"Maquette" Special Edition Prints

[MurrayMinchin]

I'm tossing this into the 'feedback' pool

There's been a long history of photographers making prints available to the public at reduced prices. Ansel had his Special Edition prints made by assistants under his direction, and these days some photographers sell images available only on their websites at lower prices, compared to their other work sold in commercial galleries.

I always work out my basic contrast, sharp and unsharp masking combinations, as well as dodging & burning choices by enlarging my 4x5 negatives to about 6 1/2 x 5 1/4. (I can really burn up paper ironing out kinks at this size compared to 11x14 or larger, because I don't worry about money so much. When I do move up in size there are always changes, but most of the leg work has already been done).

I'm thinking of selling these maquettes (reprints of the last one just before moving up in size), printed on 8x6 1/2 or 8x10 double weight fibre paper (for a nice white border), selenium toned, flattened, stamped on the back, initialed by me and presented in a folded single ply mat board and book cloth covered folio.

The plan would be to sell these on apug_gallery.com and use the money made to finance equipment needs, or some other photo related venture. The price would be somewhere above $20.00 and a tad below $40.00 USD.

What do you think?

Murray

 

[pelerin]

I'm tossing this into the 'feedback' pool

There's been a long history of photographers making prints available to the public at reduced prices.

<SNIP>

I'm thinking of selling these maquettes (reprints of the last one just before moving up in size), printed on 8x6 1/2 or 8x10 double weight fibre paper (for a nice white border), selenium toned, flattened, stamped on the back, initialed by me and presented in a folded single ply mat board and book cloth covered folio.

The plan would be to sell these on apug_gallery.com and use the money made to finance equipment needs, or some other photo related venture. The price would be somewhere above $20.00 and a tad below $40.00 USD.

What do you think?

Murray

Murray,
When you say, "reprints of the last one..." do you mean that each one would be a unique object, or are you envisioning an open edition of prints in a smaller size than you usually produce? When I initially read your post I envisioned the former. This seemed like a nice idea. The buyer would get a unique object whose existence had a purposeful relationship to your image making process. It would be an object whose scarcity was created not by artificial constraints (insert "limited edition") but rather by intrinsic function. Very cool... perhaps this is simplistic answer but... if I liked your image I would think this was wonderful.
Celac.

 

[MurrayMinchin]

Hi Celac,

...or are you envisioning an open edition of prints in a smaller size than you usually produce?

That's where I was headed.

While your first understanding would be interesting, I'm running under the assumption that I would sell more small, affordable 'maquettes' than I would larger, more expensive prints.

I've been mulling this idea for a while now, and what really got me going on it was reading about Alan Ross, who in the last 30 years has printed 80,000 Ansel Adams Special Edition prints. I'm (obviously) light years behind Ansel on many levels, but the point is, I'm guessing more people will buy these reduced in size / reduced in price photographs compared to larger prints.

This is kind of putting the cart before the horse (making the small prints available first), but I'm hoping the money raised would help fund equipment to make prints larger than I have to date.

Murray

 

[Ray Heath]

g'day Murray
who would buy them?

 

[MurrayMinchin]

who would buy them?

Hey Ray,

Four little words...one big-BIG-BIG question!

A catch 22 situation if there ever was one. If I don't put my stuff out there, nobody will buy anything...if I do put my stuff out there, who'll know I even exist? I don't have a marketing research team working on that right now or anything, but I'll keep whatever I have in mind close to my chest for now

Murray

 

[removed account4]

hi murray

that sounds like a great idea to me!
but one thing to think about is price ..
maybe i am in left field, but by your description,
does your presentation seems to exceed the price you are asking ?
don't forget you HAVE to mark up your price or you don't make any $$ .

good luck!

again, it sounds like a great business venture

john

 

[MurrayMinchin]

...maybe i am in left field, but by your description,
does your presentation seems to exceed the price you are asking ?

Good point John.

I do suffer from early in project delusions of granduer, where what I want eventually meets with what is needed, or is affordable. A really nice, slick presentation is intended though.

Murray