Shutterfinger

What Is "Fine Art" Photography?

This is an art photograph if for no other reason than it sold as such and was included in a published collection of art photography. It also meets at least eleven of Alain Briot's 14 criterea. I won't say which.

"Gordon, perhaps you could do a post about what makes a photo ‘Fine Art.” This term seems to be bandied around a lot these days, and any photo category from portrait, landscape to macro seems fair game to be included in the ‘fine art’ group. It would be nice to know what you and your readers consider the attributes that an image must have to be labelled ‘fine art.’"

-- ATB Karl

Great question, Karl. Here is Alain Briot’s 14-point checklist from Marketing Fine Art Photography:

1. Fine art photography is first about the artist.
2. The photographer must consider himself an artist.
3. The artist must demonstrate control of the creative process and final outcome.
4. A fine art photograph is done with the goal of creating a work of art.
5. A fine art photograph is not just documentary.
6. The image represents an interpretation of the subject.
7. A fine art photograph has an emotional content.
8. The composition is complex and sophisticated.
9. A metaphorical level of meaning is present in the image.
10. The emphasis is on quality instead of quantity.
11. Cost considerations are secondary.
12. The artist wrote an artist statement.
13. Individual pieces are part of a larger body of work.
14. The work is discussed in relationship to other works of art.

Briot provides a full explanation of each one in the book. Quibblers might take issue with one or two, but on the whole Briot’s list presents a clear picture (pardon the expression) of what’s required.

My personal opinion is that “fine art photography” is as much a marketing term as anything else. It’s a label you (the photographer) apply to your work when you want to sell it to people who value the visual appeal of a photographic print as much as the image itself.  I have to admit that as marketing terms go, the difference between “art photography” and “fine art photography” escapes me.

Keep in mind that people who buy (fine) art photographs normally intend to frame and display them. If they spend several hundred dollars for a print plus matting and framing, they want their friends, family and associates to believe said photo has artistic merit. This is where credentials such as artist statements, gallery show credits, art school degrees, and bodies of work come in handy. If the work itself strains artistic credibility, credentials help to reinforce the seriousness of the artist (if not the art).

To summarize, my position is that you can call your photographs whatever you like among family and friends, including “fine art.” If, however, you plan to sell them as such, your work will most likely be held to artistic standards such as the ones Briot has listed. You don’t have to agree with them; you can even ignore some of them; but to ignore all of them is to render your work unmarketable as art photography.

That's how I see it. Those of you who have achieved a level of success in the fine art market and feel you have something of value to share with the rest of us should feel free to do so.

My Hard Drive Migration Story

I recently filled up the external hard drive I use to store my photographs. This was no great achievement: It has a maximum capacity of 250GB, small these days. For me that represents over eleven years of photos, from the year 2000 to the first half of 2011, so I couldn't complain. I did, however, have to expand my hard drive storage.

One option would have been to buy a second drive and simply begin where I left off. The first drive could store the first decade of 2000 and the second could start with 2010. The downside would be that most of my photos would be on the older drive. Even if I transferred the original photos to a new drive of the same capacity (thus ensuring redundancy and a safe backup) I would still have to switch back and forth between drives to manage my catalog. That's more work and more opportunity for error than I cared to contemplate, so I scratched that option.

The option I chose was to transfer the photos to a new Mercury Elite AL-Pro hard drive with a 1.5TB capacity. This way I still have access to all my photos on one drive. I will back up the first ten years of 2000 onto a physically smaller drive that I will store off-site in a safe deposit box. It's a free service at my bank and I can't think of a safer place for my photographs.

I'm also in the continuing process of backing my best photos onto other media such as high-quality Taiyo Yuden DVD-Rs and the hard drive in my Mac. This works well for me because all of my best photos can still fit on two 4.7GB DVDs with room to spare. Depending on your perspective this is either a testament to my superior editing skills or my meager output of quality photographs.

In any event, the transition has gone smoothly. I created a new catalog in Lightroom, set it as the default, and was back in business. As the size of my catalog continues to grow I will have to be more careful to maintain a sound yet simple backup strategy, but so far everything is under control. If any of you reading this have faced a similar situation and have any brilliant strategies or unmitigated disasters to share, please feel free to share.

