Everyone likes what they like, “I don’t know art, but I like it, you know what I like!” Okay, true that. When you shop at a market full of photographic prints, you are sure to fall in love with some images and then be heartbroken by the prices these hungry artists have charged. So what is artistically pleasing and what makes such a high price tag?
A long time ago, before phones, the Internet, and coffee shops, all people could do was paint, sculpt, and spread disease for a long time. Two textbook philosophers wondered what made an art so universally appealing and wandered the known world to discover and formalize most of our western rules of composition. They noted chiaroscuro, strong diagonals, repetitive shapes, leading lines, and a quirky but easy-to-find ‘Rule of Thirds’.
Chiaroscuro was the 2D rendering of objects using many shaded values giving a rich, almost 3D experience; the first buzz noted this as ‘full range’ in photography. Strong diagonals is just what it sounds like with dynamic, pulsating lines running across the canvases and causing excitement in the minds of viewers. The repetitive shapes almost formed patterns that captivated viewers and added to the balance of an image in which a rectangular shape appeared again and again in different forms; or a circle or a bird shape, etc. Lead lines relied on the illusion of perspective to make viewers feel like they could travel into an image; walk down a path, through an orchard of trees, or along a brick wall.
Following the rule of thirds is the quickest way to stop taking ordinary snapshots. The entire canvas or frame is overlaid with an imaginary tic-tac-toe board. Nine squares are the result of two transverse lines and two equal lines up and down. There are four intersections around the central square. It is in these intersections where the focus or idea of the image is located. This is the cure for the painfully dull “centeritis” that snapshots suffer from. It is the most effective form of composition and the greatest secret weapon of artists. Now you’ll notice off-center movie characters, magazine ads obeying this rule, and some of your favorite photos using some of these devices!
So why the $350 market price? In two paragraphs you have just learned to photograph with wisdom and foresight… If they sell an image that week, they rent it. Perhaps the chemicals they used added up to gallons just to print three acceptable images. If the photo is from a distant land, you know they didn’t just travel there, they probably endured expensive air travel, lodging, treks through the desert, tundra, or alien cities and may have eaten while away despite their skinny, artistic appearance.
There are many reasons to think that they should finally reward themselves, but not by robbing kids of a college education. Take the opportunity and make an offer. Order two copies and get a thirty or forty percent discount. A little note that says ‘all prices are firm’ indicates a trust fund baby. They already made rent, they would prefer to have the story of having sold a print for hundreds of dollars. If you tell them the story, they won’t thank you, they’ll ridicule you for the caviar and Cheerios while an underground 80’s rock band plays madness in the next room when they get home and call their friends.
Less than a hundred dollars is crazy. Chemicals, developing, film, travel and talent are too expensive to sell short. It’s not crazy to think that three or four rolls of lovingly shot film produced nothing to sell. If you find a photographer with some generally good prints and a low triple-digit price (unframed), you’ll probably find yourself face to face with a very respectable and honestly hard-working artist. The general rule of thumb is that a roll can produce two to four guardians. One out of every five guardians is worth selling to strangers. So a little understanding of why you like what you like, a warning of when you’re being scammed, and a little sympathy for the artist serving the markets we all love concludes this essay.