My Interview With Alain Briot

I recently interviewed Alain Briot, the author of "Marketing Fine Art Photography," which is due to be published in early May by Rocky Nook. Alain is a financially and artistically successful landscape photographer who specializes in fine art images of the American Southwest. He's written numerous articles, both for Michael Reichmann's site, The Luminous Landscape, and his own, The Beautiful Landscape. He also teaches photography workshops in locations such as Death Valley, Antelope Canyon, and Joshua Tree. In short, he is eminently well-qualified to write on the subject of how to market fine art photography.

Alain was generous enough to speak to me for almost two hours. He also taped our conversation, which I plan to edit down to a more concise length and release as a podcast. In the meantime, here are a few highlights from our conversation, sometimes paraphrased for brevity. If you have any interest at all in learning what it takes to be successful at marketing your work then I suggest you not only follow the tips below, but also buy a copy of Alain's book. I'm already putting some of his suggestions into action. You may want to do the same.

Q: What is marketing?

A: Marketing is promotion. It's about letting people know who you are, what you do, and why they should be excited about it. Without excitement nothing happens.

Q: So is publishing a portfolio of your photographs on the web marketing?

A: It's not effective marketing unless you actually connect with an audience. Promoting yourself on a website that no one knows about and no one visits is like placing a sign on a road that no one travels. It's very easy for the photographer because it requires so little active involvement. You just put it up and you're done. But for the customer it's a poor substitute for meeting the artist and really understanding what they're doing. To be successful at marketing you have to make a deep and lasting connection with the customer.

Q: What's another frequent mistake you see?

A: Art is the only business I know of where we create the product before we find the audience. That's not necessarily the wrong approach. Most of us are more motivated by our passion to create than the desire to simply make money. Still, consider the implications. As much as what you are producing may appeal to you, you can't be successful unless there is market for it. It has to appeal to the customer.

Q: So what is the market for fine art photography?

A: The question you need to ask yourself is who would want to buy this to hang in their home and why? What does their taste in art say about them? Consider that most people will choose a photograph that is proportional in value to that of their home. The value of the photo is supposed to increase the value or the home, not bring it down. So the owner of a million-dollar home expects to pay in the thousands for an important piece of artwork. To the average person this might be considered a luxury. A customer like this considers it an investment. That's the type of customer I'm looking for.

Q: How do you attract this type of customer?

A: You need to be unique. The more money you ask, the more unique you need to be. Consider that in the world of painting there is only one Monet, only one Cezanne. Among the surrealist painters there were many, but only one Salvador Dali. In art, the only time you're going to start make real money is when you stop selling location [in Alain's case the American Southwest] and start selling yourself.

Q: It sounds like you're aiming for a very small audience.

A: Precisely. And by the way, the market for fine art photography is not very large to begin with. But you have to start narrowing the audience even more because it's the only way you can start asking the kinds of prices you want to ask.

Q: What kinds of prices do you ask?

A: My matted and framed prints sell for as much as $3900. But again, understand that I am selling much more than a print in a frame. I am selling my unique vision and style. I am selling prints of exceptional quality and beauty. I am selling luxury-level customer service combined with a one-year 100% money back guarantee, a lifetime fade-free warranty, and a lifetime framing warranty. And this is all an integral part of how I market my work.

Q: So aside from reading your book, how would you suggest that photographers learn more about marketing to the luxury customer?

A: Visit luxury stores. Visit a Lexus or Mercedes-Benz dealership. Visit a luxury jeweler or clothing store. Pay attention the quality of the goods, the quality of the service, and where and how they add value. Then think about where you can add similar value for your customers. The more that your customers feel they are buying something wonderful that is exclusive to you and your brand, the higher the price you can justify and the more successful you will be.
================

There was more, much more, but I'll leave it at that for now. Let me also add that if it's not obvious from what Alain said above, success at marketing fine art photograph takes time, effort, and planning. There's no easy way out, but if you're looking for expert advice and you're willing to follow it, "Marketing Fine Art Photography" sounds like a great place to start. I encourage to you pre-order at Amazon or your favorite bookseller.

As for me, I've decided that I owe it to myself and those who appreciate my work to do a better job of marketing it. To that end you can look forward to changes and improvements at Shutterfinger. There are hundreds of mantlepieces around the world eagerly waiting for a Gordon Lewis photograph to be mounted above them. My plan is to reduce the wait.

Comments

[Lesley Thomas]

Growth and change are positive things, but I hope you don't change the wide range of topics you discuss on your blog, or your style. I always look forward to being surprised by what I might find in a new post.
On the other hand, your pictures do deserve to be on walls and mantlepieces, and I hope that whatever you plan for the blog will help that to happen!

[Gordon Lewis]

Don't worry. My goal is to improve the user experience so that Shutterfinger is better integrated with social media and so my gallery of photographs is on the same site as the blog; that way fans of my writing and photography will only have to visit one site instead of two.

[Syed]

Photographing for a market versus photographing for yourself - how does one make the distinction? Your thoughts on this would be an interesting read, Gordon. Perhaps there is a blurry distinction between the two for some, but I can think of situations where a photograph that the market might "like" would not be something that the photographer might necessarily consider his "best" work, whatever "best" may mean to the individual. Then there is the age old discussion of creating art for the sake of art and art versus a successful commercial endeavor. I guess a lot also depends on what one defines as "fine art." Is a good postcard photograph of a landscape also considered "fine art"?

[Gordon Lewis]

"Photographing for a market versus photographing for yourself - how does one make the distinction?"

It's not an either-or proposition. One can do both. Alain's point is that if you want to sell your work you have to either find or create a market for it. That said, the general market for fine art photography is people and companies that want to mount framed photographs on their walls. All philosophical questions of art and commerce aside, simply ask yourself what types of photographs people with a taste for art would want to mount on their walls.

For example, if your passion and specialty is photographing the horrors of war then your most likely market will be magazines and newspapers--not because your work doesn't have merit, but because hardly anyone would want to place such photos on the walls of their home or office. There is a secondary market of collectors who purchase prints they don't necessarily intend to frame and display, yet even collectors are particular about what they buy.

In short, assuming a sufficiently high-quality product that is well priced, either you produce what the market is looking for or you persuade the market to buy what you're producing. If you're not successful at either one, your product won't sell, whether it's fine art photography or beer.

[Alain Briot]

Market vs. yourself is really a "box in a box" situation. We all operate within a given market. The challenge is knowing exactly what that market is. This requires research. Once this market is clearly defined, as artists we work for ourselves. That's the only way we can create unique artwork. There's no "need" to fullfill (like say adapting the gas tank size of a car to a market audience that drives long distances or short distance) because we are not selling a need (cars are needs because we need transportation, like we need food, shelter, clothing, etc.). We are selling a want. So the key is that the audience wants what we offer, and in art that is our personal style.

[Syed]

Thanks for the concise comments Gordon/Alain. Also good to see you here Alain. I bought a copy of "Composition, Creativity, and Personal Style" a few months ago and enjoyed it tremendously. I like the distinction between fulfilling a "need" versus a "want"; I think this is the gist of the entire discussion. I guess it essentially boils down to enjoying doing what you do and being rewarded for it at the same time! That is the holy grail of any vocation. Thanks.