A Facebook post from Photo-Democracy attracted my interest to work by Bristol-born photographer Dave Wyatt, and their web site has four of his works for sale. You can see a much wider range of his photograph in the seven projects on his own web site. Perhaps to me the most interesting series photographically are the two dozen black and white images in Olive harvest: Palestine, which seem to have a spontaneity absent in his colour work. But while the deliberately formal images of Thames Town: China’s new Suburbia have a weird fascination in the subject matter which is amplified by the absolutely correct vertical treatment within the square format, there are times in some of the other series where I feel that format becomes something of a straight-jacket. Porto Romano: Living on Toxic Land departs from that and shows a much more visually lively approach that appeals to me greatly.
Photo-Democracy, a sister company of Chris Beetles Fine Photographs in London is an interesting business, though I think with a misleading name. It sets out to market decent photography at affordable prices – from £40 for an 8×10″ signed print in a ‘limited edition’ of 500, up to £1000 for a 30×40″ version of the same image in an edition of 10. It’s rather a pity that these are digital C-types rather than high quality inkjet prints – but this reflects a prejudice that still exists in some fine-art circles and which this site unfortunately presents as a selling point. Personally I’ve only bought C-types in the last ten years when the extra cost of a good inkjet was an issue, and the more archival quality of good inkjet prints was of no importance.
Although it isn’t a way I would chose to market my own work, the scheme seems well thought out – and the site FAQ makes interesting reading about how it works for buyers, and I hope it succeeds in getting a decent return for the photographers concerned. And if it does widen the audience for buyers of photographic originals, perhaps some of them will begin to look outside of ‘Photo-Democracy’ for other photographers – including myself – who sell their work on the web as signed prints at reasonable prices. You can buy any of my pictures from My London Diary or my other web sites at similar prices to those of Photo-Democracy although only in sizes up to A3. And all my prints are high quality pigment ink jet prints.