Trying to decide what sells and what doesn’t seems to be every photographer’s headache. If you get a gallery to sell your work then their commission sometimes puts it out of reach of the prospective buyers we are trying to sell to.
That being said I realize that the galleries need to make a profit as well however adding the cost of a high commission with the high cost of framing and a print that should sell for around three hundred dollars ends up being priced above five hundred if not a thousand dollars.
I have had pieces in galleries where the commission ranges from 25% all the way up to 40%. The question of how much does a photographer charge for his work is an ongoing question.
I am an average fine art photographer. I enjoy when people hit the like button on Facebook or Instagram. But that doesn’t relate to monies in the bank. Galleries are very important and photographers have to accept the commission before signing the papers for the gallery to sell their work. If a photographer doesn’t like the commission I guess then that gallery won’t have their work.
Which leads me into the real story behind this blog? Online galleries and stores. I have belonged to a couple and I have not sold a print. Why? I believe first of all there are a lot of photographers also on that site that have awesome photos. And there are a ton of them on every site. Also the pricing is very high. And commission is not very clear.
I decided to look for another web based art selling site. My main concern was it has to be Canadian. So after searching I came across the site? The name is pictorem. It’s based in Montreal and it combines a printing service with retail service for the photographer. When a person chooses a print to be printed off your gallery page a commission is sent to the photographer. Here is the kicker…the photographer sets the commission. And each piece can be set at a different commission. And you can do limited runs series as well.
The site is awesome. It took me a little bit of time to register and upload my images but I did do it. The online store allows the buyer to see what the image looks like in a living setting. There are walls in living rooms, offices, and bedrooms. You can change the wall colours to see how the image looks on walls that colour is similar to yours. There are about nine or ten mediums of printing.
The photographer doesn’t handle the printing, the shipping, or collecting the money, and you get to decide how much commission you receive. Sounds like a win win.
I was trying very hard to set up a gallery page on my new website to showcase my photos, and then I needed to figure a way to collect monies for what I do sell. But instead I was able to link my pictorem Account to my web page and it looks just like one of my web pages.
I will continue to use store front galleries because I feel that they are very important and the curators have become good friends. And I want to support them. We as photographers need to use all the tools to our advantage.
So I encourage you to check out my store at pictorem. You may not purchase one of my amazing prints but it just may be what you are looking for.
Use this link below and check it out for yourself..
https://www.pictorem.com/index.html?refer=BE1QGC7LRS
Have a good day
Randy