 

 

 

Review: Marketing Fine Art Photography

I think this photo of mine would look great matted, framed, and hung on someone's wall--but only marketing will make it happen.

In a previous post I interviewed Alain Briot about his then-upcoming book, Marketing Fine Art Photography. The book has now been published and is available through book retailers. I got a copy for myself, read it, and thought I’d give it a short review.

Marketing Fine Art Photography has a suggested retail price of $44.95. That’s quite reasonable for a book with 6 parts, 21 chapters, and 313 pages, liberally illustrated with examples of how photographs can be sold as well as samples of Briot’s fine art photography. The major sections of the book break down as follows:

Part 1 – Selling Fine Art Photography is mostly about definining what marketing is, what fine art photography is, what markets are available, and which marketing approach you find most attractive.

Part 2 – What to Sell and Where to Sell It is self- explanatory. Here is where you’ll also find a chapter on how to price your work.

Part 3 – The Fundamental Aspects of Marketing, Salesmanship, and Business describes the skills and attitudes essential to success. For many photographers this part alone will be worth the price of the book.

Part 4 – Selling Your Work at Shows describes everything from why art shows are a valuable sales venue to how to exhibit and sell your work at shows.

Part 5 – Personal Skills reinforces the previous parts by describing the technical, artistic, marketing and personal skills you’ll need for success. It also includes the “25 Most Common Marketing Errors” that photographers make.

Part 6 – Business and Marketing Tools delves into the tools and techniques of marketing, such as special offers, your curriculum vitae, and your Unique Selling Points.

Briot offers practical advice and balanced opinion based on his own hard-won experience and market research. He tells you which methods he finds most effective and which he finds the least. Although he describes the pros and cons of various approaches, such as selling your work in low quantities to a luxury clientele versus selling in high quanties through retail outlets, it’s clear which approach he favors and which he’s found most profitable.

It also becomes clear after reading a few chapters that effective marketing takes a lot of work. For example, Briot emphasizes that you can’t simply upload a selection of your best photos to a website and hope for the best. You have to do whatever it takes to find out where your customers are, then give them compelling reasons to buy your photographs. This takes creative vision as well as a dedication to quality, consistency, customer satisfaction, and follow-through.

One of the reasons Briot has been so successful is that he markets himself and his work full-time. If you’re willing to devote a similar level of dedication, Marketing Fine Art Photography provides an excellent road map. If not, you may find his recommendations daunting.

Another thing to keep in mind is that Briot is a landscape photographer who specializes in the American Southwest. You will see excellent examples of his work throughout the book and valuable insights on how he markets it. What you won’t see are examples of other styles of fine art photography, nor will you find examples of how other photographers have had success with a different style and marketing approach. I mention this not as a criticism but as a simple statement of fact. If you’re into a different style of fine art photography and want to take a different marketing approach than Briot you’ll still find plenty of valuable information; you’ll just have to extrapolate to determine how it applies to you and your work.

In short, as long as there's a market for your work and you're willing to put in the effort to attract it, this book offers a path to reaping the maximum results. Speaking of which, if you're interested in buying a copy, use this link to Amazon's U.S. web site. It will put a few coins in my pocket without costing you a cent more. It might even enable me to buy a book or two myself.

Respect the Light

Yes, this photo shows a statue of young man holding a Bible and rosary beads with crucifix. Yes, I'm posting this on a Sunday.  No, there's no sermon. I was simply struck by how well lit this statue was. It was placed beside the entrance to a Catholic high school and was lit only by direct sunlight and whatever light was reflected by the surroundings. Some might assume that the lighting was therefore random or accidental. I think not. Anyone who would take the time and effort to sculpt a statue such as this would be just as careful about where to place it so that it would, at least for certain times of the year and the day, be optimally lit. This was one of those times.

We, as photographers, could benefit from being just as thoughtful about how our subjects are lit, whether it's we who are doing the lighting or Mother Nature. Having noticed or created glorious light, it's then incumbent to compose the photograph in such a way that we highlight the lighting as well as the subject. A few curve adjustments in Lightroom, Photoshop, or your image editor of choice can provide that extra bit of finesse that pushes a good image into the realm of art.

