Editioned Prints: How Many Is Too Many?

MEG member and fine art photography collector Tim Hyde continues to share his knowledge and perspective on the role editioning plays in collecting fine art photography.

“Editioning” is really a shortened way of describing a “limited edition,” and means the same thing in offering photographic prints as in books:  a set number of copies produced, usually with each copy numbered and signed.    It denotes that the print will NOT be produced in mass quantities and always implies a degree of rarity.

Beneath the Roses (Woman at the Vanity) - Gregory Crewdson

Sometimes a photographer will offer a “limited edition” with an edition size of several hundred.  Editions this size are usually a marketing gimmick and often reveal either naiveté or amateurishness on the part of the seller (and buyer too, for that matter).   When, rarely, practiced by an established photographer, it comes off as a bit of an insult—at least to most collectors. Mary Ellen Carter, for example, editions her classic black and white prints in the hundreds.  She is a fine photographer, but not very “collector friendly” because of this.

I would argue that, with rare exceptions, editions of more than 25 are really the same as an un-editioned print, at least as an investment.  Keith Carter, another fine photographer, produces beautiful silver gelatins that sell at retail for $1000-1500 in editions ranging from 35 to 50.  With one exception (“fireflies,” which is sold out in silver) his prints can be picked up at auction—for several hundred dollars, tops.  In other words, collectors simply do not consider them “rare”.  He and his galleries set the retail price, but the secondary market sets the auction prices.
 
There are several methods of editioning photographic prints.  One method, which is efficient for both the photographer and the collector, is to have different edition sizes for different prints sizes.  So, for example, Gregory Crewdson offers prints from his series “Beneath the Roses” prints in two sizes and editions:   18x24 in editions of 20, and  55x88 in editions of 6.   Sometimes a photographer will limit the sizes to two, sometimes there are three or four different sizes, edition sizes, and prices.

Another common method for deploying editions is to use “step editions.”   A photographer might set an edition size of 10, for example, but different numbers in the edition would have different prices.  So, prints 1-3 might go for one price, prints 4-6 for a bit higher,  7-9 higher still, and the last print in the edition would go for a lot more than the others.  Once the print is sold out, all ten will presumably be more valuable on the secondary market.  As with many other market-based transactions, the early buyers take the most risk but reap the most rewards.

One final word about edition sizes.  Usually a photographer reserves two or three “artists proofs” (“a/p”) for him or herself.  You can often buy these along with the number prints from the gallery, but more often they are held in reserve by the photographer for museum or special collection acquisitions.  

Q&A With Soomin Ham

(c) Soomin Ham

Multiple Exposure Gallery (MEG) is featuring the work of its newest members -- Soomin Ham, Tim Hyde and Fred Zafran -- through March 24th. The show's images reflect the three photographers’ very different ways of seeing and interpreting the world around us.

In the show, Soomin offers a selection of intensely personal, yet still universal, images from three series: Unseen, Dreamscape, and Sound of Butterfly. She shares some thoughts on her work below:

Your work in this show has a very personal origin. Would you tell us about it?  I lost my mother three years ago and it was sudden and unpredicted. In my grief, I began collecting the scattered memories that I shared with her. It was painful to see them in the family footage, but I began to feel gratitude for her love, her passions, her dreams, and the many things that she shared with me. I wanted to bring them to life through my photographic series, Unseen, Dreamscape and Sound of Butterfly.

Please tell us more about the series and your creative process.  Over the years, I developed an idea of combining images using old photographs and movies made by my father in the 1970s. Unseen is created from old negatives from my childhood that were never printed.  It is a photographic collage made of 20 digital enlargements of over- or under-exposed first-frame negatives, cropped and printed.  Based on the relative time frame and visual appeal, the selected images are torn by hand, and randomly arranged to form a quilt-like pattern.
Dreamscape is a series of photographic landscapes created from family portraits that are combined with still images from a family movie.  The projected movie was photographed and layered with ephemeral images to transform the work into an abstract image.
Sound of Butterfly is a portrait of still lifes composed with soft, blurry, and close up images.  I see it as a poetic metaphor of my mother’s journey through life.  Butterflies were favorites of hers, and for me, they are a symbol of rebirth.

(c) Soomin Ham

 What influences inspire your work?  My background in classical music and my Eastern culture have inspired my work. The common elements and correlation between music and visual arts fascinate me and they have helped expand my artistic vision. Both reward simplicity and balance and their influence helps add meaning to my compositions.

(c) Soomin Ham

Your work in this show is intensely personal, yet universal at the same time. How do you account for this? I believe the work itself should be able to tell the story behind the image.  I hope the viewers can find and relate to similar moments in their own lives and experiences when they observe these works.