Making Original Artwork Affordable
I've always believed that photography is the most "democratic" of all artistic media, so I started my Etsy shop to bypass commercial galleries that mark up original artwork by 100 percent or more. The shop focuses on floral photographs partly because of that subject's universal appeal; unlike some photographers, I don't specialize in flowers, or even nature close-ups. What's more, the images I'm offering here are in color rather than my usual black and white, because that's what most people prefer! I made these choices in part to keep the shop's offerings accessible and appealing to as many people as possible.
Even so, my idea here is to create images of flowers and plant forms that are nontraditional and interpretive, rather than literal representations. I do this partly with soft-focus technique and also with what photographers call "shallow depth of field." I want these photographs to work as abstract, "painterly" images—pictures that can be used in place of other art media, such as painting or printmaking, for home and/or office decor, and for gifting—in addition to capturing the essence, and in particular the color and form, of their subjects. I also want them to reveal the often-hidden details that make flowers and plants even more amazing than they appear to us in passing.
Just a word about the prints themselves. Though the price for their size (17x22 inches) is well in line with comparable photographic prints on Etsy, I've sometimes had people ask me why they are "so expensive." Please keep in mind that the price for them includes a number of things. First, they're made on heavyweight acid-free paper, a high-quality material that doesn't contain ordinary paper's additives, chemicals that can cause prints to fade over time; it costs over five dollars a sheet! (And sometimes it takes me two or three sheets to get a print right.) The price also includes the cost of pigment-based printing inks, which like the paper itself are "archival," for extreme resistance to fading; per ounce, these are more expensive than the best perfumes! And the price also includes free shipping. All of this doesn't even account for the original cost of my large-format printing equipment, the cameras and lenses used to make the pictures, and the time devoted to actually going out and finding my subjects!
This type of print is often referred to as a "Giclee" print, which is just a fancy French way of saying that the inks are literally sprayed onto the paper. But remember that unlike many Giclees, these are ORIGINALS, NOT REPRODUCTIONS! The images are not copied; they are from original photographs taken by me in a wide range of places. Each print is produced in my own "digital darkroom" and is signed and dated by me. Please feel free to write me with any questions!
