Print exchange?

[Ray Heath]

A member's generous offer of a gratis print to an interested fellow member prompts me to ask is there any interest amongst others on this site to establish some form of print exchange?

[Maris]

Sure, an exchange of photographs is a good way of seeing new work and also building a collection.

I should confess that the acquisition aspect is serious for me and I impose conditions on my greed and covetousness so that I don't grab everything in sight and end up with a bit of gold and a lot of straw.

Here are my personal limits:
1. The picture shall be made solely out of light-sensitive materials.
2. No digital technology whatever to be used at any stage of the production process.
3. The work shall be exclusively from the hand of the maker; no labs, no assistants, no back-room people.
4. Photographs must be archival to assure lasting value into the indefinite future.
5. The photographs must be signed, titled, and annotated so that their identity is certain for future scholars.
6. The transfer of the photograph must be complete and documented so that valid possession and provenance remain assured.
7. Between photographers of similar accomplishment and committment exchanges of photographs should be "trade" confidential and without cost. Commercial collectors pay market rates; higher the better!
8. When I send a photograph I will try hard to deliver the standards I beg from others.

There is in all of this no implication that one kind or another of picture-making technology is inherently superior. I just want a unified and consistent collection of fine photographs that match the artistic line I've given my life to.

[Ray Heath]

Thank you Maris, again with the generosity.

Your requirements, though not unreasonable, are perhaps a little too restrictive for some.

Though I must admit that the results of most exchanges I've been a part of have been mostly disappointing. Possibly because the exchange rules were not restrictive enough.

[smbooth]

If your going to go that route then perhaps its better to start a swap thread and post a image you have and see if somebody will swap it with a equal image of theirs.

[Maris]

If your going to go that route then perhaps its better to start a swap thread and post a image you have and see if somebody will swap it with a equal image of theirs.

Maybe it's perverse but I'm not very much concerned with what a collectible photograph looks like.

If I ask for a photograph in exchange it's intriguing (thrilling?) as to what I may get. The point is that an accomplished photographer cannot, even in principle, be wrong about their selection of subject matter and the look of their final work. The act of choosing and the act of making are very much part of the art that mirrors the artistic mind behind it. Finally the act of giving such a photograph to another person amounts to a very convincing endorsement of the work itself.

From the point of view of a collector I collect "photographers" and the "photographs" are merely the device whereby this is achieved. A friend recently joked that if I were offered a good quality 16" X 20" original Ansel Adams for $10000 I'd immediately say SOLD! and it would be some time before I got around to asking "what's it of ?".

The possibility of a grossly unequal exchange always exists but I am comforted by the words of the old proverb: "If a man deceives me once, shame on him; if he deceives me twice, shame on me."