[Leica] Know Thy Market

[Mike Johnston <michaeljohnston@ameritech.net>]

>> [...]
>> I charge the same or more for my Piezography prints that I do for my
>> darkroom prints and no one has questioned the price or the process.
> 
> I have to disagree.  The price of a photograph reflects many things.
> Perhaps the major component is the psychological effect of supply and
> demand



It all depends on the market. Professional photographers selling
content-based work for reproduction have never been limited to fine prints
in any event; often, they previously delivered their work in RC
"repro-quality" prints. The prints don't matter...the picture is what
matters. It's usually going to be printed in ink anyway.

But there is indeed some resistance to DI prints as objects in the fine-art
world. It hasn't sorted itself out yet.

And I know of one photographer who has a corner on a very lucrative little
outlet, the Inn at the edge of the Grand Canyon, where he sells dramatic
color landscapes to the public for lots of money (and makes a fortune doing
it)...and his Epson prints sell just as well (and for just as much) as his
expertly-printed traditional Cibachromes. In fact, if my secondhand
information is correct, he's quite convinced that his public isn't aware
that there _is_ any difference.

The upshot is plain..."know thy market."

- --Mike