Carsten's Captures - January: What's it worth...?
01st February 2012
Last year saw two rather jaw dropping sales by photographers Peter Lik and Andreas Gursky. Lik sold a photo print for $ 1 Million and Gursky sold one for a staggering $ 4.3 Million. My humble self attended a Christmas market hoping to sell a few prints for considerably less and I still had to get into arguments about my prices. All this made me think. Assuming photography is an art form what is it worth?
Let’s have a look at the pure material cost first. Making a print doesn’t cost the world. Basically there are only paper and ink… or so you would think. Let’s take an A4 sized photo print as example:
Some of my colleagues offer this “Fine Art Print” for € 10.00 or even less. If you get this print made at the local supermarket or drugstore where a print only costs a few cent you can even put a mount around it and still make a huge profit. But how will this print stand the test of time - will the colours fade, will the paper take on a yellow tint…?
Then there are other photographers like myself who charge three times the mentioned amount. There are several reasons for that. First and foremost I make the print myself in a colour corrected environment - this means the image on paper will consistently look exactly the same as the image on screen and for me this means a good amount of work. The print I produce is also made with the best paper and ink available, in my case Hahnemuhle papers and Epson K3 inks. These specialist materials have their cost but ensure one thing: The print will look exactly the same in a few decades as it does today.
Still… to make such a print costs less than € 10.00. Still a big profit for me. Or maybe not?
What many people forget is that you need a few other things to make a photograph in the first place. A camera, some lenses, computer, printer and countless other bits and pieces like tripods, filters, etc. Altogether this easily can amount to a sum that could buy you a good-sized car. Add that to the cost of making a print and the profit margin gets considerably smaller…
And it doesn’t end here. To make the image in the first place you have to travel, which is anything but cheap at the moment. And if you even try to make a living from photography there are still more expanses like insurance and, oh yes, taxes! Where is my profit now…?
So what is a photo print worth? A good fine art print should have its price and rightly so, especially if it is a limited edition. But millions… I am not so sure. I believe that art should be affordable for everybody not only to a selected few who have the big money but are probably not able to see the difference between a good and a bad photograph…
Let’s have a look at the pure material cost first. Making a print doesn’t cost the world. Basically there are only paper and ink… or so you would think. Let’s take an A4 sized photo print as example:
Some of my colleagues offer this “Fine Art Print” for € 10.00 or even less. If you get this print made at the local supermarket or drugstore where a print only costs a few cent you can even put a mount around it and still make a huge profit. But how will this print stand the test of time - will the colours fade, will the paper take on a yellow tint…?
Then there are other photographers like myself who charge three times the mentioned amount. There are several reasons for that. First and foremost I make the print myself in a colour corrected environment - this means the image on paper will consistently look exactly the same as the image on screen and for me this means a good amount of work. The print I produce is also made with the best paper and ink available, in my case Hahnemuhle papers and Epson K3 inks. These specialist materials have their cost but ensure one thing: The print will look exactly the same in a few decades as it does today.
Still… to make such a print costs less than € 10.00. Still a big profit for me. Or maybe not?
What many people forget is that you need a few other things to make a photograph in the first place. A camera, some lenses, computer, printer and countless other bits and pieces like tripods, filters, etc. Altogether this easily can amount to a sum that could buy you a good-sized car. Add that to the cost of making a print and the profit margin gets considerably smaller…
And it doesn’t end here. To make the image in the first place you have to travel, which is anything but cheap at the moment. And if you even try to make a living from photography there are still more expanses like insurance and, oh yes, taxes! Where is my profit now…?
So what is a photo print worth? A good fine art print should have its price and rightly so, especially if it is a limited edition. But millions… I am not so sure. I believe that art should be affordable for everybody not only to a selected few who have the big money but are probably not able to see the difference between a good and a bad photograph…
Carsten Krieger, January 2012
