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.