Certainly the advance in technology (both cameras, scanners and printing) to produce high quality large format prints relatively easily has made an impact – people do it because they can. But when you see a beautifully printed suitable image printed large, it blows you away.

By their very nature, few people have the space to hang them and are ruinously expensive to produce, they command to be limited edition.

There is always, as suggested earlier, the possibility of running a parallel unlimited edition in a smaller size on a different medium – does this de-value the larger edition, I don’t know.

As David said, it seems the collector is interested in the finished final item.

There is also the question of making it physically big to impress as the content is useless. I went to an so called contemporary art fair, with alot of well known galleries exhibiting. There was alot of interesting stuff there. I was drawn to the photography, there seemed to be alot of “photographers” taking advantage of the fact they could blow things up big and mount onto aluminium, put behind shiny acrylic etc, certainly the engineering of the objects looked impressive, but the photography was lousy and the prints were falling to pieces as the files couldn’t stand up to the enlargement.

There are places for each, ltd edition for nich markets and unlimited for democratising, taking your work to the masses. At the end of the day it is subject matter/content that counts and that takes hard work to achieve.

VIVA MY BURNIANS!

AKAKY IRL: Leicas? Isn’t that a fashion accessory for dentists?

AKAKY: I’ve heard them described that way, yes.

AKAKY IRL: It’s some sort of expensive scarf, right?

AKAKY: It goes with the scarf, yeah.

AKAKY IRL: I thought so. If I remember right it’s the sort of thing you look at and wonder just how many root canals went into getting it.

AKAKY: A fair number, I would imagine.

AKAKY IRL: Exactly. So the number of Leicas sold in the world would be a good way of measuring human suffering, like the unemployment rate or crime statistics or the sales figures on Madonna’s last album.

AKAKY: I think so.

With your talent even a leica is good camera… :)

can’t wait for pics from the trip.

please,AKAKY IRL don’t even start…hihiiii…

well you probably know, i really don’t think too much about cameras one way or the other…sure i get caught up in all the tech talk like everyone else, but honestly i really don’t care…the best picture i have taken recently i shot with the GF1 and i WISH i had shot the same picture with the S2 or the Nikon D800…or rather i wish the FILE was from one of those two cameras….on the other hand if i really think about it i could not have made the picture with either…the looseness and freedom i had with the GF1 is literally how i got the shot…and yes, i know what you mean , expectations are somehow high because the camera is so damned good…so a great camera in the test lab may not really be all that great depending on what you are doing…anyway, let’s see…i still have not opened the box…

FROSTFROG…

oh do not be jealous of the new camera….nothing to be jealous about…you know damned well it does not mean i can do anything special with it….for a big camera i must say it does feel good, i tested it a bit in new york….if you really do want to be jealous about something, be jealous of the trip not the camera…the experience of the adventure is THE thing, no matter the camera….

cheers, david

During slow periods out in the whaling boat, my mind often drifts and fantasizes – usually to tropical islands where shapely women stroll upon long, beautiful, beaches. On my last trip out, I got to thinking instead about the portrait series I want to do in conjunction with this latest Arctic project I have undertaken. I began to fantasize about doing the formal side of it with a medium format digital camera and wondered how I could ever come up with one – how ANYONE ever comes up with one.

Now I am back on land to stay, I come to Burn and the very first thing I see is that David has come up with just such a camera.

I have not yet decided whether this should give me hope or just make me feel impossibly jealous.

Thanks for the shout out for the lens blog. Still riding high for that one. Been a good run. Wedding, then this.

As for that bit of dreaming … well, neither of those options really since they just aren’t viable anymore. There is the always successful fallback plan of dousing a barrel of $20s in gas and throwing in a match, if I had a barrel of $20s, but I’d rather buy an S2. I’ve got other ideas I’m thinking about from the barstool at Moe’s Tavern, but I’ll email you :)) Damnit Soth! Just when I started getting over it … :))

Back to regular programming …

the Soth Ohio newspaper is cool…and yes, a newspaper for this trip for sure…and (based on a true story) will be printed on super newspaper stock at EBS in Verona, the same offset press we used for the book….wanted to keep the same flush to the edge look, so a normal newspaper press just cannot do it…so the newspapers are free in Rio and we will sell them here at as low a price as we can…66 page newspaper 85 lb. stock …same as book…for sure the newspaper version will be very popular..lower price and super large format will be attractive i think…we going to press soon….

SIDNEY

for sure i want to meet you, so we will stay in touch….looking forward amigo…

cheers, david

Keep me informed as I am as interested in rendezvousing with you as I am with David et al.
satkins@telcomplus.net

Your mockups for OlyWAmag look terrific… in Western Washington there are a number of ‘giveaway’ newsprint weeklies that survive on advertising… is that a model you are thinking of, or do you want to charge for the thing?

This trip begs for a newspaper at the end … well, to me anyway. Would seem to grant a bit more freedom in content, behind the scenes, expanded stories, etc. And besides, things just look better in print!

yes Leica has always been a hobbyist camera…pros use them, but it is the dentists and doctors and collectors who have always been the primary market….Leica knows this of course…..

Yes, Leica thanks their lucky stars for the hobbyists.

you are right…but that is the point of an edition, and hence the high prices generated by such…i am showing at Art Basel only 6 pictures…might even drop it to 5…this is the same way of painters, sculptors, and other artists…you can’t have it both ways….again these editions become objects not pictures…the “pictures” can be seen and reproduced many ways….

i have a postcard of the Mona Lisa…

JIM

that is correct

i would love to talk to you re: S2…can we communicate by email?? david@burnmagazine.org…thanks

PAUL

first off, this a relatively new world for me…i am not an expert by any means…

yet, i have found there is no one “art market”…there are many…some collectors only want vintage silver prints…i have some who only want from me prints made by me out of my darkroom….however these days the collector market seems to be very wide…i will give you a full report after Art Basel/Miami this coming december…i have rented an entire gallery space just to see what will happen….nouveau contemporary collectors don’t seem to care about the origin of the image…they just want a limited edition and archival ..they care about the final OBJECT….

the main thing if you are the artist is to declare yourself and be consistent…declare an edition of 60-x40 mounted on aluminum with plexi or 5×7′s on rice paper or whatever it is…declare it..stand by it….if that edition is gone, then do another thing…

again, open editions still are the most popular and practical thing for most photographers and most buyers most of the time…

cheers, david

Aren’t you stunting all future chances of making prints in editions of 5? Personally I think you shouldn’t limit prints to a certain amount. Just imagine if one of those prints becomes an absolutely amazing hit… You will only be able to cash on it five times :(!!