Philosophating on Wealthification

There are a million things to subscribe to and watch and learn as I try to wade through all of the information available about photography. A lot of it, I have to admit, I come upon by pure chance. Right now, I am in the voracious mode – I subscribe to everything, follow everybody; look at everyone’s images. Maybe I will become more discerning later, but right now I don’t know enough. I get a regular newsletter from PhotoShelter and this week’s message included a free guide to selling fine art photography. Heck, I’d like to sell my photography…perfect.

Unfortunately, as with all things important, it isn’t as easy as signing up for a particular website or dropping a portfolio off with whoever it is that is in charge of making people’s photos desirable. It sounds like a lot of work, a lot of poverty, a lot of rejection. I think before I start down that path, I really need to determine whether this is a hobby for me or if I should even try to compete on that level. I know that I really enjoy creating images, but I have no idea whether the spark of talent necessary to make that journey worthwhile is there. So, most likely that means, I’m not quite ready. On the other hand, I'm terribly impatient…so here I go.

20 x 200

This guide introduced me to an online gallery called 20x200 that seems to be undergoing some sort of renovation. I don’t find this problematic at all since I have no idea what they were like before. The 20x200 is a Jen Bekman project and her motto is ‘It’s Art for Everyone.’ She is the CEO of this business venture that works to find the highest quality art and make it available for sale. I’m not entirely sure how they find people and the rest of the ins and outs, but I plan on keeping up with their blog and following them on Twitter. It seems like a great way to know about artists who aren’t yet in the history books (although they do have prints by Edweard Muybridge…so some of them are the greats as well.)

Artsy

Another site to explore is Artsy which showcases an amazing variety of work in all kinds of media from a series of partner galleries and museums. I signed up for a free account (very easy) and…okay, I'm back, just spent an hour and a half wandering through the artists on Artsy! I could have spent longer but my children needed me to sign in on our Netflix account again so that they can watch the Power Puff Girls. I think this makes me a good parent…

Where was I?

Oh, yes. So, Artsy does not work directly with artists but rather with the galleries and museums and they have over 10,000 photos for sale as just one medium in which they deal. It looks sort of like a one way Flickr / visual blog because I can favorite works and artists, investigate their partners, set my preferences to show me work that is in line with my interests and contribute to posts about the works on their site. Very cool way to look around, albeit a bit overwhelming.

Fine Art America

The site for Fine Art America bills itself as the premier online marketplace for buying and selling art. I think that I should add the word premier into all descriptions I make of myself from here on out, it just seems to add a bit of cachet to the whole affair. This site is going to take me a bit to get through. Not only does it have over 6 million pieces of art for sale, it seems to offer some really interesting options for selling my work directly. There is a free membership and a paid one the main difference being the limit on the number of pieces that can be offered for sale through the free membership. Hmmmmm…I will investigate more and report back. Unless I'm too busy shrink-wrapping my art for shipping…okay, back to reality.

Artnet

Artnet comes on pretty strong, promising to send me a newsletter that will tell me everything I need to know about the current art market. Will they give me the addresses of the people most likely to buy my work? I don't know - I'll have to wait for the first newsletter to arrive…This is another site that has a lot of layers and that is going to take me some time to work through. As both of my children are currently using the entirety of the internet to watch the Power Puff Girls, the pages are loading about as quickly as they would have if I had subscribed to the weekly installments a la Dickens' era newspapers. This seems like it could really have a lot of good business side insights and the site is offered in French and German as well as English, so you know it's sophisticated.

Stay tuned. I mean, do stop and eat and things of that nature, but check back in - I'm working on a  whole bunch of photos I took out at a farm last weekend and will have all of the latest and greatest tips and tricks on llama photography. In fact, this might become the premier sight for llama photography information, you never know!