Photo Project: Buying Prints from Your Favorite Photographers 2009
Last year I kicked off the first year of the Buying Prints from Your Favorite Photographers blog project and was really happy with the participation, but even happier with the prints I purchased. In the hope of building upon last years effort I’m kicking off another blog project with the exact same goals. For details see below…
“It’s not a photo until its a print“
One of the unique aspects of digital photography is that we’re now able to enjoy photographic work with out viewing it in printed form. More so now than ever before supporting a photographer is shown almost exclusively online through photo forums, blogs, and other online communities. While viewing photographs online is easy and relatively inexpensive it is a hollow experience by comparison to holding an actual print from a photographer you respect and admire.
The goal of this project is to introduce fine art photography, photography books, print exchanges, and other photography related products to photography fans of all walks of life. It is also to spur photography fans to think in terms of financially supporting talented photographers so they can continue to do what they love.
What This Project Entails:
- Find photographs from photographers that you respect and admire.
- Purchase a photograph or photographs from these photographers. Spend within your means. Ideally try to purchase 1 to 3 photographs.
- Write about the experience (buying, viewing, etc) on your web site, blog, Flickr page, etc.
- Participants should then send me a link to their write up (see details below)
- I’ll consolidate a list of links to the write ups of everyone that took part in early December on my blog and distribute it.
What You Can Do To Make This Project A Success
- Contact photographers that you may or may not know.
- Point them to this post and provide them background to your print request.
- Even if you have little to spare inquire about a discount or an alternate product to purchase such as notecards, calendars, proof print, etc. Any participation is better than no participation. The goal is to obtain a physical copy of photographs you like.
- Alternatively if you’re a photographer it is not uncommon to conduct print exchanges, where photographers exchange equivalent prints. Not every photographer may do this so don’t be offended if you approach someone who is not interested in such an exchange.
- If you’re a photographer consider providing a discount to project participants.
My discount: All 5 x 7 & 8 x 12 prints are $19.99 & $29.99 respectively.
For every two people who buy prints and provide you as a reference I’ll give you a free 8 x 12 print of your choice. Search for you photo - Spread the word about this project.
The Deadline
Before the conclusion of this project on December 4th December 11th , 2009 write a blog post highlighting the photographs you’ve acquired and share thoughts of your experience in becoming a fine art print owner. Send me a link to your blog post and I’ll post the results the week of December 7th.
How to send in your link to your blog post:
- Access my Contact page
- In the subject line type “Favorite Photographer Prints”
- In the message put the name of your site, web address, link to your “Favorite Photographer Print” blog entry.
PLEASE DO NOT SUBMIT YOUR BLOG LINK AS A COMMENT TO THIS ENTRY.
I look forward to seeing your submission!
Technorati Tags: Photography, Fine Art, Prints, Photo Project
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It is good to see you running the project again and I wish you all well and hope people do decide to collect.
Last month I ran a competition to give away 2 fine-art prints of their choice.
I was surprised with small turn out since there was no cost to winner as I would ship free.
With over a 1,000 subscribers only about 8 requests came from regular subscribers and the rest from people who just came across blog as a result of competition.
I did in a subsequent article ask why so few wanted a print and while not many responses some of the answers where cost of framing and not enough wall space.
I still have a belief that most photographic bloggers really don’t want to hang other photographer’s images, unless it has status appeal.
It would be interesting to really understand this issue better.
Niels Henriksen
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What a terrific program! I will spread the word and offer some specials to anyone interested in participating.
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Art is a very personal experience. I'm convinced online interaction alone diminishes confidence in selecting art work. It's to be expected really. I find online purchases for fine art photography most commonly occur after a relationship is established or the buyer has seen their work in person before. If you look back a the results of last years contest I think this hypothesis is reflected in the relationship between buyers and sellers. As you come to your own conclusion I'd be interested to hear your thoughts on the subject. Thanks for the comment.
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Thanks Roberta!
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All –
Anyone interested in doing this on my site, http://iammatt.net, will recieve a 25% discounted price.
Please mention Jim's blog at the time of order.
Matt
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Awesome Jim, I was hoping you were going to do this again. Anyone wanting to do this on from my site use PhotoSwap in the coupon field at checkout for 25% discount on your whole order. http://robertdonovanphotography.com
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[...] they admire, respect etc.. I think it’s a pretty cool idea and I’m going to try and participate this year. The goal of this project is to introduce fine art photography, photography books, print exchanges, [...]
I've owned a nature photography gallery in Park City, Utah for 10 years and have had a website since opening. I find that I get the vast majority of my online sales from people that have visited my brick and mortar location in the past. VERY few sales from people just coming upon my site in a search.
Enter coupon code “Koda” and get 25% off your purchase. http://www.westlightimages.com
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It's great to see the positive comments. For those leaving links to their site be sure to participate. This is a great photo community opportunity not just a sales opportunity. Those that participated last year have networked and still connect with each other. Thanks again for everyone's interest.
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[...] Buying Prints from Your Favorite Photographers 2009 JMG-Galleries With the 2nd round of this project, Jim encourages us to purchase and/or trade prints with other photographers — definitely a great idea! [...]
I'm curious how many people are interested in acquiring a photographic print, even at a ridiculously low price. I have been taking black & white photographs for more than half a century now and sell classic baryta paper prints, which are in international collections. When I showed them at an amateur photo club once, I found out that some people had never before realized photographs could be collected (!). They told me that they would never buy one, however, “because they took photographs themselves” (and I did not even mention the price – they probably would have thought I was joking). So, good initiative, but low hopes, will see….
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[...] and I think it is a great idea. Basically, it is exactly as it says. You can read about it here: Buy a Print. So, this year I am participating and just purchased a print from Guy Tal. He has been a big [...]
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HI Jim! I tried to access your Contact page, but it came back as not found, so perhaps the link is incorrect? In any case, I posted my experience at my blog here:
http://futurowoman.blogspot.com/2009/12/my-cont...
Also, if anyone is interested in buying a print from me, they can write “Jim's blog project” in their checkout note to me, and I'll send them another print free! My shop is at http://futurowoman.etsy.com
Thanks for getting people thinking outside the cyberspace box!
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HI Jim! I tried to access your Contact page, but it came back as not found, so perhaps the link is incorrect? In any case, I posted my experience at my blog here:
http://futurowoman.blogspot.com/2009/12/my-cont...
Also, if anyone is interested in buying a print from me, they can write “Jim's blog project” in their checkout note to me, and I'll send them another print free! My shop is at http://futurowoman.etsy.com
Thanks for getting people thinking outside the cyberspace box!
[Reply]
[...] response to Jim Goldstein’s call for photographers to obtain photographs from their own favorite photograp… (was that as confusing as it sounded?) I recently contacted Guy Schmickle, who lives right at the [...]
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[...] to the RSS feed for updates on this topic.Powered by WP Greet BoxThe results are in for the Buying Prints from Your Favorite Photographers 2009 blog project. Turn out similar to last year was small, but given the economy was worse this year [...]