[pure-silver] numbering prints?

  • From: Shannon Stoney <sstoney@xxxxxxx>
  • To: pure-silver@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
  • Date: Fri, 15 Sep 2006 13:25:23 -0500

Hi, I went to a talk last night at Houston Center for Photography, and one issue that was discussed was the issue of numbering photographic prints as an edition, as one would do with intaglio or lithographic prints.

I do number my photogravures because they are made in the printmaking tradition of having a plate and making an edition. But sometimes I resent the fact that I'm not supposed to make any more prints with these perfectly fine plates. You are even supposed to limit the number of artist's proofs you make these days it seems!

But I have never numbered my photographs as an edition. I just figured they were all "open editions." But somebody said that this is not a good idea if you are selling prints through a gallery. Indeed, my partner and I were at the Texas gallery over the weekend, which has a show of photographs of a surrealist garden in Mexico, and there were some huge, very expensive prints by Sally Mann, in an edition of only 5! Of course most of us will never be like Sally Mann in that our photographs will never be worth $50,000 a piece, but it seems that often in galleries prints ARE numbered as a limited edition.

I found out recently that the idea of numbering even intaglio prints is fairly recent. Rembrandt just printed until the plate wore out. I'm not sure when the idea of editions took hold, but I think it was in the 18th or 19th century, and the idea was to make prints more valuable. But I kind of like the idea that prints are cheap and affordable.

So, just wondering: do you number your prints? Do you make "editions"? Or do you just print what you want, when you want? Has anybody ever demanded that you make an edition, in order to make the prints more valuable, say, a gallery owner?

I guess they are business people too, and it's in their interest to make your prints seem more valuable.

--shannon
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