The Artist and Debt, Annie Leibovitz Images and Nightmares

The Artist and Debt, Annie Leibovitz Images and Nightmares

The Repo-man knocks at the door. “Let me in Let me in”! Not by the hair of my Chinnie Chin Chin is Annie’s reply to Art Capital Group. Today the old wolf at the door nightmare torments one of the most gifted artists in America; Photographer Annie Leibovitz who made a deal with a Company of Wolves with the hope of saving her home, her life’s work and her family.

Annie owes Art Capital Group 24 Million Dollars. To secure her 24 million dollar loan she used her real estate, her art collection and the rights to her artwork as collateral. Why she needed, such a large loan is at the heart of a story in the New York Times written by Allen Salkin about Leibovitz’s struggle with Taxes, Real Estate and Debt Management.

For Annie Leibovitz, a Fuzzy Financial Picture NYTIMES July31, 2009 by Allen Salkin.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/02/fashion/02annie.html?_r=1&ref=business

Annie’s struggle with debt was compounded by the recent deaths in the past five years of her long time partner Susan Sontag, the writer and her Father and Mother.  She also has children and recently added two giving birth to twins. At the same time of all of her personal issues, Leibovitz was managing the renovation of her three Greenwich Village properties, which alone was a source of enormous personal stress, controversy and a major financial impact on her personal fortune.

Who is Annie Leibovitz and how did she become a character in a nightmarish bedtime story?  In the beginning of her career Annie was I think simply in the right place at the right time combined with a genius talent to capture life on film. She became the staff Photographer for Rolling Stone Magazine when Rolling Stone was just another hopeful grassroots publication. Annie’s images dominated the cover with inside images of Rock and Rolls Greatest Artists. Her images sold copy and many believe were the catapult for the success for Rolling Stone Magazine. Along with fame came fortune and opportunity. Annie signed with Vanity Fair for a seven-figure salary estimated to be 3 million dollars a year with millions more in expenses for outrageously fantastic photo shoots where she made many of her trademark images. Annie was living the Artists dream of endless opportunity and budget to create her work.

Along the way, though she partied too much and developed a pattern of financial mismanagement. Just because a person is, an artistic genius does not make them good with money or debt management. Leibovitz’s ability to make money through her work offset her inability to manage money and debt until now.

Now is another moment of being in the right place but at the wrong time. Before Annie went to the Art Capital Group, who by the way is best described as a high end Pawnshop for the art worlds, Top Artist’s, Collector’s and Dealer’s, she arranged to sell limited portfolios of her work through the auction house Phillips de Pury. The auction that might have bailed her out fell short of the mark when the Art Bubble Burst in October of 2008. That left Annie in a real bind. She had spent millions on the renovations of her New York property and had to buy out a neighbor because of a lawsuit that added several million dollars to the cost. Then the taxman rang and wanted 1.5 million in taxes. With the economy and the art, market is shambles the wolf offered a deal that Annie gambled would save her.

Learn more about Art Capital Group and how it works.

That Old Master? It’s at the Pawnshop NYTIMES by Allen Salkin

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/24/arts/design/24artloans.html?fta=y

The fact remains that Annie Leibovitz has tremendous earning power and she may yet overcome this nightmare. Her photographic negative archive held by Getty Images is alone estimated to be worth 50 million dollars. That is why Art Capital is so aggressively after the rights to her images.

In fact, Annie still has time to pay them back because full repayment isn’t due until September 8^th, 2009. Never mind that fact Art Capital isn’t waiting they have filed several lawsuits against Leibovitz with the most recent this past week to gain access to her assets now. The prior suit was dismissed in part was to stop Annie from working for Getty Images because Art Capital alleged that it would make it more difficult for them to sell her Archive if she was working for Getty. The court ruled against Art Capital Group.

You may be saying to yourself that this story is outrageous and that Leibovitz is unique, but not so. In fact, in a city like New York where a one-bedroom apartment can cost a million plus she is in the small time real-estate market. When you combine renovation costs in New York City with the cost of property it is easy to spend a lot more money that you bargained for. I am sure that when Annie started this adventure the sky seemed to be the limit in the Art Market until the bust of 2008. Combined with the downfall of the economy and tight lending by banks Art Capital Group was in a great position to reap a profit.

Art Capital Group http://www.artcapitalgroup.com/Questions.html

The real enemy in this story is DEBT! Debt is the ball and chain that has hobbled Annie and it will do the same to you as an Artist. In fact, debt will stop you faster than a speeding bullet from achieving success as an artist.

Many artists are finished before they even get started because of debt. Yes, those student loans will sink you faster than the Titanic. You will find that the nice banker isn’t so nice and will tie you up in knots that you will struggle against for 20 years or more.

Even if you have overcome that obstacle and have achieved success, you still maybe burdened with the debt of a mortgage, car loan, credit cards and studio expenses like rent. All of the debt most American have, and when the economy goes south you still got that debt to pay back.

If this isn’t the reason most artists never make it; it has to be a close second and I don’t know what the first is. One thing I know for sure you as an Artist need to manage your money and debt in the most conservative way possible. Never count your chickens before they hatch. Pay as you go as far as you possibly can. And for god sake live in the Mid-West or Western States and stay off the coasts. New York City may be the Art Hub of the world but visit don’t buy.

You also need to understand contracts and the results of signing contracts not only with lenders but with galleries and dealers. If you don’t understand contracts then find someone who does like a lawyer so you can root out any fine print in the deal before you commit. You also need to use contracts when you are hired to do work or sell work so that your rights and the rights of the buyer or employer are clearly spelled out. What are the terms of ownership and who owns the rights to the image, painting or whatever?

The business of art is complex as is the business of money and they are equally the same. While your vision as an artist may be limited to your creative, genius the business of your art is all about the money and wolves are not endangered in the Art World environment.

Debt is food for the wolf and the wolf is always hungry and eager to make a profit or a meal out of your mistakes. Regardless of how outrageous your creative ideas are, keep your financial ideas conservative. The fact is most of us have to have steady paying jobs of some sort to just enjoy the basics in life, homes, cars, children. If you can limit your debt, you will in the long run enjoy more freedom to create your art.

If your lucky enough to make a lot of money spend wisely and pay cash when you can, never incur debt you absolutely do not have too. I know this isn’t what we have been taught but unless you want to be a slave shed the ball and chain of debt or better yet never let them shackle you to begin with. If you have to make a deal to get what you want be sure to very carefully weigh the all of the possible outcomes, good, bad and ugly. Is the risk worth the possible payoff?

