| Why are fine art prints so expensive? If you don't customarily purchase art, you may find the prices of art photographs surprising. Art photographs are made using the finest materials available, which represent a significant investment to the photographer regardless of whether the work he or she produces sells or not. Often, specialized and costly equipment is involved, as well as the difficulty of being "in the right place at the right time" to capture images in the first place. Often, many prints of an image must be sold even to recoup the original expense of making the negative or transparency. Because we no longer live in a society where artists are supported by royal patrons, the only way fine art can stand on its own is for artists and buyers to cooperatively establish and support a healthy art market. Art is both an investment and a product in itself. What this means for the artist is a responsibility to support a resale market for his or her work. Art photographs are usually printed in editions, meaning that only a certain number of prints will ever be made of a particular image. By pricing consistently and not glutting the market for popular images, the artist is assuring the buyer that he is serious about developing a market for his work and making sure it will appreciate in value over time. To take an extreme example, prints Edward Weston sold in the 1930s for twenty dollars are auctioned for tens of thousands of dollars today. Unlike mass-produced snapshots, each fine art print represents a significant investment in materials, time, and effort. It has been said that "the negative is the score; the print is the performance." Sometimes, a new edition will be made from an original image, interpreting that original in a radically different way. The production of art photographs is not an automatic, mechanical procedure; each print requires careful manipulation - much handiwork is needed to bring out the details in the film, producing a print with maximum visual impact. Great care must be taken to produce the finest quality print possible. Imperfections are painstakingly spotted away and prints must be carefully trimmed, matted, mounted, and framed. Many do not make the final cut. When you buy art made and sold by responsible artists, you are buying work that can be expected to hold its value, and you are supporting a continuing market for creative work in general. Eric Volpe |