civilized ku # 75 ~ whirling dervish-ness
Monday, January 21, 2008 at 09:36AM 
Whirling dervish • click to embiggenThis past weekend Lake Placid was host to the Nature Valley / FIS Freestyle World Cup competition. Most of the world's top Olympic aerialists, men and women, competed in the Saturday night finals. The event will be televised on NBC this coming Sunday (Jan. 27) at 3:30pm. It's definitely worth a look to see the display of extreme / insane aerobatics these athletes perform - not to mention (if they televise it) the nasty / violent face-plant landing by one of the male competitors. FYI, he walked away from it.
Much thanks to Gordon McGregor for his link - on ku # 498 - the real 99.999% problem - to the 20×200 site. The marketing concept of 20×200 is very similar to one that I have been contemplating and discussing for awhile now - one large-sized print in very limited edition (2-4) at a 'high' price, one medium-sized print (of the same image) in a larger edition (15-20) at a 'moderate' price, and one small-sized print (of the same image) in a 'large' edition (150-250) at a very modest price.
The edition numbers and print prices that 20×200 has landed on are: large print edition of 2 @$2,000 ea.; medium print edition of 20 @ $200 ea.; small print edition of 200 @ $20 ea.. Interestingly, if each sized edition sells out, they each yield $4,000 in sales, $12,000 total.
Of the 3 photographers on the site, 1 (a mid-level 'name') has sold out all 3 editions (within 1 week), the other 2 (names that I do not recognize) have generated $4,300 - mostly from small-print edition sales.
I find these results to be very encouraging in as much as they lend a certain amount of credence to the idea that large-edition, reasonably-priced contemporary Fine Art photography will sell in decent numbers. There is, indeed, a market out there that is, for the most part, as yet untapped.
20×200's premise - large editions + low prices x the internet = art for everyone - is very close to the one that percolating in my head. I am delighted to see that someone in the contemporary Fine Art photography world (located in what is arguably the epicenter of the contemporary Fine Art photography world) is finally playing with the medium's inherent ability to make lots of originals.
My brain continues to grind on.
Reader Comments (5)
The 20x200 is a great idea but I would like to see something like that just for photography. Incidentally, the photographer that's featured when the website opens, Brian Ulrich, was a guest artist in residence at my daughter's college dorm last year. He talked a lot about making Art more accessible and available to average people during several of sessions. I really like his "Copia" project.
Hey Mary - my idea is for a 'just for photography' endeavor.
Neat story about Ulrich
this is probably another Brooks Jensen podcast that I'm channeling, but why 'just for photography' ? Where does this barrier between 'Art galleries' and 'photographic art galleries' come from, or the distinction between selling photography and selling fine art (painting/ sculpture/ other more manual processes)
Is photography a second class citizen in the art world ? If so, why ? It seems like the photographers want to keep to that particular ghetto too
For me, Gordon, photography is the Art that I put on a pedestal and certainly no second class citizen. That seems to be an ongoing argument that I've never felt the need to enter into. Never been a point of debate in my mind. I like all art but as a lover of photography, can you imagine the excitement of browsing through virtual bins of affordable images of all shapes, sizes, genres? A website devoted to just that? I think it would be elevating rather than ghetto-izing.
i think jen bekman's idea is great. i have been watching this idea since it's beginning. i get an email twice a week showing the next pieces of art being offered for $20. trouble is i don't find many of the offerings at all interesting. they look to me like decorative art for modern hipsters. they don't frighten me or make me gasp at their beauty. the edgiest thing about this collection so far is how little edge any of the pictures in it have.