I guess the other side of the story is as artists we all like the live on the edge. Risk seems to feed our creative nature. Somehow, we need to keep the benefits of life on the edge and maintain some control over our financial security. When economic times like today come the balance is tipped and we are, always going to have days like these sooner or later. Therefore, we have to plan for the reality while we are creating the impossible dream.

As for Annie, I am confident she will emerge from this crisis and continue to be successful. Art Capital will continue to find wholesome meals and Annie will earn more money in the next year than most of us will earn in our lifetime even after the wolves feed. She will also earn some profound lessons and they will serve her well as will the lesson of her bedtime story. When the Wolf came a Knocking.

Filed under: Art, Art News, Art Prints, Culture Economey, How to, How to survive as a Working Artists, Investing, Media, News, On Art, Photography, Uncategorized , Annie Leibovitz, Art Business, Art Capital Group, Art Loans, Art Pawnshops, Artists and Debt, Debt, Famous Photographers, Rolling Stone Magazine, Student Loans

Copyright Fair Use and The Transformative Factor

Orginal Manny Garcia Photo with Faireys Hope Poster

The Question?

Can you the artist use, transform a copyrighted image in whole or part into a new work of art without permission of the original author.

That is a question that Shepard Fairey is about to answer.

Boy this guy Fairey is really mixing it up, with his recent arrest for graffiti in Boston and what I believe is a very important law suit in New York. The Associated Press wants credit and payment for Fairey’s Obama Hope image. They contend that Fairey violated Copyright Law when he used a photograph taken by Manny Garcia to create his famous poster of Hope.

I have written a lot about Shepard Fairey recently because his work in general is tied to a history in art that is of great personal interest to me. His work is connection to political propaganda and the Dada movement. And I think he does a good job as a image maker/artist.

I don’t know if Shepard Fairey intended to set landmark legal precedents in law when he started making images or when he made his now famous Obama poster, but that is what he is doing.

The reason this is so important is that the outcome of his argument with the Associated Press may in fact have a major impact on you and me as an artist. At issue is the Fair Use clause in copyright law.

I want to make it clear that I am not attempting to defend Shepard Fairey but I am attempting to defend his right; the right of Fair Use. Fairey is a convenient source because of his current case. Furthermore, I hope you will use the links I have provided to the related articles and the actual court documents to make your own argument about the issue.

That said, I have some issues I want to share with you not only about the Fair Use law but also about how the story is being presented.

First AP claims infringement of copyright over the use of the original image. What they don’t claim is that they in fact may not even own the copyright to the image. Manny Garcia the photographer may own the rights. AP never contracted with Garcia for ownership. He was a temporary hire with no contract by him or AP that would transfer ownership of the image to the Associated Press. Therefore, before AP has any claim they will have to establish ownership. And that may be another legal case in itself.

Second, is the fact that the current image in the press shown around the world is not the entire photograph that Manny Garcia took of Obama? The original image was of Obama sitting beside George Clooney. He was at a fund raising dinner for Darfur relief aid, at the National Press Club in Washington D.C in 2006. The image Shepard Fairey used and altered is a cropped version of the original.

Third is the fact that Fairey took the cropped pose and significantly altered it. He not only altered the image by transforming it into a very graphic and abstract version of the original, he altered the content or purpose. He created new work of art based on the original by adding new expression and meaning.

Why is this important, because many artists use other people’s images for inspiration and transform those images into new works of art? Any body who has clipped pictures out of a magazine to make a collage has done exactly what Shepard Fairey did. Those old wallpaper design catalogs count too.

Equally important I believe is for the press to get the story right. Why didn’t they print the original photograph that I found in a link to court records, provided by the Mercury News? It took me about 5 minutes to find a version of the image I could use, when everybody else published the cropped version.  I think the image they used unfairly slants the story and implies a different approach to the work Fairey created, inspired by the original image.

Copyright law is as complex as image making today. With new digital technology and the internet, available images have multiplied by a thousand fold and fair use is a major issue for artists everywhere.

I also want to note that Shepard Fairey has openly given Manny Garcia credit for his image and the inspiration the image had on Fairey’s work. As an artist have you ever been inspired by another artists work? Have you ever used another artist’s work as a starting point for your work?

The history of art offers many examples of fair use and transformative images, just look at an Andy Warhol image of a Campbell’s soup can. Campbell’s tried to stop him from using their trademarked image and lost. Warhol transformed the Campbell’s image into a new work of art that was inspired by the original. Warhol added new expression and meaning to the image.

I don’t think the Associated press has a case and I think Shepard Fairey is rightfully protecting all of us with his legal action against AP.

Read the actual court documents and related articles below.

Tell me what you think, add your comment, it is important.

AP wants credit for Fairey Obama Image, Boston Globe.

http://www.boston.com/ae/media/articles/2009/02/05/ap_wants_credit_for_faireys_obama_image/

Mercury News Article. Court Documents Attached PDF

http://www.mercurynews.com/newsspecialreports/ci_11666008

PDF at Doc Stoc. You can download the complete court documents PDF version with images free here. You just have to register.

http://www.docstoc.com/docs/4104616/Obama-artist-complaint-vs-the-Associated-Press

Excerpt Stanford Fair Use/Copyright Stanford University Libraries

The Transformative Factor: The Purpose and Character of Your Use

In a 1994 case, the Supreme Court emphasized this first factor as being a primary indicator of fair use. At issue is whether the material has been used to help create something new, or merely copied verbatim into another work. When taking portions of copyrighted work, ask yourself the following questions:

Has the material you have taken from the original work been transformed by adding new expression or meaning?

Was value added to the original by creating new information, new aesthetics, new insights and understandings?

In a parody, for example, the parodist transforms the original by holding it up to ridicule. Purposes such as scholarship, research or education may also qualify as transformative uses because the work is the subject of review or commentary.

EXAMPLE: Roger borrows several quotes from the speech given by the CEO of a logging company. Roger prints these quotes under photos of old-growth redwoods in his environmental newsletter. By juxtaposing the quotes with the photos of endangered trees, Roger has transformed the remarks from their original purpose and used them to create a new insight. The copying would probably be permitted as a fair use.

Stanford Website/Fair Use

http://fairuse.stanford.edu/Copyright_and_Fair_Use_Overview/chapter9/index.html

Related Posts

The Art of Politics

http://davideubank.wordpress.com/2008/08/29/the-art-of-politics/

A very well written article on the copyright debate and Shepard Fairey

Shepard Fairey is Not a Crook: by Steven Heller

Filed under: Art, Art News, Art Prints, How to, How to survive as a Working Artists, Journalism, Media, News, On Art, Photography, Politics, Shepard Fairey, Uncategorized , Artists and copyrights, Copyright Law, Fair Use Law, Shepard Fairey Associated Press Lawsuit

Dave’s Psychic Art Predictions for 2009, what are your Psychic Predictions for 2009

• 2008 was a year of years for sure, who could’ve predicted Two Thousand and Eight.

