| Author | Thread |
|
|
12/28/2003 09:19:07 AM · #1 |
In another of Brooks Jensen's "Things I've Learned About Photography" article in LensWork #50, Mr. Jensen states:
"At least 9 times out of 10, there is a conflict between marketing potential and artistic value."
This makes perfectly good sense. A lot of discussion comes up regarding is this particular topic. Your photograph may hold an incredibly high amount of artistic value to a very few people. Your photograph may hold a reasonable amount of value to a large group of people. In the context of DPChallenge, the latter is better. This is what it takes to be successful in the stock photography business. You need good levels of mass appeal rather than something that is obscure or limited in its interpretation.
Successful stock photography sells over and over again. People buy the rights to use the images in advertising and other forms of media. Your average fine art photographs usually don't sell as many times as a strong stock photo will, but they often sell for a much higher price each time.
Your target audience will help you determine what your goal for any particular image will be. When you evaluate your performance on DPChallenge, if you win a ribbon, chances are your photograph has potential in the stock photo market. You successfully appealed to a broad base of viewers. You inspired high votes from a very diverse group of people. Could you also consider it to be 'fine art' at the same time? Possibly so. You may have had a photo here that did not score particularly well, but you received a couple comments where the viewer was just amazed by your work. This photo may come closer to falling into the 'fine art' category than the winning photos do. You probably had a greater impact on a smaller number of viewers. If you tried to market this image, your buyer base would be small like the number of comments you received that raved over the image. By the same token, if you marketed this image, you would likely be able to command a higher price for it from that smaller group of people.
Just some food for thought...
Message edited by author 2003-12-28 09:20:31.
|
|
|
|
12/28/2003 09:46:23 AM · #2 |
i like these 'blurbs'
i wish more folks leaned toward the artistic side of photography.
i would rather have an image sought after by a few - than whored out by the masses.
|
|
|
|
12/28/2003 09:55:37 AM · #3 |
Originally posted by soup:
i like these 'blurbs'
i wish more folks leaned toward the artistic side of photography.
i would rather have an image sought after by a few - than whored out by the masses. |
That would defeat the purpose of participating in the challenges tho :)
|
|
|
|
12/28/2003 10:04:55 AM · #4 |
| Thats a great post john. That answers a lot of questions. If everyone on the site read this post- there would be a lot less useless rants about low scores... |
|
|
|
12/28/2003 11:15:12 AM · #5 |
the challenges are just motivational to me. not too particular about the placement. but if a couple folks see what i want them too i am happy. those folks ( as mentioned above ) tend to leave and in depth comment about how the photo appealed to them.
Originally posted by jmsetzler:
That would defeat the purpose of participating in the challenges tho :) |
|
|
|
|
12/28/2003 11:40:02 AM · #6 |
edited
Message edited by author 2003-12-28 13:26:47. |
|
|
|
12/28/2003 11:55:01 AM · #7 |
| John, he (Jensen) also says 'There is art. There is entertainment. They are not the same thing, but when a piece of work is both, it achieves a higher plateau.' Isn't this what we should strive to succeed at? How does a piece reach this plateau? That is the question... |
|
|
|
12/28/2003 01:31:26 PM · #8 |
Originally posted by jmsetzler:
Originally posted by soup:
i like these 'blurbs'
i wish more folks leaned toward the artistic side of photography.
i would rather have an image sought after by a few - than whored out by the masses. |
That would defeat the purpose of participating in the challenges tho :) |
Art, the process and the stance of it, will have its own purposes. DPC won't carry any weight here.
On the other hand, I think it's great to find a lil art anywhere. It's good for art to socialize a bit. After all, there aren't as many princes left in the loft.
And then it's good for DPC, coz art tends to have heart, and the heart shall remind both management and bots that we are people with real feelings.
And, doesn't anyone who cares about photography not care about art? An artist who thinks about markets, to me, is a grocer. |
|
|
|
12/28/2003 02:23:48 PM · #9 |
I know that currently I'm neither an artist nor a saleable photographer.
I intend to improve, and both have an appeal: artistry for its own sake, since the reason I take photos is to create something beautiful and lasting; and commercial success because a flow of money could support my hobby. I guess these are obvious points. For now, since my wife and I have been fortunate enough to achieve a balanced budget after all these years, I am opting to improve artistically. Others of us DPC'ers need the cash, and are probably more interested in making commercial strides.
I suppose one could do both, but it nearly requires twice the effort, and time is always a limiting factor. The realization from Blurb #6 is that USUALLY you can't do both with a given shot. But the benefit of digital photography is that you can employ multiple approaches once you are on-site or set-up, and leverage your time, and maybe produce or improve in both respects.
|
|
|
|
12/28/2003 03:22:18 PM · #10 |
Unfortunately art is subjective and not many photographers are thought of as "artists." I believe the reason is because everyone owns some sort of camera while masses of people don't have paint brushes in their homes.
Short story - A photographer gets invited to dinner with some friends. When they arrive at the hosts house he gives them a photo that he took. The hostess looks at it and says "Great picture, you must have a very expensive camera." He says nothing but upon leaving that night he stops and says to the hostess, "The dinner was really great, you must have very expensive pots." |
|
|
|
12/28/2003 07:05:25 PM · #11 |
Originally posted by sonnyh:
...expensive pots." |
Delicious. |
|
|
|
12/28/2003 07:12:42 PM · #12 |
Originally posted by soup:
i like these 'blurbs'
i wish more folks leaned toward the artistic side of photography.
i would rather have an image sought after by a few - than whored out by the masses. |
...but being whored out has it's own rewards. Like income... :D |
|
|
|
12/28/2003 11:12:47 PM · #13 |
Originally posted by TooCool:
John, he (Jensen) also says 'There is art. There is entertainment. They are not the same thing, but when a piece of work is both, it achieves a higher plateau.' Isn't this what we should strive to succeed at? How does a piece reach this plateau? That is the question... |
Of course that would be a great goal to have :) This reminds me of another of his 'lessons learned':
"The production of a 'greatest hit' is alwasy the result of immersing oneself thoroughly in a project. To set out to make a 'greatest hit' photograph will always fail."
:)
|
|
|
|
12/28/2003 11:21:35 PM · #14 |
Originally posted by jmsetzler:
"The production of a 'greatest hit' is alwasy the result of immersing oneself thoroughly in a project. To set out to make a 'greatest hit' photograph will always fail." |
I also saw that one and have a plan for the upcoming year as you do. I have been looking around my town and there are many houses and other buildings that have a lot of character. I've wanted to shoot them since I started here at DPC. My goal for the coming year is to produce 52 prints of architectural character from the area. I haven't decided on releasing them as a group at the end of the year or one by one as I do them but I plan on letting everyone here see!
|
|
Home -
Challenges -
Community -
League -
Photos -
Cameras -
Lenses -
Learn -
Help -
Terms of Use -
Privacy -
Top ^
DPChallenge, and website content and design, Copyright © 2001-2025 Challenging Technologies, LLC.
All digital photo copyrights belong to the photographers and may not be used without permission.
Current Server Time: 07/28/2025 06:35:51 AM EDT.
