Do people actually Buy Photographs? did you personally have any success sellings your Images?

[KmH]

Is this an Off Topic Chat subject?

Off Topic Chat
. . . outside the topic of photography . . .

But I sold fine art and stock photographs for close to 30 years. That was in addition to my main source of income - commercial and retail photography. In round numbers fine art and stock sales generated 1/4 of my income.

It is very much different today and it is harder, indeed WAY harder than ever to make money doing photography. Even harder if there aren't any people in the photographs.
The market is flooded/saturated with photographs of Abstract, Landscape (farms, flowers, trees), Animals, Bugs, etc. 500 million or so new photos are added to the Internet every day. That is 3.5 BILLION a week. 182 BILLION a year.
Few have any idea how to market those kinds of photographs with most being one more brown cow in a huge herd of brown cows all milling about on a photo sharing web site like Flickr, Smugmug, 500px, etc, etc, etc, etc, etc.

Moo!

 

[bc_steve]

Some of my friends have asked to buy photos from me and I just gave them to them for free. They're friends and I was just happy they liked my work.

One person found a picture of mine on Flickr of a not often visited monestary in India and wanted to buy it from me. Could not be bothered to go through the effort to send it to India so I gave him the file for free and let him deal with it. Someone else contacted me about using that image in a textbook and I told them they'd have to pay me since they would be making a profit from it. Never got a reply but it would not surprise me if they used it anyways.

Clearly I am a terrible businessman and probably will never make a dime off my photography but that's okay. I enjoy my hobby and keeping it as such will allow me to continue to enjoy it. Also I don't feel there's much money to be made anyways.

Those people that do sell photos, apart from wedding/portrait stuff have told me the best sellers are photos that depict the local scene, landscape or other to local businesses.

 

[The_Traveler]

It seems that 'we' are part of the problem for photography.

Pictures we produce are part of the flood of almost great stuff that dilutes the market.

 

[Designer]

If yes what type do they buy most often? black and white or Color? Abstract, Landscape (farms, flowers, trees), Animals, Bugs...........Do you think one can make decent living selling their images?

People buy the type of photograph that they like well enough to pay money for.

Some photographers make a living at it.

 

[runnah]

The only photos I have hanging up in my house are photos of my friends and family.

 

[DinoThePhotoGuy]

Only a few can make a good living selling fine art type prints. You can make some money but you have to have something very special to offer. I have sold over 300 copies of the one print and only a few other different prints since getting into photography 5 years ago. From what I've learned on here you have to be a better salesman than photographer to make a living at any type of photography.

Actually the same goes for every type of business.

 

[bribrius]

Some of my friends have asked to buy photos from me and I just gave them to them for free. They're friends and I was just happy they liked my work.

One person found a picture of mine on Flickr of a not often visited monestary in India and wanted to buy it from me. Could not be bothered to go through the effort to send it to India so I gave him the file for free and let him deal with it. Someone else contacted me about using that image in a textbook and I told them they'd have to pay me since they would be making a profit from it. Never got a reply but it would not surprise me if they used it anyways.

Clearly I am a terrible businessman and probably will never make a dime off my photography but that's okay. I enjoy my hobby and keeping it as such will allow me to continue to enjoy it. Also I don't feel there's much money to be made anyways.

Those people that do sell photos, apart from wedding/portrait stuff have told me the best sellers are photos that depict the local scene, landscape or other to local businesses.

bingo. I think people like photos they can relate too of places they know. That have purpose....

 

[pixmedic]

I don't have any trouble selling photos because i only sell photos of people that have hired me to take pictures of them.

 

[Fudd]

I've sold several (about 50) to people at work.
I got lucky when the VP of our IT dept. saw a couple prints and liked them. He had a few uploaded to our intranet, and people started asking for prints.

 

[Vtec44]

I sell my photographs by the thousands just fine

 

[DinoThePhotoGuy]

I sell my photographs by the thousands just fine

nice. Glad to hear it.

 

[JohnNow]

Peter Lik has plenty of worries, I expect. He's running a medium sized company. $6.5M (well, the deal total was $10M and included several prints, says the one and only source -- Peter Lik's web site) was definitely a nice cash infusion, no more.

US$6.5M could be something to many folks, but it's peanuts for the industry megastars.

 

[pgriz]

Basic lesson is that photography is a commodity, with a supply that vastly exceeds the demand. To make money, one has to create "value" and that has very little to do with the merits of the image itself.

 

[photoguy99]

The $6.5m was part of a $10m deal which could have been many things. Among them, a bailout.

 

[Didereaux]

For wildlife and landscape I would recommend that you go to Tom Manglesens site. He owns 6-7 galleries and sells a LOT of prints. Look carefully at his style, it is what people buy. If you cannot 'see' his style then that particular segment of photography is not for you.
MANGELSEN - Images of Nature Gallery
Another (now dead, but family operates it) is the Western photographer Davis Stoeklein. Again he has a style that is easily seen. His photos have sold for over 20 years.
David R. Stoecklein Photographer of the American West

These two are mentioned because they sell a TON of prints, there main source of income.

I would also add that neither 'worked' the obvious centers of 'art' such as NY, LA etc. They found a niche in the general population and filled it. Manglesens' galleries are in such places as Denver, Omaha, and Las Vegas etc. One niche market that I am aware of and is not heavily worked is the 'redneck' market. Not the big beer gut, pick-em-up truck type crappola...I am talking about rural, small town nostalgic stuff.

note: I use the word 'prints' to include calendars, books etc.