I dun’ no but here are some of my predictions for the New Year 2009.

 

 

 

• Wall Street Investors and Bankers who bought multi-million dollar artworks of various livestock genre to hang on the walls of their mansions will begin to create recipes for new and unusual entrees.

Beef Formaldehyde-tine, and of course, the new hamburger rave, the Mad Cow. Yes, it is a lot of beef but let’s not forget about the sea food menu. Pan Sautéed shark in a cream formaldehyde sauce with “capers”. This is a quick variation on a stuffed flounder recipe. And I predict Andrew Zimmern of Bizarre Foods with Andrew Zimmern will show up at several of these feasts wearing a new Damien Hirst Tee Shirt and exclaim, now boy that’s really good as he samples the various delicacies.

• My prediction for the art market and art sales for the New Year is the same as last year.

Art will still be sold to the highest bidder and perhaps to the bidder that is“High”… But from what I can see is we all want the relationships between the artist and the market to change, well I predict that it will. Those questionable galleries that we all complain about, well they are going away in 2009. Artists will re-invent the Art Market Place by taking their art to the streets. Most will be holding signs, that they painted that read, “Will Make Art for Food”. But just maybe you have an unrealized ace in the hole? Christie’s reports that Collectable Wine sales reached the third highest ever $50,665,602.00. Global sales were $1,898,068.00. The top seller was a vintage 1961 Hermitage La Chappelle for $60,000.00 The good news for me is I found a vintage bottle of Boone’s Farm Strawberry 1968 or 69, who can remember it was the sixty’s,  while cleaning out the old VW Bus getting it ready for the scrape yard. So I predict if you look under that sofa or under the cushions you might just be rich. As for art sales I dunno, Art Business.com Reports that trying to track art sales is like trying to count the stars in the sky.

 

• The Associated Press reports that nobody knows where the first 350 billion of the bailout money went.

They contacted 21 banks that received a billion dollars or more to find out. Nobody is talking. They asked, how much did you spend, what did you spend it on, how much are you saving and what are your plans for the rest? Only JP Morgan/Chase commented and they said, “We’ve lent some of it, we’ve not lent some of it, we have not disclosed that to the public, we’re declining to.” REALLY that was their answer. So I predict the next $350 billion will be spent trying to figure out where the first $350 billion went. I also predict that throughout corporate lunchroom’s you will hear, Hey Morgan can you pass the  1961 Hermitage La Chappelle, this Beef Formaldehyde-tine is a little dry. Here you are Chase, by the way do you miss “The Golden Calf,” by Damien Hirst that was in the boardroom. How bout those hooves and horns of 18-carat gold. You did save those didn’t you?

 

• I predict that the global Environment will improve; better cleaner air and water.

With the downturn in manufacturing, I see un-looked for benefits that will help the environment. Except for the floating continent of Plastic trash http://davideubank.wordpress.com/man-made-continent-of-trash-a-fantastic-story  in the Pacific Gyer, Its size will increase by an untold magnitude as trillions of new small bits of plastic turn up this year. I predict scientists will trace the increase to all of those credit cards we will all be cutting up and disposing of in 2009. And don’t burn them either or Global Air quality will plummet.

 

• I predict the old Obama slogan of Hope will be replaced by Obama’s new slogan What the F_ _ _ were they thinking.

He will also be heard yelling, they did WHAT!…

 

 

• One more prediction for 2009 is that if the New Year is anything like the old one it will be exciting and unpredictable.

But artists are the creative pulse of the human existence and creativity is our business. Many new innovative and creative ideas begin in the arts. Artists recognize the new first and then the rest of society well follows. So I predict we will be the creative leaders of the future as we have always been. . Don’t blow it!.. Stay positive and create.

 

• And please share your predictions for 2009, come on have some fun.
• Happy New Year!…

Filed under: Art, Art Marketing, Art News, Culture Economey, Environment, How to, How to survive as a Working Artists, Investing, Journalism, Media, News, On Art, Politics, Uncategorized , 2009 predictions, Bailout, Barack Obama, Collectable Wines, Economic Predictions 2009, Environment predictions 2009, Floating Trash

In Search of the New, Pushing Traditional Boundaries of Art

Transgressions of Form, david eubank 2007

 

• Digital Imagery has become the new medium of creation for many artists including myself.

The possibilities are endless and exciting. From photography, digital collage, film and video, images have becoming more sophisticated and are part of the visual language of our time.

Artists of all genres are experimenting, looking for ways to transform digital technology into the New. New images, new techniques and new audiences are changing how we see the world. The new digital world is still young. Technology has opened international borders, communication and ideas like no other technology before it.

• Social networks for artists have brought us together on a global scale.

New images ideas and conversations with friends crossover all of the boundaries of space and time.  

Artists networks like “Arts for Arts Sake”, http://artsforartssake.ning.com and “Art Review”, http://www.artreview.com/index.php are the new cafes where artists can socialize and share ideas. Both networks are free and offer opportunities for all artists to share in the experience. Here as an artist, you can show your latest work to your peers instantly. You can join discussions on a plethora of topics about art. You can build your own artists page or online gallery. In addition, these servers automatically help you with placement, marketing on the web at Google and other search engines.

For me the new technology has expanded my friendships my audience and my creative opportunities. Like here at http://wordpress.com where you are reading this Blog. You can sign up for free, write your own blog here, and begin sharing your creative ideas and your work with the world.

•  http://www.youtube.com enables artists and filmmakers along with an amazing assortment of everybody else in the world an opportunity to show your work and communicate.

This presidential election season here in the Untied States experienced the impact and importance of “You Tube” as voters directly communicated with candidates in a variety of formats. The citizen shared the national and international stage and the importance of the impact was immediate and provocative and was a major influence in the election.

In the early days of digital art, webpage and game designers dominated the field.

• But a few pioneering fine artists emerged like Deena des Rioux “Robotic Portraiture”   http://www.absolutearts.com/artsnews/2001/02/08/28068.html

Deena began experimenting with digital college in the late 1980’s using Photoshop she has created a new way of seeing and working with her digital prints that pushed the traditional boundaries of art in a new direction. She replaces the brush with the mouse and expands her ideas as she explores a new medium.

• Tim Holmes a sculptor has expanded his work to film on the internet at Blue Universe.com.  http://www.blueuniverse.com/thsculptures/films/film2.html

Holmes creates moving sculpture using film. His audience has expanded to the internet and artists social networks.

