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Piano,
Alkabo, ND, 1994
Purchase |
This
image is from the now abandoned Alkabo School in Alkabo,
North Dakota. My wife's Uncle Kenny and his children went to
school there. It closed in the late 1960s. There are three
rooms. The gym is in the basement. I was fascinated by the
silence of this old piano and couldn't help wondering how
long it had sat still, quite and how many hands had graced
its keys. |
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A Word About Editions and
Numbering
Many
photographers artificially limit the number of prints they will
produce from a given negative, offer numbered editions, offer
limited editions of a given size of print, destroy their
negatives, and many other silly games whose objective is to convince
you to buy their artwork and pay more for it. I don't. I won't.
Either you like and want to buy my work, or you shouldn't. I make it
available; I make it affordable; I then let the chips fall where
they may. I have written about this at length in an article
published in LensWork in this PDF file.
While it is
true that photography is not limited to a finite number of prints
from any given negative or digital file, I, however, am. Like all of
us, I have a limited amount of both time and energy. In that sense,
all artwork is limited simply because the artmaker is. Such is life.
While I don't
limit my prints, I do know that a clear and precise provenance is
important to some people and may have historical importance long
after I am gone. All of my prints now specify the date of their
production, the source (negative or digital file), the precise
number of copies I made that day, and which is the number of this
print. Here is an example of that text.
A typical
First Edition, First Printing will be three to five copies, sometimes as few as two,
on rare occasions as many as thirty.
Time marches, we change, our
creative vision does, too. It is not uncommon for me to see new ways
to interpret an old image. I am not opposed to improving an image
when I see a need to. Each time I fuss with the digital file,
usually to change it a bit to more closely match my creative vision,
I call this a new "edition." It's a different interpretation of the
raw data, so to speak - a new "performance" in Ansel Adams-speak.
Sometimes that might be a little tonal adjustment, sometimes a
contrast change, sometimes a dodge here or a burn there, sometimes
I'll crop something or digitally remove a bothersome spot,
occasionally I go all the way back to the negative and re-scan or
back to the original in-camera file and start over. In one way or
another, the new "edition" is a new artistic rendition of the image.
Contrary to the contemporary zeitgeist, therefore, the later
editions are the ones I would generally consider the more valuable
because I perceive them to be the more mature interpretation of the
image. Having said that, additional editions may also be a result
technology improvements.
The designation "Third
Edition, Second Printing" would mean that this is the third time
I've worked this image from a creative point of view and the second
time I've printed a batch of prints from this third rendition. The
print # is simply a count of how many prints I've made from that
digital file on that day.
I produce and
sell my prints on a first-come, first served basis. Orders are
filled in Edition/Print Number order. Obviously, editions are not
reprinted except where identified as a later printing.
I also reserve
the right to withdraw from sale any image at any time. |