Tip jar:

Sunday, August 31, 2008

Selling: another interesting case

This is now my third post about seen-by. As I mentioned before, it's a nice concept. Not a single picture on this website is published without the approval of the editors. I see two main advantages here: Firstly, you don't need to click yourself through tons of not-so-good pictures until you find something that pleases your eyes. Secondly, other websites give the selection process into the hands of the users and let them vote for each others work. This can lead to funny behavior among users ranging from chumming up to hating each other because of their actions.
So all this you simply don't have on seen-by, which makes it quite bearable. Now let's get to the point.
It turns out that seen-by folks not only happily present people's work on their website, but also select pictures that would sell well as prints. I received an email telling that some of my pictures got selected by the seen-by staff and asking for my agreement to start a limited edition printed by a well-known fine-art printer/dealer.
I must say that the fact that they already carefully chose what they want, makes it again very appealing to me. On the other hand, I read their contract and find it quite strict. According to this, I would still be the owner of my work, however I would not have the right to print and distribute those selected pictures ever again somewhere else. In the contract this sounds like this (in German):

"...Die Vervielfaeltigungsstuecke der Werke werden in einer limitierten Auflage von 100 Stueck verkauft. Die limitierte Stueckzahl bezieht sich nicht nur auf die Vervielfaeltigung und den Verkauf des Werkes im Rahmen vonseen-by , sondern auch auf jede zukuenftige und in der Vergangenheit liegende Vervielfaeltigung - sei es zu privaten oder geschaeftlichen Zwecken ausserhalb desseen-by Marktplatzes...."


Money-wise the example calculation of my possible profit makes it really tempting. In the very-unlikely best-case sales scenario, an artist might actually be able to make a living from this. So I don't really know how to deal with it.
I have this inhibition threshold that keeps me from putting my signature under something that declares a limitation of my freedom on my own work, but in this case it looks like a great step forward for someone unknown who is still new to all this.
I think I might try this...anybody has ideas, advices, objections?

Saturday, August 30, 2008

Stairway to Hell


"...and if there's a hell below we're all gonna go..."
(Curtis Mayfield)

Have a nice weekend!

Thursday, August 28, 2008

Speicherstadt Hamburg

Tuesday, August 26, 2008

Time for Business

For me personally, this is actually not the best time to do this, since I'm right now very busy with other things. However, I'm in the middle of preparing a collaboration with a company in Germany that specializes in fine-art printing. This company is also starting a gallery and I'm for now contributing images of Frankfurt to an upcoming exhibition. Pictures will be signed and printed in a limited edition of 100 prints each. Today I received the numbered labels I have to sign, my hand writing as well as my signature are actually pretty ugly. Fortunately, this is rarely a factor in a potential buyer's decision making process...I hope.
I will post more information about this exhibition as soon as I know everything about it.


Sunday, August 24, 2008

Domfest Hamburg

I happen to sit at the Sacramento airport right now and just remembered that I still have Hamburg pictures I haven't posted yet. Not that I'm a big fan of such fairs, but the lights there were really nice - right after a thunderstorm and during sunset.

Tuesday, August 19, 2008

Endless Staircase

Saturday, August 16, 2008

The Game with the Rings

I don't know if it has a name and I never saw anybody playing it...

Thursday, August 14, 2008

Hamburg from Above

View from St. Michaelis Church.

Wednesday, August 13, 2008

Ferris Wheel

At the so called Dom in Hamburg.

Friday, August 8, 2008

Guten Morgen from Hamburg

I'm in Hamburg for a couple of days and thought I would send out some greetings to my dear readers. It's the first time I'm here and so far it has been very nice. It's 7:50 in the morning right now and I have a bunch of things I want to get done today. So what's better than starting the day with some fresh German rolls for breakfast...how much I missed that...

Tuesday, August 5, 2008

Seen.by the 2nd

So last weekend I uploaded another picture to seen.by. After logging in you usually see your pictures listed together with their status which is either "Await Approval" or "Accepted" and I also got one "Rejected" so far. But what does it mean when a picture is "Selected"? My Nassau Street picture was marked selected, but I didn't know for what. I searched the FAQ for an explanation and couldn't find anything. Later on I browsed through a section called "The best of the best" which has the URL http://seen.by/select, at this point I understood what was going on. Feeling honored. Thanks a lot!

Monday, August 4, 2008

Low Tide III

Sunrise over South Carolina, May 2008