Archives For Thomas

What Competing With Amazon Means To Your Art Gallery

July 9, 2013 — Leave a comment

Amazon is actually moving into your territory in a big way and this is a very big wake up call for small galleries. It’s all about the user experience online now, its all about eyeballs on your art, its all about distribution networks.

If Amazon is getting into the game you know they spent millions studying it and they see an opportunity here. Should you jump in with Amazon? Hell no… This is a wait an see moment as Amazon is the Wall-mart of the Internet and their site is terrible at showcasing anything. They make it easy to buy. They are very bad at creating a good way to look or find art. ( see ArtSpace  and Artnet as they are the best at it and they only work with galleries – which is the way to go.  SaatchiOnline has an interesting site as well.

What this means from a business perspective is galleries will need to align themselves with one of these online giants or perish. You think I am wrong? I wish… I have vast experience in this online take over game. This same thing happened in the stock photo industry a few years ago (now decimated), The same thing happened in the music industry with Itunes  and now it’s happening to your industry. Why is this going to effect your bottom line? Because giant corporations don’t care about you. They just want a piece of the sale and if they don’t get a piece of your sale they could care less. It’s a numbers game to them. They will make up for it in volume.

If I owned a gallery I would sign up as a user with the big online Art Gallery sites and see which one fits and which one feels right. But the days of the single gallery online are over boys and girls. You have to be with an online group and where the eyeballs are and these big sites will be where people go whether you like it or not.

Think about it; If a small site like Artspace has 200,000 members that’s a boat load of art buying eyeballs. When Amazon gets into the game its going to change the game immediately.  Lots of food for thought in this NYTimes article but the main point is when the 800-pound gorilla gets into your house you better pay attention. They make Getty look like small potatoes and Getty destroyed the mom and pop stock industry and more importantly the price of images plummeted once they got into the game.

New York Times Article Here

Survey which found Online art buying soars as almost three-quarters of collectors go online here

In Art, Business, Galleries, How To ,
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Amazon Art Marketplace To Sell Art Online Again

July 8, 2013 — Leave a comment

Yes indeed Amazon Art Marketplace to sell art online again and once again changes the game in online art sales…

New York Times Article Here

Survey which found Online art buying soars as almost three-quarters of collectors go online here

Here is why:

A survey of more than 200 collectors by the international insurance company Hiscox, released in April, found that almost two-thirds had bought art online, without first seeing it in person, and that one-quarter of the collectors surveyed had spent $75,000 or more on works from online sellers or those they had seen only in JPEGs sent by galleries.

“We’ve seen that the price point people are willing to pay is rising,” said Catherine Levene, a co-founder and the chief executive of Artspace, which began selling art online in 2011. The company does not disclose overall sales figures but says that more than 200,000 people are now registered as members. Artworks pushing past the $100,000 mark have been showing up increasingly on the site, which charges a commission from galleries like 303 and Luhring Augustine in New York and Sadie Coles in London. Artspace has sold pieces like an engraved granite bench by Jenny Holzer for $125,000.

via The New York Times

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How to Survive as a Professional Photographer

July 8, 2013 — Leave a comment

Good article at Peta Pixel on surviving in a world where everyone has a camera and thinks they are a photographer.

What’s a true aspiring professional photographer to do in the face of this onslaught of people? The answer is simple: specialize and focus.

‘Everyone Is A Photographer’: Specialize or Perish – http://pulse.me/s/l1ubuy8H6

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Why You Shouldn’t Date a Photographer

July 8, 2013 — Leave a comment

41 Reasons to be exact and very funny….

29. THEY FIND BEAUTY IN THE WEIRDEST PLACES

That includes dirty alleys, places with a lot of poverty or just about any other location normal people would stay away from.

31. THEY WON’T PHOTOGRAPH WHAT YOU ASK THEM

Think having a photographer partner will bring you advantages? Think again. Photographers are very proud and stubborn creatures and they will rarely photograph anything they consider unworthy, unless it’s paid or they like it.

41. WHEN STARING INTO YOUR EYES, IT USUALLY MEANS SOMETHING ELSE

You might find it to be a romantic moment, but it’s usually a process that goes on in their mind and has to do with how they would correct the tiny imperfections on your face.

 

via http://hotpenguin.net

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What Photography Software is the Best?

July 8, 2013 — Leave a comment

First Photoshop followed by Lightroom. Lightroom is for processing jobs and groups of images where Photoshop is for high end detail and retouching work. It’s not an either or situation.  Both are (for me) indispensable but very different tools.

I have been using Photoshop since day one and it never ceases to amaze me how deep the program  actually is. I don’t think anyone can actually know Photoshop completely. The beauty of the software is you can find 2-3 completely different paths that will solve what ever you can visualize in your head. We seem to be in a Photoshop Renaissance of sorts since now a new generation has grown up on it. I think in the future people will look back and see that Photoshop released a torrent of creative energy in photography and no doubt changed it forever. I am now convinced it has freed photography from the chains of the straight documentary image much like photography freed the painters to move from realism to expressionism, abstraction, surrealism etc. All the “bad Photoshop work” aside. I think these are very creative times in photography and Photoshop is the main engine behind it. If you don”t believe me take a look at Thomas Ruffs interview regarding his new large scale “photograms” (which they are actually not). The work is all computer generated and Photoshopped. We are in a new age so go out and make an image no one has ever seen.

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