.theimagefile.com but I find this approach to be largely unlucrative unless you're a digital shooter uploading a dozen shots of more or less the same scene, which I am not and don't). Is that the only way?

Ted

 

[Bob-D659]

Have a factory in China and sell the framed prints for a landed cost of approx 25% of the retail sticker price.

 

[Ian Grant]

First they don't sell enlarged photographs these are litho prints so the economy is in the scale. Many are produced in China & the far east and the unit cost is very low.

I can buy a really nice 24" square wooden frame in the Range (not sure how far North they've expanded) for £7 that has to be coming into the UK below £3.50 less if coming through a third party importer. They buy the images for the prints from picture libraries the royalties are quite low per print.

Stoo Batchelor and I ent to a St Ives gallery selling photo's in April, mainly shot by the owner, who works full time elsewhere. He has staff running the shop/gallery and a wide frame inject printer churning out B&W and Colour prints most of the day and he also sells litho printed cards. He has a few genuine silver prints of Bill Spears work as well.

That approach seems to be quite successful for him but the area is very geared to Tourism and the images (apart from Bill's) reflect a romanticism of the area.

The same could be done in Derbyshire with images of the Peak District. You'd need a town that nearly every one visits. St Ives works well because nearly everyone visiting south Cornwall goes there at least once while there.

Ian

 

[ted_smith]

Ian

Funny you should mention St Ives. A couple of my pictures are of that very place! One or two others of north Devon. Is the gallery you mention likely to be interested in approaches from folk like myself do you think? If so, would you tell me the name or are you in business with them yourself?

 

[Ian Grant]

Ian

Funny you should mention St Ives. A couple of my pictures are of that very place! One or two others of north Devon. Is the gallery you mention likely to be interested in approaches from folk like myself do you think? If so, would you tell me the name or are you in business with them yourself?

I think the owner only really sells his own work, Bill's one of his friends and only has a small number of images there- less than half a dozen from memory. All the work is LF or 120 panoramic and the quality is quite high. Colour saturation is rather high

I can't remember the name or street, but its not far from the Barbara Hepworth Museum and the RNLI shop. We stumbled upon it knowing Bill had some work in a St Ives gallery.

My guess is that strong but very different work might be of interest if there was a reasonable strong LF portfolio. The gallery sells a lot of creamy seascapes, long exposures moving water, sunsets, sunrises etc.

Personally I think it's better to work closer to home, where it's far easier to build up a good strong coherent portfolio. You need to think larger format 120 at a minimum as 35mm just isn't enough for many of the large prints sold as inkjet prints or posters/framed litho prints.

MF & LF is no harder than using 35mm, but landscape images are more saleable with larger formats.

Ian

 

[ted_smith]

Thanks for the info Ian. The St Ives images I was thinking of are here and here. My Devon pic is here.

You're right that they are all 35mm though and probably not in the same league as you refer to.

MF is something I've wanted to move to for a while but times are hard in the Smith household and it's taken me a couple of years to build up my F5 rig to what it is without now reinvesting in MF bodies and lenses. I realise it's necessary for serious landscape work, but justifying the cost to the wife is another matter!

 

[Ian Grant]

Upgrading costs are relative if your selling/being paid for work. 2 days photography more than paid for my first video camera, a few late long nights an HD video camear.

Three prints buys a an MF kit, Mamiya 645 or RB67 & three lenses. One wedding , max 2, should do the same

Ian