In Body Psalms words take on new dimensions of expression that appear in no other medium. Words become moving sculpture as they unfold stretch, recombine and morph into other words and images… Tim Holmes

Today the tools of technology can allow artist like Deena des Rioux and Tim Holmes to explore new methods of creating art, that were before limited or unavailable.

• Rinpa Eshidan a Tokyo based artist group has taken preformance art and painting in a new direction in the modern media environment of You Tube and the World Wide Web. http://www.rinpaeshidan.jp

The group has just release a new DVD of their work.

• ARTOCRACY https://artocracy.org

founded by Megan Murphy is a digital marketplace for original art. The online gallery offers artists working in digital formats as well as others the opportunity to sell their work through an on line medium. Artocracy sells art similar to the way music is now being sold by downloading from the internet. The gallery offers inexpensive original art that the buyer can download and print at home. The artist authorizes the reproduction of the prints and the buyer gets an original artwork. The buyer also gets to participate in the making of the art.

• My introduction to the digital world was a need to produce catalogs for exhibitions.

Soon I was using Photoshop and a publishing program. Photoshop quickly became my dark room. Even back in the 4.0 days of Adobe the power to create images was incredible. As a photographer, my only issue then was camera technology had not caught up with the software. To get a good image still required a film-based system. But today that is all history.

• As a painter, I was looking for something new, that is when I began to experiment with design software.

I wanted a way to draw that was fast and changeable. I wanted to make or invent images. What I discovered from trial and error was a mysterious set of images that intrigues me to my artistic core. I still I am not sure what I see in these images, but as an artist I intuitively know that something is there, that these images call too me. I began using the images for painting taking them to yet another level another transition. Then I looked at the images as prints, photographs and found that they offered another medium. Soon I was making digital prints. I really did not know how I felt about the process. It is mechanical, it requires a machine and for me the computer became like a camera and the dark room only far more diverse.  

• My work, Transgressions of Form is a group of digitally manipulated images of the human form that explore the transitional states of the process of their invention.

I wanted to find a new way to generate images, a method that interrupted my preconceived ideas about the figure. At the same time, I wanted to create images that moved me, stimulated my feelings, and my desires about the human form. I began to experiment with a Panorama Maker program that was bundled with printer software and Photoshop. My Idea was to stitch images together not to make a panorama but to make or invent new images from familiar, expected forms. I tried many different kinds of images and found that the nude human figure worked, while other images did not. Starting with various images of the figure, I manipulated them in Photoshop. The simplicity of the human form allowed for the creation of complex images that did not contain too much visual information so as not to overwhelm the limits of the program and the image. As the program reads all digital information in the image and this can result in too much visual detail. The human figure because of its smooth surface and varied positions is less complex digitally and at the same time contains complex variations created by movement that are natural to the figure itself. This is what intrigues me about Tim Holmes movies of Moving Sculpture.

Taking combinations of manipulated images, I load them into the program and transform them into new images. I would describe the process as random, by chance like using a slot machine. Images of chance that often do not result in successful expectations. Other times the result is an abstraction that stimulates the visual senses of memory about the human form that perhaps recalls hidden, repressed or forgotten memories of human desires of the flesh. Images, about the secrecy and beauty of our own personal experience and our expectations of intimacy with the human figure.

 I also want to note the influence that Deena Des Rioux had on my initial investigations into digital imagery. She brought her work to Montana and her “Robotic Portraiture” exhibit opened a new vision for me of what was possible. Having curated the exhibit I was fortunate enough to spend a great deal of time looking at her images in the museum where I worked. The possibilities were there right in front of me. And so I took my meager skills at the time and began to learn and work.

 For me this is still new after several years. My interest in Photography is rekindled, as are my interests in painting. Now digital printmaking will be a medium of choice even if I have arrived at this point by chance.

 I am excited about the future of this New World of Art.

Transgression #20 david eubank 2008

 

See more of my digital images at:

http://artsforartssake.ning.com/profile/davideubank

 https://www.artocracy.org/?1&page=/store/m-29-david-eubank.aspx

 

 

 

 

Filed under: Art, Art News, Art Prints, How to, How to survive as a Working Artists, Media, Movies, News, On Art, Painting, Photography, Uncategorized , david eubank art, Digital Art, digital print making, figure art, How to make digital art, New Art, You Tube

The Cultural Homogenizing of America or How I learned to Stop Worrying and Love Wal-Mart

• A Wal-Mart employee was trampled to death on Black Friday.

And scores of shoppers stepped over his body and trampled other Wal-Mart employees attempting to help the poor man. Did the idea of Falling Prices become, chumming for Killer Sharks, creating a shopping frenzy.

You might be asking yourself, what in the world could Wal-Mart have on sale that would cause such a tragic display of human behavior; a Human Shopping Frenzy. I can’t Imagine! And Who’s or What’s to Blame!

I am going to blame the Corporate Cultural Homogenization of America and soon the World.

• Sameness to the degree of insanity.

Not one Wal-Mart on this planet has a unique product on it’s shelves for sale. Every item in the store is massed produced and can be purchased at any other Wal-Mart in the world, for the same price. Maybe if you don’t get out much you don’t know this? But having traveled around the country and shopping at different Wal-Mart’s I can testify that they are all virtually the same. Same store layout and the same products. Oh you might argue that a Super Wal-Mart or Sam’ Club has more items, but they too are the same.

As a Visual Artist, I Noticed the Endless Development of Box Cities with Endless Parking Lots across America.

Every Exit Ramp is Home. MacDonald’s, Burger King, Taco Bell, Wal-Mart, Target, Loews, Home Depot, you can fill in the blank. Each offers the same food the same products. A Big Mac is a Big Mac; where ever you are…! And now suddenly we Americans are worried we can’t get more of the same stuff that has been mass produced in numbers unimaginable. Why? So we can all wear the same Team Tee Shirt. Oh Right; there are different teams.

Or… Maybe the frenzy resulted from a call to arms to stop the now doomed system failure at our doorstep, to save our new homogenized culture to get more stuff before supplies become limited to only millions or hundreds of thousands of the same thing.

So how did this cultural change happen; how did consumerism become a belief system that perhaps is the New American Religion, Consumerinsanity.

• I will tell you another scary story…

I moved to a small community in Northwest Montana about 13 years ago where I became the Director of the local Art Museum located in downtown Kalispell Montana. This was at a time of franchise infancy in the community. Wal-Mart and Costco arrived just about then after the first McDonalds. Before that, the infrastructure of the Flathead Valley was local Mom and Pop un-franchised businesses. The Flathead Valley of Northwest Montana was mostly untouched by the mass distribution of corporate enterprises that dominated the larger communities of America.