By the way, if you care about this sort of thing, I shot this with a Pentax K-5 and 18-55 f/3.5-5.6  lens that I use as my "I don't plan to take any pictures but you never know" kit. Any camera you have with you beats any camera you leave at home.

Is Street Photography a Criminal Act?

This is as literal a street photograph as you can get, taken from the second story of the Philadelphia Convention Center. I hope the two pedestrians and the driver of the car don't mind my having taken a photograph of them without permission.

I’ve been a dedicated street photographer for decades, during which time I’ve had minimal conflict with either my subjects, police, or security guards. As long as I’m careful not to be rude or intrusive and not to photograph on private property without permission, I’ve been free to take photographs where and when I wanted.

Not recently though. For some reason I’ve encountered more people taking issue with my taking photographs on public streets. Here’s an example: After asking whether I had received permission to do so (my truthful answer was “no”), a security recently warned me not to take pictures of what appeared to be a driveway next to a building. Apparently it was part of the loading dock to a local medical facility. I can’t imagine why a photograph would have caused any security risks, and frankly I didn’t care enough to question the logic. I moved on.

Two blocks later I happened upon a gift shop that had a six foot tall wooden statue of a leopard stretching itself against an exterior wall. No sooner had I raised my camera to my eye than the young woman working inside rushed out to ask what I was doing. I laughed, after which the following conversation ensued:

 “I’m taking a picture of the six foot leopard you’ve got leaning against the wall.”

“Why?”

“It caught my eye. That’s what you wanted, right? I assume you wouldn’t put something like that outside your shop in the hopes that people will ignore it. It’s quite beautiful, by the way.”

“Thanks. What are you going to do with the picture?”

“Probably nothing at all. It will just remind me of the day I saw a shop with a leopard outside stretching itself.”

“Well, you can’t sell it without permission.”

“I’m not trying to break the law or violate anybody’s rights. I’m just a guy walking down the street taking pictures of the sights in Philadelphia. I didn’t think you’d mind.”

 And that’s the crux of my argument. Whatever your thoughts on the ethics of street photography, it is not a crime, at least not here in the U.S., at least not for now. But I’m beginning to wonder.

The Art of Compromise

In my mind there are a lot of defects and compromises in this photo. The boy's face isn't perfectly sharp, there seem to be leaves growing out of his hat, and I wish the bird feeder wasn't in the frame. I still like it though.

One of the more seductive mindsets to be wary of is the conceit that you are somehow more serious, committed, or uncompromising than other photographers. I understand the value of describing yourself this way for the sake of marketing. After all, galleries, museums, and collectors are much more inclined to support photographers who present themselves as “serious, dedicated, fastidious fine artists” rather than clueless slackers with no sense of craft.

The danger is to take this sort of marketing hype too seriously. Once you start looking at yourself as an “uncompromising photographer” then it’s all too easy to believe that, unlike “compromising photographers,” you need to buy the most expensive cameras and lenses you can afford. You need the fastest computer with the largest and fastest hard drive, the most RAM, the largest monitor capable of displaying the widest color gamut… the list goes on.

It’s not that there’s anything inherently wrong with buying or owning top-of-the-line equipment. Better tools often make it easier to produce better work. The delusion is believing that owning such equipment confers any particular status or expertise. It doesn’t. It only makes you someone who owns excellent tools. Depending on how wealthy you are, it could also make you someone who has compromised his mortgage, retirement savings, children’s education, or marriage for the sake of buying equipment he could ill-afford.

Here’s another possible compromise: If what you bought is inadequate for your needs, then you've simply compromised utility for status. For some that's not a bad bargain: It’s a lot quicker and easier to get respect by buying a prestigious camera than spending years perfecting your craft.

If you truly want to be an uncompromising photographer then your focus is should be on your work, not your equipment. When the focus in on your work you set a high standard for your photographs and you strive to meet or exceed it on a consistent basis. You see your mistakes as an opportunity to learn rather than a sign of weakness or inferiority. You practice the simplest tasks over and over again until they become second nature. You let your muse be your guide rather than current fashion. You use whatever equipment you’ve got to its full potential rather than as an excuse for poor photographs, or worse, not producing photographs at all.

Most important, you accept that “perfection” is not so much an achievable goal as a process. As long as we are less than perfect there is always room for improvement--and yes, compromise.