Just Ask

By William Schneider

I began collecting photographs back in the mid 1980s. My first print purchase was from a Very Big Name art photographer known for pioneering darkroom work in the 1960s.

I saw a photo of his on the cover of Darkroom Photography magazine in early 1986, and wanted it. I didn't know about the gallery scene or the "proper" way to purchase a print, so I just telephoned him after finding his number in the local library's collection of phone books.

The call must have caught him by surprise, and he must have sensed a naïvety in my conversation. He offered a 16x20 print to me for $300, but he said "don't tell the gallery." Apparently, they charged double that price for a print.

In another instance, I saw a documentary photo gracing the cover of a Land's End clothing catalog during Christmas, 1986. The caption inside the cover said, "Lois Holland and niece Alison Ladd share a quiet moment in Mineral Point, Wisconsin." I wrote to the company asking for more information about the photographer (the late Archie Lieberman), and they provided it. I called Archie, and he sent a print at no cost to me because I said I was a customer of Land's End, his client for that job.

My collection is admittedly hodge-podge, but I have obtained many, many prints over the years through special sales like the Turnley offer, special editions, and just plain asking the photographer directly.

It never hurts to just ask.

Bill

Bill Schneider teaches in the School of Visual Communication at Ohio University.

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Original contents copyright 2012 by Michael C. Johnston and/or the bylined author. All Rights Reserved.

Featured Comment by Ruby: "I also called a photographer, after seeing a print I liked at our local museum. It turned out the exhibit ended the next week and I was able to buy the very print they displayed, already framed and signed."

Featured Comment by Jim Richardson: "Speaking of recent connections on TOP! You realize that Archie Lieberman did the wonderful documentary book Farm Boy, right? And that Howard Chapnick (lately mentioned here by Peter Turnley) was his agent on that book. Lieberman was one of my heroes, teaching me the value of documenting simple events over time. Seeing the boy in his book grow up, get married, and start his own family was a sweet, simple, and rewarding reading experience."

Comments

[almostinfamous]

rats! if i had the same interest in photography 10 years ago that i do now, i might have asked to see the collection! (i went to OU to be an engineer - never finished and now earn my living through photography)

[The Lazy Aussie]

Would "Yikes!" be the correct response to that Darkroom magazine cover?

[Kelvin]

I cut my photographic teeth with Darkroom Photography magazine in the 1980s and have a very soft spot for it. The featured artists were always an interesting read and, as an impressionable teen, taught me about masters like Ralph Gibson and Robert Farber. The Photoshop generation probably doesn't appreciate how mindblowing the composite darkroom creations of the time were (such as by Bob Carlos Clarke). It was great fun reading the catalog listings for Adorama et al when "nature called" too!

[Mark Janness]

Lands' End lost it's character after selling out to Sears. I wonder what will happen to them now that it is on the auction block again.

[Mike Johnston]

"I cut my photographic teeth with Darkroom Photography magazine in the 1980s and have a very soft spot for it."

Kelvin,
You and me both--it was the first magazine I wrote for.

Mike

[Mike Johnston]

"Would "Yikes!" be the correct response to that Darkroom magazine cover?"

I don't even know--I've seen that image since forever, such that I can't even really "see" it any more.

Mike

[R Cone]

Correcting a simple typo, the author's name is spelled Lieberman,
Title Farm boy
Author Lieberman, Archie.
Publisher: H. N. Abrams
Pub date: [1974]
Pages: 360 p.
ISBN: 081090148X