Well, OK you should backup your files, but as a “Fine Art” photographer I never (or rarely) go back to older work. I am a “shooter”. I love going out and making exposures. I then spend hours on the computer reviewing, tweaking, and generally “post-productionizing” the images.<\/p>\n
I have struggled with the thought of\u00a0 going back to old works and reworking them with my newer skills (I am getting better, aren’t I?). A friend came up with a solution. All the prints I make are limited editions. Sounds simple. Once I am happy with an image, I will make a few prints, number them, and I can go off to the next photo. Life is good.<\/p>\n
But I still back up my files. I still may need them sometime in the future. I may decide to do a re-release, I may land a huge poster contract. I may find one of my images used illegally and I need to prove it is mine. So it is a bit of a balancing act. If I produce a series of limited edition prints, I am promising my customers that their purchase is unique. If I can reproduce an image in the future I am potentially lying to these customers. Coming to my rescue are two facts. I don’t sell a lot of prints (yet… Hopefully this will change) and I like to rework images before I print them. This makes each series of an image somewhat unique. Of course the biggest deterrent to breaking this promise is my word. When someone buys a piece of artwork, the artist is at least as important as the image.<\/p>\n
On a tangential note, I came across a link to an interesting visual take on selling Art:<\/p>\n