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Re: [OM] "Vintage" prints

Subject: Re: [OM] "Vintage" prints
From: "John A. Lind" <jlind@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Sun, 02 Mar 2003 22:36:41 -0500
At 17:09 3/2/03, Bill Pearce wrote:

[snip]
The B&W article repeats the claim that the term was invented by certain
sales galleries to allow them to charge more for certain prints.

Of this I have no doubt! Anything to beat the drum, toot the horns and pump up perception of value. On the extreme end of attempts to pump up perceived value are some of the eB*y auctions I've seen belittled on this list. The "Secret Wyoming Factory" one comes to mind immediately!

Snipped off the beginning, but there is some truth to initial prints being better than ones made much later. However, it is applicable only on a case-by-case basis for specific prints and cannot be applied to everything done by everyone as a generality. On that I think we can agree.

Ansel Adams made prints "to order" during a good portion of his career. If you wanted a print, you would order it, and he would print it after receiving the order for it. There is one photograph in particular ("Moonrise over Hernandez" ??) that eventually became the overwhelmingly most requested photograph . . . to the point Adams hated printing it. I have no doubt he didn't get sloppy with it, but it's hard to imagine that he was reflecting on it and reevaluating it after he got to the point of hating to print it. I don't even know if it made any difference in what the early versus late prints look like. Value is perception in the eyes of the buyer. A knowledgeable seller of an early version of this print who wants to maximize its value at sale would likely make this argument to claim it is somehow "better" compared to later ones. All it requires at auction is two prospective buyers to believe it.

-- John


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