What Kind of Images SELL?

Not a day goes by without me thinking of art. What sells? What can I do to sell my photography books? What can I photograph today that documents something fascinating? Where can I go for a good landscape photograph? What new things can I find on the street? And, yes, should I start photographing nudes!?

These are a couple of the questions that run through my mind periodically throughout the day.

I could answer each and every question listed here, but the space is too limited and people who are reading on the Internet are usually not interested in reading a lot of information at one time.

What I can do is tell you what kind of photography sells. That's not a hard question to answer.

I found the easy answer not in a book, but in a painting at LACMA (Los Angeles County Museum of Modern Art).

The painting was made up of text in capital letters on a manila background. It detailed what kind of paintings sell. I believe the same rules follow for photography.

Here are the rules in brief:

1. Photographs containing a lot of light color in the frame sell better than photographs containing darker ones.

2. Landscapes, photographs of flowers, nudes, photographs of the sea, abstract photography and surrealism sell. (I'd like to add retro-themed photographs also sell well.)

3. Photographs of bulls and roosters sell better than those with cows and hens.

I'm sure there are other types of photography that sell well.

Please comment and let me know if the work of art at LACMA is a thumbs up or thumbs down.
Also, write what photographs of yours have sold well. If you've never sold photographs, write what kind of photography you would buy.

Finding Places to Sell your Images

Here's an image of the Monte Carlo sign in Billings, Montana. Okay, then, so I'm an artist. This is what I do. Strange isn't it? I take pictures of neon signs then saturate the colors in Photoshop. Then I make very detailed prints of them and sell at stores in Southern California.

I have about 5000 images of signs from all around the world.

If you want you can email me at matthewbam@aol.com to buy one. They come framed (in silver metal frames, acid free mats, also). The picture (printed out at 10.75" X 14.75"), with frame, is a little less than 16X20 inches. The price of print and frame is $195, including shipping anywhere in the U.S.

My friend Betty over at AOL had a question about how you find places to sell your work.

I usually get to know the people before I ask, say, people in a furniture store or coffee shop. After I've visited a few times or gotten to know the people through other avenues, I ask them if they need photographs for their walls. If they say yes, I then ask them if I can sell them and if we can split the profit somehow.

Sometimes I cold call. This works sometimes, especially if you see some images already for sale on a wall of a coffee shop or inside a gift shop. Cold calling involves:

1. Finding a place (coffee shop, furniture store, antique store, consignment shop) that sells stuff that matches your images. For example, my images are mid-century modern, so I look for outlets that sell mid-century modern furniture and/or accessories or something similar (like contemporary furnishings). Use the Internet or just drive around to locate these types of places, and don't look only in your city, but surrounding cities also.
2. Preparing the best of the best of your work, framed, matted and ready to go. Have samples in a variety of sizes and put them neatly packed in the trunk of your car.
3. Phone the place(s) that you've found on the Internet, tell them what you have and ask them if they'd like to make an appointment with you to see them.
4. Go to your appointment with your images and make a deal.