Your ego makes out, but not your pocket book

Face it. I’m a retired old git who makes his money in the stock market. When not struggling to make ends meet I adopt the sobriquet ‘Private Investor’ which sounds a whole lot better than the reality. My earning status is not about to change.

Invitation card for my show

Contemplating a photography show of your own as a source of income? Well, don’t do it for the money. Here are some facts about my show:

I monitored the prices asked for paintings and photos on display at the winery over the past two years. They ranged from $80 for a small, 8″ x 8″ matted watercolor, to $2,500 for a 24″ x 30″ framed oil. In no case were the artists famous.

I asked the curator about this and her reaction was that anyone pricing over a few hundred dollars, unless world famous, was not going to sell anything. She cited the oil painter (asking >$2,000) and a photographer (asking $1,500), adding that neither had sold anything during month long shows.

I priced at the low end of the scale – $245 framed, $125 unframed. Here are the economics – something to chew on if you contemplate doing a show:

Profit margins:

Framed/Unframed:

Selling price                                 $245 $125
Gallery commission – 30%              (74) (38)
Cost of materials                            (70) (28)

Margin                                         $101 $ 59
Margin %                                          41% 47%

While the margins are attractive (though they value my many hours of labor at zero), stated differently, if I sell thirty framed prints, which is highly unlikely, I make $3,030 and I estimate over the past two years I have spent $2,500 all in on the effort. And that’s if I sell anything.

Not, in other words, something to do for a living. So your ego makes out like a bandit, but your pocket book is left waiting at the corner. We artists, you know, have always suffered for our art.

But what of the psychic benefits? First, for the rest of your time on this best of all worlds, you will be able to hold your head high and refer with pride to your one man show. That’s more than 99.99% of serious photographers will ever be able to say. You are one in ten thousand. Sceptical? Blame Gutenberg. Sell a couple and your work is forever being enjoyed in someone else’s home. How good does that feel?

Now publish a book and take a few prizewinners. The last is a bit tougher as you do not have control of the judges, but determination and a good eye will get you there.

Now you are in a class usually confined to the likes of a Cartier-Bresson, an Erwitt or a Doisneau.

Neither of us may be in their class, but it’s a start.

And it feels insanely good.

By the way, next time I pen a piece on equipment and some boob writes complaining well, all I need do in reply is to ask about his last show ….