Plodding on..

There is certainly no ease in the easing back into the fine art market. Back in the early 2000’s I was fortunate enough to make enough from print sales alone allowing me to make more work. It was a living for a while, but certainly not something I could imagine happening today without substantial back up. Looking back, I appear quite successful having sold out editions on several images (key to raising the profile of any artist). I have books, a decent amount of solo shows under my utility belt, received several good sized grants, and most importantly, have amassed what I consider to be a solid body of work. But in today’s digital world no one gives a stuff. I am not really sure how a mass of digital followers can work in a fine art market. They are certainly not going to shows or buying prints, especially when they can just look at a 2” square on a phone, but there you go.

Vintage prints, that once staple that propped up the contemporary market, has changed dramatically in the past decade now that all the prints have been found under old mattresses and auctioned off to the highest bidder. Digital prints still raise the question of longevity with C Type print processes almost gone and becoming the new vintage.

So here we are in a world where everything is becoming virtual. But the last I heard, digital photo frames were not a thing, and people still want prints on their walls. Digital images have not saved the rain forest and not processing films hasn’t saved all the little fishes. What digital has done is made the photographic print more valuable than ever. And that is what keeps me plodding on wards.