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Street photos put to other use


akochanowski

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<p>lol, Maria. Anyway, this is what I do with them: Try to come up with the most pretentious sounding title possible, while also mixing sex and politics. For example,</p>

<p align=center><img border=2px src="http://d6d2h4gfvy8t8.cloudfront.net/3221666-lg.jpg"</p>

<p align=center><i>The Multiorgasmic Reverberation of a Police State</i> -- Belarus, Copyright 2004 Eugene Scherba</p>

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In all seriousness, the market for traditional "street" photos as far as publishing or gallery space is pretty dim unless you shot in TriX in the 60's and are now dead. I'm going to have a show in September in a Detroit gallery, and the main focus is going to be a boxing series I did that's OK, but IMHO not as good as the street stuff I like to do. It's a matter of economics-- who is going to pay $500 for a street photo by an unknown photographer?

 

I put together the Hollywood folder on a whim, just gathering up some outtakes and things I never really used. You can bet that it will not be that hard to get some space for it once I get about 20 images together.

 

I'd be curious who here has actually had their street work shown/sold and where?

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<i>For them that must obey authority<br>

That they do not respect in any degree<br>

Who despise their jobs, their destinies<br>

Speak jealously of them that are free<br>

Cultivate their flowers to be<br>

Nothing more than something<br>

They invest in</i><br>

-- Bob Dylan

<p>

Now, cool quotes apart... I don't know, Mr. Kochanowski (sorry, I think it's strange to call you "A") if you are a pro or a good hobbyist. The latter is my case.

<p>

I've done only one exhibition until now. I'm preparing the second. Sometimes I sell something, but not for $500, rather for something less than $100 (actually 80 Euros) for FB prints. The price is somehow dictated by the time I take to do everything... it's not even worth to spend a couple of hours in the making of a good print for less than that.

<p>

Nevertheless, the economic part, although it's good to have more money to buy paper and films and chemicals... is just secondary to me. It just repays of time & materials... I think it's enough... then one day I might become famous (unlikely) and that would be a catastrophe, or I might remain an electrical engineer who likes to take pictures... and that would be fine for me.

<p>

Everytime I sell a print (as I said, rarely), I'm really happy about the fact that someone is showing so much enthusiasm in my work, rather than for the money.

<p>

If I would receive 20 orders in once... then I would raise the prices. Not to gain more money, but to have less requests. I work, I enjoy photography as a hobby... but then there is my girlfriend, my family, my friends... and movies and theater and a lots of other stuff that make life worthwhile.

<p>

If you like doing other stuff than the one you'll be displaying, just think about what makes you happier. Then you'll have the solution.

<p>

Personally, right now, I would not pay $500 even for a photo from HCB... with the same money I can have a small holiday that will allow me to take more pictures (yes, obsession), have more fun, discover other things.

<p>

If photography is your work, then, your view might be completely the opposite... and I can respect it... as a hobbyist... well, I hope I got it clear!

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In answer to the last question, I suggest googling "Gary Stochl" He has been shooting SP, mainly in Chicago, for 40 years and just recently decided to start showing his work. He gave a gallery talk last week and mentioned pressures on him to make limited edition prints and destroy the negatives in order to increase the prices.
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Andy,

<p>

Early nineties, Artra Gallery in Soho, NYC and the Four Arts Gallery in Boston. Not street but large prints and collages on fiber with oil paints of tightly cropped abstract geometry's found in industrial settings. Similar in technique to the work of <a href="http://www.beatproduction.com/art/"> <u>Beat Keerl</u></a> though different subject matter.

<p>

I'd imagine it all lies where ones priorities or goals are or how one measures success. Weather they be selling prints and gallery exposure or merely seeing and processing or possibly both.

<p>

I whole heatedly agree with you that finding galleries to show ones work is easy and all it takes is a tight package and a little legwork. Especially considering the fact that in any given day of gallery hopping eighty to ninety percent of what one sees and it also applies to all the arts painting, architecture, music....will be rubbish (used subjectively).

<p>

Just wondering out loud here but I wonder who has sold more records Charlie Parker or Brittany Spears?

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I haven't yet approached any galleries, though I keep planning to do it at some point. My expectations are low, because I agree street photography is not a hot market, but it would be fun to do a show.

 

Despite not marketing myself at all, I get contacted every couple weeks by someone who wants to buy prints. I'm not in photography for the money, but I find that people are willing to pay several hundred per print, generally.

 

One thing I've been hearing from buyers lately: "no stinkin' inkjets!" Back when I first sent buyers my "archival pigment prints on cotton rag paper" they would say, "oh this is interesting" but now people have gotten used to inkjets and many collectors have decided that they want only real silver prints. (That's probably not as much the case for color photos, but I wouldn't know).

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