Its sense of place was unique, it was that small Home Town, that Rural Paradise that offered a haven from the large urban communities of modern America, a place where a kid can grab a towel and walk to the end of the street to the community swimming pool with no worries.

Thirteen years after McDonalds and the explosion of Franchise Businesses I can hardly recognized the original community I moved too in 1996.

The valley has taken on the same visual characteristics as the rest of America it has become part of the… Homoge-O-Nation!

As you drive through the valley on U.S 93 the landscape reveals the same architecture, a true assimilated American Community. Wal-Mart, Boarders, Best Buy, Home Depot, Lowe’s, Target, Walgreen’s and a plethora of corporate franchise restaurants to supplement a major anchor complex. You seen one you seen em all.

This is how goods and services are delivered today, the Architecture is functional and predictable, a box with ornamentation stuck on it giving each box an identifiable appearance, or as I like to think of it, a CODE.

One-step farther inside the box and we identify the product line. It really doesn’t matter what McDonalds you walk into anywhere on the planet, you know you can get a Big Mac and you identify the product with the architectural Code.

The architecture is the reinforcement of the Code an image of the corporation, the franchise; it is part of the brand.

This is where the Sameness of products of the Landscape, Cityscape and culture started.

As the code or Brand was reinforced into our culture, our ideas about ourselves changed. We began to seek our comforts in unifying products.

These products help us define our status or place in the social economic pecking order.

These product identifications, brands, codes enhance our personal liability to others and our sexually and sex appeal and appearance.

Many of us now live in houses and neighborhoods that all look alike. Even the color of the houses and building are regulated, all the same color scheme, no variation on the theme is tolerated. No more directions, Turn Right at the Desert Brown house on the corner, or you will be trapped in a maze of cul-de-sacs.

As a reformed Minimalist and Photographer this might have worked out well for me, all I need to do is take one picture of any one of these boxes and my work would be done and I could just reprint the image any time inspiration over came me.

The Development that we have come to believe we need, that we want, has created a sameness that has overtaken the cultural landscape across an America of endless McDonald’s, Strip Malls and Big Box Stores that has grown into new cities and towns, not built to live and walk in, but to drive to. Development and Sameness has changed us as a culture.

• Perhaps this is how it happened?

Developers brought us development and products and we were all told we needed them and we believed the developers, the corporate retailers, and their advertising and believed we needed these products.

This idea is in stark contrast to having true needs and then developing products and services to fill our true desires and needs.

I am sure we all really want a MacDonald’s hamburger that is smaller than the pickle slices on the bun. But “Your Love n It”.

• Four questions I would ask you:

Does the New American Culture fulfill your True needs?

Can we develop what we want, what we need in a more thoughtful way?

Is originality culturally Dead.

Is Art Dead…!

• I have an idea for you.

It just might be original in today’s culture. Go out and find a local art gallery and buy an original piece of art for yourself this holiday season. Spend as much as you can afford and buy something with the thought that you want to live with it for the rest of your life. The art could be a painting, a sculpture, a photograph, any thing that represents an individual original creation. It could even be a fine craft item that you could use or wear. But it must represent individual creative originality. Then live with your new art purchase and enjoy it throughout the many seasons to come. Don’t worry your appreciation for your artwork will change continuously as you change because of it.

I noticed something in my community that was a direct result of mass distribution and coding, it is the OPEN sign. Our local Costco Wholesale Warehouse carries these signs as does Sam’s Club, we don’t have a Sam’s Club but it is coming soon. What these signs do is tie or link the most diversified group of businesses together, as a brightly colored thread weaved through out a tapestry of individuality.

The signs use an established and functional Code, OPEN for business. They shine brightly throughout your community and mine; in small unique business that can offer you the consumer a new market and new products, like the local art gallery in your neighborhood or town. In fact, I started to collect pictures of these signs in diverse business in my community and across the country.

A sign of originality connected by sameness, Open for business. In the space of a couple hours one day I took dozens of different Photographs of signs in an incredibly diverse selection of businesses that only have the sign in common. Once you start looking for OPEN SIGNS you will see that these simple, functional signs dot the Urban Landscape like Dandelions in a well manicured yard.

• And maybe your find a good Hamburger too!

Filed under: Art, Art Marketing, Art News, How to, Investing, News, On Art, Photography, Uncategorized , Buying Art, Consumerism, How to buy Art, Open Signs, Urban Development, Wal-Mart

Did the Art Bubble Burst ?

• Or did it just float away.

The recession has arrived in the once unlimited high priced art market of just a few months ago. Art’s too expensive said Damien Hirst after his painting of four skulls that was estimated to sell for around 3 million dollars in New York this November did not sell. The work “Beautiful Artemis Thor Neptune Odin Delusional Sapphic Inspirational Hypnosis Painting had No Buyer.

But don’t despair Hirst is estimated to be worth 200 million pounds, so he will be just fine.

Damien Hirst with Friend

Who Is Damien Hirst? http://www.artcyclopedia.com/artists/hirst_damien.html

• But those who have invested in high priced art recently while the market seemed to be a safe haven for their money may not come out of this Depression unscathed.

Hirst says in a philosophical way that this is what Artists really want.

• “People who bought things are not going to sell them that day. That is what an artists wants, for people to hang the works on their wall”. As an artist, you don’t stop making art because people are not buying”, said Hirst.

If you are a working Artist then you must see the humor in this current art market situation. If you are a buyer enjoy your gutted cow, on your wall.

• First if you are a working Artist, Recession is a way of life, Recession is ever present in your career.

Most of us are not Damien Hirst’s. Most of us just struggle to keep working and yeah we make art even if no body is buying. And yeah we all hope that someone will come along and appreciate all of our hard work and ideas and buy our art to hang on their walls.

• But art has become an investment for many buyers, art is not an aesthetic thing for them.

Art is a commodity, goods for investment and exchange. And with the recent decline in the financial markets it was hoped to be a safe haven for their money.

• But that idea, that kind of thinking about art left most of us out in the cold begging for paint so we could go on making art even if no one was buying. At least we have the skills to make signs,
  
• “Will Make Art for food”…!

Perhaps those art investors will trade for signs that say, “Will work for a Hirst or Picasso”. But where will they stand with their signs, at Wal-Mart or Sotheby’s?

• Now I don’t want you to think I am trashing Damien Hirst, I really am not.

I’d take 3 million for a painting in a heart beat. Hirst is a remarkable Artist and Art Marketing Genius, no doubt about it!

• The Collectors and Dealers are part of the “Art Market”, a market that is driven by it’s own forces.

Sometimes by forces that are brutal and sinister.

• Adolf and the boys murdered thousands of Collectors and Art Dealers for their art collections during WWII. But this is just a foot note in how sinister the art market can be to make a point.

