Prints vs. Originals

I'm not yet making it to "weekly", but I'm trying. :)

I recently got in a conversation with an art publicity blogger about the necessity of good photos, the conversation being about prints and her reasoning being that good photos by a professional photographer would be the only approach to making proper prints of what I do.

My question to you is - would you be interested in purchasing a quality print of a painted feather, or do you prefer collecting the original framed artwork?

As it stands, good reproductions would be the only immediate reason I would have to invest in proper photography (aside from needed publicity material just a little further down the road). While my own photographic efforts are admittedly poor, they still seem to do their job on my website - which is show you the paintings and also give you ideas for commissions that you might like to request. My substandard photos haven't stopped the interest on the website, for many of you have requested existing paintings as well as placed requests for meaningful paintings to suit your needs. To be honest I've been painting at full-tilt all this year just to keep up.

Now I've a few artist friends who believe that prints degrade the original work, and somehow make the art trivial. Some will only sell original works in shows and galleries, and do the show circuit with a booth full or original one-of-a-kind graphites, inks, and paintings. They do quite well with heir high standard.

There is a downside to this though, as I've come to find out: if you only sell original work, your sales are limited to your speed of production. In other words, you can sell no faster and no more than you can physically paint. This is a ceiling that can only be broken through duplicity - reproductions of one kind or another.

If there is an interest in a series of reproductions, I will most definitely set to work in finding the right photographer for the job. Right after Christmas. The Christmas orders for original paintings are coming in at a steady stream, and I may have to wait for that post-holiday slack-time to do this right.