selling photos
Last year I sold a photo at a young life auction here on Santa Cruz for $75. The photo I am donating this year is even better (I think). I was sealing with a coworker today about it and said that I don’t know if I will ever sell my photos. If someone offers me money, I’ll take it, but I don’t think I am actively pursue the sale of my work. If someone pays me to take pictures, that’s awesome and different. I’m talking about selling things like my photos from Africa or Vintage. I don’t think God has granted me the ability to take photos so I can make money on them. I believe he has given me this gift as a tool for telling stories. The photo I have in the young life auction is of a sunrise on the Nile River. It’s a great picture, but to me it represents a chance for me to talk about what I did and saw there. It gives me a door I can use to expand someones world view. This is why i list all my photos with a Creative Commons license. So unless you are some crazy rich media conglomerate, if you see a photo you like, let me know. I’ll probably send you the image.
*Update*
I love when I write something, and then discover that some of the leading minds/bloggers in the field are thinking about the same things. While I’m coming from a little bit different place to start with, Vincent LaForet (a Pulitzer Prize winning photographer) and David Hobby (photojournalist and write of the Strobist blog) weigh in with two different views on the subject. I especially identified and appreciated what David wrote here:
“Who can best use the kinds of photos I want to take? What can I accomplish? How can they use the photos? How much good can I do?
This is where it gets goose pimply. How much good could you do?”
This is the point I was trying to make above. I’m not doing photography to make money, I’m doing photography to make a difference. If the two happen to come together one day, awesome. But I won’t stop shooting because no one is paying me. There are too many stories to tell.
You can read Vincent LaForet’s somewhat opposing viewpoint here.
