No Going Back

Walking West on Carling Ave, Ottawa, ON

I read on Twitter yesterday a great idea by Jim Goldstein, aimed mostly at photographers, but I apply it to anyone, about buying prints from your favourite photographers/photobloggers. Take the time to read Jim’s article, at least up to “what you can do…” to get the gist – go ahead, I’ll wait.

Done? Okay – so what he’s saying is find someone, who takes pictures you like, and pay them for it. There are a few of you who read this blog who have purchased prints from me – I can honestly tell you that it’s a giddy experience every time. Someone likes a photo enough, not just to look at it, not just to pay for it, but to take valuable space on their wall and put it up there. Truly humbling.

But as someone who takes photos, and tries to sell prints, I don’t really spend a lot of time paying for other people’s work. Kind of a double-standard I hope to soon fix.

So I’m going to take Jim up on his project – I’m going to contact three different photographers whose work I admire and ask to purchase a print. Now keep in mind, not everyone states that they offer them openly; so wouldn’t it be a great gift to them for you to offer to purchase a piece of their work? I’d be giddy.

Buy what you can afford though – you don’t have to spend a fortune, in the spirit of this thing I’ll also cut my prices by 25% (shipping not included), til the end of next week – the 18th of December, just to give everyone a good baseline of what prices can be:

I’m not looking for any follow-up from this, just passing along what I think is both an opportunity and a good idea. If you’re cruising the Internet for art, consider supporting one of those artists this year.

Thanks to Eugene, who I heard this from, who also writes about it on his blog.