Read about the PBS documentary, “The Rape of Europe”, great art in the grip of the Nazis. The program airs or aired respectively Monday November 24 th on PBS.

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/movies/2008426931_tvrapeofeuropa24.html

• So back to you and me as working artists.

How do we deal with this art market. Most of us are asked to pay to show our work by galleries, museums, art shows. We are expected to do all the work and then pay to exhibit our work. We even are expected to pay fees just to get someone to look at our work.

• These fees are part of the SUBMISSION applications for art shows.

And yes I am as guilty as any other curator who has produced art shows or art fair and art auctions. When I worked in the museum field we asked artists to pay fees to look at their work, to pay for shipping and framing and we expected to take our cut if the work sold. But it did bother me as an artist and I did except it as a curator who wanted to produce a show, and raise money for a fund raising art fair. Frankly as a Non-Profit art organization we needed the money to keep operating. And so I could as a curator justify my behavior.

• After all it is how the market works, isn’t it.

It is SUBMISSION to the market forces. I can tell you that it is a part of the market that weighs heavy on the minds of many curators and art directors in non-profit gallery’s and museum’s around the country. But they have to keep their organizations going, so they continue to do what works, for themselves.

• But who’s at fault?

Someone came up with the ideas to charge these fees and we artists agreed to the pay them. And so the rest of the story is history.

• And how much money have you made as an artist paying to show your work, did you gain the respect; notary you had hoped for?

Did your career advance or did you just buy another line on a resume; so you could pay to show your artwork in another show that you paid to show in?

• Recently I was solicited by a gallery that wanted to represent me.

I won’t name the gallery or state, but I will tell you about the offer, which I thought about and investigated seriously.

The gallery charges a yearly fee of $800 dollars, Then an exhibition fee of $1200, Then a Framing Fee if needed, estimated at my price for 20 paintings at about 4750. dollars. I would pay shipping to and from the gallery. Most of my work is large and I estimate shipping and crating to be in the $5000. dollar range. Then add insurance another $1000. and the total cost to get a show $12,750. dollars. And then they want a meager 30% commission on all sales.

• Not a bad deal really, is it.

So if I sold say all 20 paintings, yeah right; I could gross $50,000. less $12,750 for costs leaves $37,250 which is what I would pay commission on which is $11,175.dollars. That would leave $26,075 which then if I take material and labor $8. dollars and hour off, $12,550, that leaves $13,525 profit, not bad. The only problem is I have to invest $12,750. up front and I would have to sell all 20 paintings.

• But why would a for profit gallery be expected to take the chance on me without any financial risk on my part?

Business is business after all and this is where Damien Hirst excels. He makes that investment, he takes those risks and he has been fortunate up to now and I think he will continue to be successful.

• As an artist I may be fooling my self about the time I or you put into your work so the Minimum wage may be a fantasy. And my sales may not be as strong as say Hirst’s. And then there is the reality that if I invest $12, 750. dollars into a show I might just need that sign, only mine will say,

“Won’t Lie I Need a BEER”.

You read this far and thought I had the answer, sorry dudes I don’t but would appreciate yours.

• But back to Hirst, he says he is willing to sell for less because the Big Bubble floated out of the auction house.

So what is his next idea, it is a different market and a different market tactic. He is looking to capture the middle and the lower end with volume.

• He has opened a store “ Other Criteria”, 36 Bond Street, London, England and on line.

https://www.othercriteria.com/index2.php

Hirst offers goodies from $30 pounds to well thousands. You can buy prints, Photographs, Tee shirts and sculpture. Marketing to the masses.

But to be sure many of the items are affordable for most budgets and are worth looking at if you want a Authorized Damien Hirst. He also carries the work of other artists in the shop. I like the Tee Shirt, MENTAL on the front and HEALTH on the back by Rachel Howard, in red of course.

I don’t care much for the FLASH gallery it loads to slow.

You can get a poster of the Diamond Encrusted Skull that was produced for the show “Beyond Belief” at White Cube designed by Hirst for 30 pounds among others. And you can get Prints like “All You Need is LOVE LOVE LOVE” Silk Screened, thats the heart with butterflies for 9500 pounds. Really not a bad price when you consider Hirst fetched I think around 6 million for one of the original paintings.

• Yes the Recession has arrived and Damien Hirst like us is ready to chip away at the market bit by bit to make ends meet.

But then you and I have been here in this depressed bubble for well, EVER.

So what worked for Hirst, how did he succeed, what did he do or realize that we all missed? Some people say, well Hirst does not do his own work he has an Art Factory. True so did Tiffany and hundreds of other artists throughout history, didn’t they. Even Di Vinci got his start in an Art Factory, only it was called something else because factory’s hadn’t been invented yet. So as for Hirst that was a good idea, volume has rewards.

But is that why we make art, is that why we should make art.

• Hirst and his mass production and marketing and his work is ART, I think.

The Hirst phenomena is art itself. A reflection of the society that we have become. Raw and open Hirst’s work slaps us and the collector in the face, but we didn’t notice because it is what we are. We have become Gutted Cows or perhaps Sheep. We follow the trend. We Consume and Consume. Damien just brings it all home and it is gobbled up like the Thanksgiving Turkey. And we come back for seconds. Does this make him bad, no it just makes him smart.

• So I ask.

What could I do with that 12,750 dollar investment, what could you do, What could 10 of us together do with that money. We are all going to spend some amount of money over the next year and if that money were pooled together what could emerge?

• How many artists do you know that are trying to make a living or want to make a living.

How many $25 dollar fees and shipping costs will you spend this coming year to show your work. 10 times the investment I talked about for that proposed gallery show is &127,500 dollars.

• Could you and your friends start your own version of an Art Factory, Gallery.

For that kind of investment you could hire a sales assistant to staff the operation while you produce art.

• You will spend the money any way and you know you will.

We have all SUBMITTED to the system as it is today. But we have a chance to change that system if we choose too. Damien Hirst used the existing system to his benefit very successfully, now he perhaps sees the next evolution.

• Imagine if collectors started buying original art to live with, Imagine if your neighbors became those collectors, people who want art for it’s “Artistic Life Quality” value above it’s market worth, “Art For Art’s Sake”.

• Wait that could be arts market value? “Quality of Life”.

The possibilities are limited only by our imagination by our submission to what is the system.

Now if your a gallery owner who wants to give me a show because you have faith you can sell my work, because you have buyers that you feel will buy my work and you are willing to earn your 50% commission then call me, or write me or email me. And we will talk and perhaps reach an mutual agreement to both our benefits. Oh just kidding I got a check book.

