Selling prints in a café

Yv

I've been considering trying to pitch some of my photography to a local café or two to put up for sale. I use a film camera, but I have a v good scanner & photo printer which I'd use to print them up (quality's pretty much indistinguishable from a real photographic print). What I'd like to know is, would anyone actually be likely to buy them? I'm thinking €20 for an A4, properly-mounted print (still have to find out exactly how much it'll be to get them mounted so could be €25).

My question is, are they worth buying? Here's a couple of the ones I'd definitely be considering for sale, please give your opinions. I'm thinking I'll stick to black & white for the sake of consistency though I have lots of colour stuff too. Are they worth €20? How hard is it to get a business to take your work like that?

Murky Water
Repose
Shadow Dances (to be straightened)
Concrete Wasteland
Yesterday's News

Advice much needed - please!

rymus

even at €25 for a mounted & framed A4 print you're probably going to be making a loss. Maybe a tiny profit if you can strike a deal with a framer or find lots of frames/mounts dirt cheap.

I'd imagine it'd be entirely possible to talk the owner of a small independant business into displaying some of your prints if they saw a good selection of your best work. I'd imagine they'd probably be more interested in what their cut would be tbh.

If I can be excused for making a statement without explaining myself; I personally wouldn't buy any prints of the photos you've already posted. Please do post lots more you'd like to try and sell though.

Yv

Thanks for the honesty, hard to find. Though I would prefer if you did explain yourself :P Here's some colour stuff, though I'm starting to think there's no point trying to sell anything since it's very much art photography that wouldn't appeal to any kind of audience (not even thinking about whether my photography is any good or not). It was a nice idea at the time...

Silence in Motion
Fiddle
Beach
Burned Out

Brother To God

" Burned out " is nice I like the urban feel to it and it goes a good eye.If your printing them up would you think of maybe printing the Black and whites in a darkroom up in Dublin,it would save you a fortune and maybe frame them yourself?some nice stuff you may be able to sell one or two in the cafe.Best of luck with it!

FinoBlad

Hey Yv, you've got a nice idea and you should rock with it. Do it.

BUT BUT get your pricing right first, its way off at the moment.

BTW Photography is very subjective, what one person would throw in the trash someone else may pay lots for. Your exposure and composition is good, the rest is as they say in the eye of the beholder.

Let us know how you get on.

marsdelight

sounds good to me all the very best mate

Yv

Cheers for the support & advice FinoBlad, I know I have little grasp on the whole cost issue as I'm 19 & this is the first time I've tried to figure out the practical side of photography (only been into it for maybe 2 years anyway).

Brother To God, thanks for the comments. As for printing up the black & whites in Dublin, I'm from Galway so that may work out a tad more expensive for me :P But I know what you mean, my printer gives very good results & as I already have it & plenty of ink & proper paper I may as well use it. I'll look into the framing thing though, it's probably a better idea to do it myself alright. Originally I was thinking I'd just mount them rather than mount AND frame them but have since realised what a bad idea it is showing unprotected prints somewhere like a café..!

edunon

Silence in Motion and Burned Out are my favorites. Some of the others could be great photos changing a little bit the composition, for instance in "Repose" should be more "air" in front of the horse's eye than behind, one of the rules in composition. I wouldnt' sell any of the mentioned photos for less than 80 euro, just mounted on a black board, framed will add its cost to it.
Hope you don't mine but I cropped all doesn't have interest in Burned Out and this is the result:

i71jskz5xu42pb

Yv wrote:

I'm starting to think there's no point trying to sell anything since it's very much art photography that wouldn't appeal to any kind of audience (not even thinking about whether my photography is any good or not). It was a nice idea at the time...[/URL]

I agree that most of your stuff probably would not sell in a greasy spoon café. Habitat in Dublin (and presumably Galway) do a section where they display local artists stuff for a few weeks - if it sells, it sells. You might want think about it - the stuff they display is more arty. I think the burned out car is pretty good (crop a bit maybe but not as much as above).

The price issue depends - if you're just looking to sell for the warm fuzzy feeling or to get started then go with your prices above. I think you could get more though.

Yv

Thanks, that's encouraging The cafés I have in mind aren't greasy spoon type places, they're decent cafés, they attract a "cultured" clientelle if you know what I mean :P Kinda bohemian but not dingey. Tho they're all selling photographs now so I'll have to wait a few weeks :P I'll scope out Habitat but it's a pretty corporate place & I'm not sure a 19 yr old who hasn't made it to college yet would constitute "artist" to somewhere like that...

Edunon: I think the crop is pretty severe, but I see what you're getting at - I'll see what I can shave off while still keeping the right proportions (ie I don't want it to be way different in size from the others for the sake of consistency). In general I hate editing my pictures like that (ie I try to frame things as well as possible as I take them rather than be sloppy & tidy it up after) but if I want to try selling anything I gotta sell out a little bit :P

I've been too busy lately to do much more about it, though I did a bit of local research the photos one of the places is selling are a bit weak & still priced at €200 each... which'd be pretty sweet for the artist, if they sell. Wonder what the café's commission is.

(edit)
If anyone has the time / interest could you have a flick through my gallery & suggest what you think are my best? I'd really appreciate it www.yvphoto.deviantart.com/gallery

paulocon

Just reading through your post and wondering how you got on.

Had a look through your gallery - some excellent stuff on there..

K_user

I’m months late for this conversation!!

Yv, you have some very nice shots there, how did you got on?

Tarakiwa

I'm late too but I would be interested to hear how you got on!