Ian Leake
Allowing Ads
You may remember that a little while ago I ran a collectors survey. Although I was taken aback by the nastiness this triggered, I did promise to post the findings here. So here goes.
Some of the responses seemed more a way for people to vent their anger at the world rather than anything more constructive, so I removed those and was left with twelve responses. Although thats not a large number, there were a few interesting observations Id like to share. Of course with a small, self-selecting group of respondents this doesnt necessarily mean too much.
Interesting Observation #1
The relationship between two questions (Do you consider yourself to be a serious collector of photography? and Is it important to you whether a print is part of a limited edition or not?) is particularly interesting to me. Eight out of the twelve people considered themselves to be serious collectors, but eleven of the twelve didnt feel that it was important whether a print was part of a limited edition (and the one who did gave a qualified answer preferring expensive prints to be in editions but not concerned about cheaper prints). To me this challenges the conventional wisdom that prints should be sold in limited editions in order to appeal to collectors (at least for the community that the respondents represent).
Interesting Observation #2
The next interesting observation is regarding the prices people have paid for prints. The people who responded fell into two distinct groups. The largest group (six people) normally buy prints in the price range of $100 to $500; and the second largest group (four people) normally buy in the range of $1,000 to $2,500. I find this particularly interesting because no-one at all said they normally buy prints between $500 and $1,000. I wonder what this means perhaps its too expensive for one group of people and too cheap for another and I wonder whether this makes it a bad price range to choose if youre selling prints. Its food for thought anyway.
Interesting Observation #3
I asked several questions about preferences amongst historical and contemporary photographers. I was amazed by the range of photographers named: eighteen different photographers were named, with Ansel Adams and Edward Weston being the only ones named only twice. I find this diversity really inspiring.
Thank you to everyone who participated in the survey. On balance I think this was a useful exercise (even if I learnt rather more about the attitudes of some photographers than I expected). Im going to leave the survey running and see what happens over time. In the meantime Ive removed all the response data from my website as promised.
Some of the responses seemed more a way for people to vent their anger at the world rather than anything more constructive, so I removed those and was left with twelve responses. Although thats not a large number, there were a few interesting observations Id like to share. Of course with a small, self-selecting group of respondents this doesnt necessarily mean too much.
Interesting Observation #1
The relationship between two questions (Do you consider yourself to be a serious collector of photography? and Is it important to you whether a print is part of a limited edition or not?) is particularly interesting to me. Eight out of the twelve people considered themselves to be serious collectors, but eleven of the twelve didnt feel that it was important whether a print was part of a limited edition (and the one who did gave a qualified answer preferring expensive prints to be in editions but not concerned about cheaper prints). To me this challenges the conventional wisdom that prints should be sold in limited editions in order to appeal to collectors (at least for the community that the respondents represent).
Interesting Observation #2
The next interesting observation is regarding the prices people have paid for prints. The people who responded fell into two distinct groups. The largest group (six people) normally buy prints in the price range of $100 to $500; and the second largest group (four people) normally buy in the range of $1,000 to $2,500. I find this particularly interesting because no-one at all said they normally buy prints between $500 and $1,000. I wonder what this means perhaps its too expensive for one group of people and too cheap for another and I wonder whether this makes it a bad price range to choose if youre selling prints. Its food for thought anyway.
Interesting Observation #3
I asked several questions about preferences amongst historical and contemporary photographers. I was amazed by the range of photographers named: eighteen different photographers were named, with Ansel Adams and Edward Weston being the only ones named only twice. I find this diversity really inspiring.
Thank you to everyone who participated in the survey. On balance I think this was a useful exercise (even if I learnt rather more about the attitudes of some photographers than I expected). Im going to leave the survey running and see what happens over time. In the meantime Ive removed all the response data from my website as promised.