• But this article is for you the working, living artist, who needs to make a living and a living wage.

But going it alone is hard and often unrewarding. Think about collaboration, talk to other artists you know.

We have been taught not to sell our work, not to collaborate to be individuals. To be teachers, it’s a job that has a pay check. Just ask a university art professor, who just invested $100,000 dollars into their education. Who works a job so they can be an artist as you and I do at what ever pays the bills.

But we do need each other and each other’s talent and ideas to succeed. And if the current system works for you keep on keeping on.

For the rest of you and for me, “What’s New, What is New, What Can Be New, Changed or Perhaps Recycled. ( History ? ) Arts and Crafts movement?

Recycle Ideas, Renew, Reuse. Maybe that’s a Green statement. It could be green in your pocket?

• I know an Art Dealer who only represents deceased artists. They don’t talk back or have new ideas or opinions or make new work. I am not ready to sign with him either.

Related Stories/Links

http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art/news/arts-too-expensive-says-hirst-worth-163200m-1021669.html

Is investing in Art a Safe Haven for Your Money, “Is Art the New Gold”? by david eubank October 2008

http://davideubank.wordpress.com/2008/10/13/is-investing-in-art-a-safe-haven-for-your-money-is-art-the-new-gold-2/

Do the Arts Need a National Bailout?

http://davideubank.wordpress.com/2009/04/01/do-the-arts-need-a-national-bailout/

Filed under: Art, Art Marketing, Art News, How to, How to survive as a Working Artists, Investing, Movies, News, On Art, nazi loot , Art Ideas, being an artist, damien hirst, How to survive as a Working Artists, Investing in Art, Mental Health for Artists, nazi loot

Artist’s Minutes, How to Survive as an Artist

 

Two Dog Flats, Evening 08

 Where do you find the time to create art

and support yourself too and don’t forget the family if you have a wife, husband and of course the kids, dogs, cats, horses and whatever.  

Juggling all the balls is no easy task for the working artist.

An old friend of mine told me once, “If you have a Goldfish you may as well have a zoo”.

If you are lucky and established enough to make a living selling your work,

you are a member of the fortunate few. As the world revolves around us in turmoil with what seems like never ending financial and societal pressure, many of us have to work a day job, some of us may have to work several.

Then we have to be Artists on top of everything else.

If you are an Artist then you understand the have to be. We creative’s are trained from the beginning to be teachers to make a living. That was the purpose of the MFA programs. Others of us find work in galleries, non-profits, restaurants, whatever pays the rent.

And oh those creative odd jobs,

you know the ones that tax your soul, but you do it for the money anyway.

So how do you get time to do your work.

That was question I asked myself this year. I too have a day job and I can tell if you read on, you won’t feel too sorry for me, but maybe I can offer some soul soothing advice to you. About ten seasons ago I took a seasonal job for the National Park Service as a Historic Preservation Carpenter at Glacier National Park. I was trained as a carpenter before I went to college. After college I taught in various programs, worked in non-profits and museums and filled in the gaps with construction jobs. It seemed I always had a side job working as a carpenter.

 

Route 49 Two Medicine GNP 08

My current job offered interesting and challenging work, restoring and preserving buildings throughout the park. Glacier is a big park, the size of many states with tens of thousands of acres, if fact the acreage is well over a million.

If you have been to Glacier Park then you know it is a landscape of magnificent beauty as are most of our national parks.

My job takes me to every nook and cranny of the park. Constantly surrounded by and living in the landscape is a wonderful experience.

But I always seem to be on a mission.

I have to get somewhere and get some project done and that leaves little time to really enjoy the experience as an Artist. The job offers other enjoyments to be sure, but is demanding of time and attention. My employer expects me to pay attention to my work, but it is easy to enjoy the office when it is spread over such a majestic landscape. Being so large it takes hours to get to many job locations in the park, windshield time is what we call it, although it could be time in the saddle or on foot, on the trail.

That’s when you are out there in the thick of the landscape, but you are always moving always working so you pass it by with forgettable memories of where you have been and what you saw on the way.

I have to tell you I have countless forgotten memories of breath taking experiences that I just passed on by without stopping so much as to take a moment to enjoy, not even a picture did I take. In fact I usually found my self thinking about being somewhere else, in some city doing the whole art thing, until I decide to look.

Yes Look at where I was and Look at what was right in front of me.

Every job has “My Time”, when you are going too or from work and in my case when you are living at work as I do for a week at a time. Those brief little moments, when you can stop and look at where you are. That is your chance to let the Artist out to play, if only for a few minutes.

But what I am talking about is a few quality minutes, “Artists Minutes”.

That may be all you have some days when you juggle the world, but they are wonderful. I bought a little digital camera, a pocket camera to record my Artists Minutes to remember my moments. This year I recored the season changes and caught some fantastic moments during those brief minutes that punctuate my day job. I take those images with me back to my studio where I can again experience those Artist Minutes. I look at how the wind on the Eastside shapes the trees. How the sun lights the prairies, how the sky is sculpted across the mountain tops and how the stars illuminate the night sky. So when I get back into my studio I can remember and work.

 

Stormy Weather 08

 

Now you may not be as fortunate as I but you do have a world around you.

Look at your world and you will find art waiting to be made in it that reflects your environment, that reflects your experiences. The Artist, Photographer Sally Mann while being a mother created art of that experience, photographing her children at play. She created a profound body of work during those moments. Van Gogh, who may not be a great example, turned his everyday experiences into paintings by looking at what was right there in front of him. And so can you.

I know that with your head down and your nose to the grind stone you have little time, but if you start taking those Artists Minutes, those minutes that are yours you, will find wonderful things, you will find your art.

So set aside all the worries about the economy, the elections or what ever else is consuming your mind and time and take a minute, a minute for you the Artist.

 

Many Glaicer Aspens 08

 

 

Summer on St Mary

 Oil on Canvas 48X60 inches, David Eubank 08

Filed under: Art, Environment, How to, On Art, Painting, Photography, Uncategorized , Glacier National Park, How to Survive as an Artist, Sally Mann, Van Gogh

Government Cheese or How to Swallow the Greatest Cheese Dip in American History

• After giving the current financial crisis considerable thought this week an image of Government Cheese remained stuck in my head.

Yes, head cheese, is a sticky subject for an artist and it isn’t a pretty picture to say the least.

• As a young child I have fond memories of Government Cheese and grilled cheese sandwich’s with sweet pickles nested inside that gooey melted gold.

That’s right sweet pickles. Try it, you will like it. As a young adult I remember Reagan in the 1980’s started his great “Cheese” give away program in an attempt to make Reagan-o-nomics work for all of us, it was a trickle down theory that perhaps has led the way to the greatest financial melt down in history. Hold the sweet pickles.

