Ten Years: Twelve Images

The photography market began to surge in the 1970’s with people beginning to recognize the “new art” of photography. There were a number of factors, but basically the timing was such that fine art photography was being noticed and talked about. Galleries were beginning to open in major cities devoted exclusively to photography, with collectors were being made as they were introduced to the master image-makers of the 19th and 20th centuries. Print prices were mostly low and affordable. Museums began to acquire photographic prints and to build new departments dedicated to this newly discovered medium. This certainly raised the bar on the aesthetic value of this very young art form.

A college friend, who started a company called August Inc., approached me to produce a portfolio of my black and white prints as an edition, which he would publish. We discussed a theme and it was agreed upon that the work would reflect about ten years of work represented by twelve prints, thus became Ten Years: Twelve Images. The scheduled edition was to be 100 copies with 20 being done initially. For marketing, a promo group of reproductions was mailed to prospective collectors. It proved to be a handsome project but not financially successful with few portfolios sold. In short, we learned that portfolios are not an easy sell, as most people prefer to make their own choices among print selections. The portfolio fell far short of expectations and only 20 copies were made in 1981.