just venting. photography branding anyone?

GerryDavid wrote in post #15126382
Thanks for the names! Im looking each of them up now. I think at a point people start paying to have the name on there. Bragging rights.

This, once your name actually adds value to a work instead of being a distraction, start adding it. Until then, not so much for portraiture.

Even early ansel adams are valued now.

GerryDavid wrote in post #15127394
Even early ansel adams are valued now.

when you start producing early ansel adams let me know.

gonzogolf wrote in post #15127912
when you start producing early ansel adams let me know.

Photography is all relative. What one person loves another hates. What one judge considers to be a blue ribbon winner another will disagree. At what point do you consider yourself worthy of signing a 16x20 wall print? When your sales average is $1000? When you get published in every magazine?

GerryDavid wrote in post #15127921
Photography is all relative. What one person loves another hates. What one judge considers to be a blue ribbon winner another will disagree. At what point do you consider yourself worthy of signing a 16x20 wall print? When your sales average is $1000? When you get published in every magazine?

Like I said earlier, when your signature makes the print more valuable, until that point its probably vanity as much as anything else. Art prints are a different matter but this thread started out as a conversation about portraiture. When your clients ask you to sign, then sign.

gonzogolf wrote in post #15127997
Like I said earlier, when your signature makes the print more valuable, until that point its probably vanity as much as anything else. Art prints are a different matter but this thread started out as a conversation about portraiture. When your clients ask you to sign, then sign.

My portraits are art. I was a portrait painter before I became a photographer--I'm doing the same thing, I merely changed mediums.

RDKirk wrote in post #15128722
My portraits are art. I was a portrait painter before I became a photographer--I'm doing the same thing, I merely changed mediums.

And while that has a personal meaning to you, it probably doesn't to your clients.

gonzogolf wrote in post #15128800
When your clients ask you to sign, then sign.

Well, right now more of them ask whether they'll make one of my public displays. But I did overlook imprinting an image for a client a while back and she asked about it.

But when clients begin asking, then it means you've shortchanged those clients before you started signing.

Bottom line is, artists sign their work. You've already said so yourself. The only difference between what you've said and what I've said is that you must not consider portraits to be art...or at least not your portraits.

RDKirk wrote in post #15128840
Well, right now more of them ask whether they'll make one of my public displays. But I did overlook imprinting an image for a client a while back and she asked about it.

But when clients begin asking, then it means you've shortchanged those clients before you started signing.

Bottom line is, artists sign their work. You've already said so yourself. The only difference between what you've said and what I've said is that you must not consider portraits to be art...or at least not your portraits.

You misinterpret my meaning. In the art photo world its expected to sign, not so in the portrait world.

gonzogolf wrote in post #15129160
You misinterpret my meaning. In the art photo world its expected to sign, not so in the portrait world.

I think a lot of art museum curators and art critics would be surprised to learn that portraits are not art.

RDKirk wrote in post #15129226
I think a lot of art museum curators and art critics would be surprised to learn that portraits are not art.

Now you are just being obtuse. The marketplace for art photos and the vast majority of portraiture are different. Sure some portraits end up on museum walls, but most are destined for the walls of the family home. I'm pretty sure you are smart enough to get the distinction I was making.

rd, how do you sign your prints? digitally or after the print has been made? If after, what method do you use? simple acid free marker, gold leaf, some other method?

Now I want to sign my work! But I just spent a couple hundred in studio displays of metal prints *on sale, woo hoo*, so im wondering if I should do something to them to sign them so people know its to be expected. and Ill probably do the same as my wallets, tell them my signature is there to see if they have an issue with it.

gonzogolf wrote in post #15129284
Now you are just being obtuse. The marketplace for art photos and the vast majority of portraiture are different. Sure some portraits end up on museum walls, but most are destined for the walls of the family home. I'm pretty sure you are smart enough to get the distinction I was making.

I'm not being obtuse at all. Most painted portraits are also destined for the walls of family homes, yet nobody distinguishes them from "art" just because they don't "end up on museum walls." To "end up on museum walls" has never been the definition of art.

Your distinction between portraits and art is specious and not held by anyone in the art community.

Studio I worked at in the 80's had a gold leaf stamp they used on 8x10 and larger. As someone else stated at one time it was standard practice. It was also a time when professional portraits meant something to people.

I only know of one studio now that was still doing that as of a few years ago and I think they have stopped as well. I know they don't watermark their online images.