• You see when you have been poor, when you have struggled to make it, you know about the survival programs, Food Commodity Programs; Ronnie Cheese.

Yesterday and really most of this past week I struggled with the idea that I, you, every American would be on the hook for about $10,000 dollars for this proposed Wall Street bail out.

• That’s right, take the first trillion then add what is sure to be the next and that’s a lot-o Government Cheese for the rats who have created this mess.

Then if you want to get even sicker than a Green Bay Packer Fan with a 5 pound block of Ronnie Cheese think about this for a minute. Only about 50 percent of Americans citizens pay taxes, the rest are kids, elderly on Social Security, poor or are large Corporations.

So now you owe at least $20,000, 20 grand maybe more. The question of the day is, “Will this bail out work and do we know where the bottom is”?

• I dunno is the answer from our trusted leaders who as far as I can tell want everybody on both sides of the political aisle on board so there is no one to blame if the scheme fails.

Now keep in mind that this 700 billion is going to be on top of the first trillion they have already obligated. Remember Freddy and Fannie and the Bear. I, like you, begin to think impossible things when I start to think about what several Trillion dollars could do for our country.

Education, Health Care a New National Infrastructure and of course funding for the arts and sciences the likes only imagined by creative minds.

• Perhaps it is time for a new Roosevelt type of program that built the Great Society, the society we became and are now in danger of losing. He also started with Government Cheese Subsidies to feed the people.
• But he also built not only a new modern national infrastructure, he build a national culture with the arts by employing artists. So maybe there is hope for the future if we the people can convince our leaders to perhaps look for another solution to the current crisis. If we are to invest so much as a nation, shouldn’t the end result be sustainable.

 

•  I mean what “IF”! You fill in the blank. “IF NOT”, never fear the Government Cheese will be here.
• As Ronald Reagan perhaps said, “Let them eat CHEESE”

 

• Cheesey Tee Shirt Link

http://www.marvelousstudio.com/Make_a_Statement.html

Filed under: Art, Art Marketing, Art News, Environment, How to, Investing, News, On Art, Politics, Uncategorized , Bail out, Bush, Depression, Government Cheese, Inflation, Money, Stock Market, Wall Street, Wall Street Bail Out

Did You Buy a Fake on eBay?

Seven people have been indicted in an international art counterfeit scheme. The defendants sold art fakes prints by Miro, Warhol, Picasso, Chagall and others with certificates of authenticity.  Follow this link to the Federal indictment to find out more. http://www.usdoj.gov/usao/iln/pr/chicago/2008/pr0319_01.pdf or click on the side bar, Seven Defendants Indicted.

What can you do if you bought one of these prints? Follow this link to the Department of Justice where you can file a complaint. http://www.usdoj.gov/usao/iln  The website also contains many more details about the case.

The Feds are seizing assets of the defendants that may total 4 million dollars and you might be able to get restitutions paid to you as a victim. But that being said realize this case is just starting and that could take years. You should file any complaints now; this will help you later on if you are a victim.

Filed under: Art, Art Marketing, Art News, Art Prints, Fake Art on eBay, How to, Investing, On Art, Uncategorized , Art Fakes, Art on eBay, Art Prints, Chagall, How to, Investing in Art, Miro, Picasso, Seven Indicted, Warhol

Fading Polaroid’s; the passing of instant photography

This morning I picked up on a story in the Boston Globe, a lead from Modern Art Notes. Instant Karma, the end of Polaroid, the End of an Era. Time has come to a stand still for the once cutting edge in modern photography. The instant image was a wondrous invention that changed and recorded the history of us. Those old photo albums with pictures of us as kids, grandparents and relatives we struggle to remember, thank god we wrote their names on the little white strips at the bottom of the film. And cameras that were best described as machines, a darkroom in a box. The noise of the camera operation and the smell of the chemical developers and that little pasty stick used to smear goo over the image to help preserve it, gone with time. Lost to the digital age, to an age where the physical processes of touch and smell are gone. On a recent photo shoot my son and I had our Polaroid backs for the two film cameras we brought with us. Soon the dash board of the car was covered with the pictures we took. Thinking back it reminds me of other trips I had taken with my family, pictures scattered around as evidence of good times, right now along for the ride. Make no mistake Digital Photography is the cutting edge today, it is how the industry works and it is improving and replacing more traditional photography all the time. Just look around for a photo business that processes film that hasn’t gone digital, from One Hour photos to gone in sixty seconds, they are gone. Digital has changed the market place much the way Polaroid did as a leader in the industry for many decades. Not only did they produce film for the Polaroid Land Camera they also made negative films that were and are still used by Professional Photographers today. These films allowed you to get the exposure right; you could see what you got when you took the shot. Now that may sound trivial in the today’s digital photography world but in it’s time it was fantastic leap in technology. A question that I ask myself all the time is this. What have we lost, removed from the physical processes of photography and what have we gained or what will we gain with new technology. Some of the loss is obvious, contact with chemicals, visual, and the slow development of the image. Touch; our hands are out of the process, we have other machines to do those things, no development, straight to print. And we have Photoshop and Lightroom which really do model the development process and image manipulation. The advancement in these new technologies, themselves are wondrous and efficient. For me the nostalgia of the past is found memories of those smelly Polaroid’s that recorded events, people and places. Maybe the smell even helped record the memory as much as the image. As a Photographer I never really liked the Dark Room, the Wet Process of photography, I loved to shoot the images. Hands in chemicals and working in the dark always seemed opposite of capturing light in that little box, that was trapped on the film. Only to be released by alchemy of the wizards and Polaroid was a Wizard in a box. Gone now like the wizards of the past, like Merlin who amazed King Arthur’s court. But new wizards like Harry Potter emerge and new magic is made and old stories will be told of times past around the camp fire.

For more on the story follow the links listed below. Michael Blanchard’s You Tube movie is worth a look http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IM7FHnL8Pso He does a nice job telling the story about the end of Polaroid. His website listed below also is done very well and he has some very nice images. http://michaelblanchard.com/

Then there is the Save Polaroid site that is also very good. But I think if there is a future for the technology it will be at the hands of Fuji Film, they also make instant film, but not quite Polaroid. Maybe they will buy the rights to the Polaroid and we will get Fujiroid. http://www.savepolaroid.com/

So stock up the fridge, the old Polaroid only has a twelve month shelf life and then it is gone.

  http://www.boston.com/ae/theater_arts/articles/2008/03/15/instant_karma/?page=full

Filed under: Art, Art News, Environment, How to, On Art, Photography, Uncategorized , History of Photography, Photography, Polaroid