Collect this: Sexworker with Client I and Shahi Mohalla III

Lucked out and snagged the following two images from Kate Orne at 20x200. Get them here and here.

Copyright © Kate Orne

Copyright © Kate Orne

The bull and I

So I’m gonna let you in on a secret, just between you and me: The print sale . . . a total bust.

After my experience in May, where my edition of twenty-five prints sold out in nine hours, and given the number of people who’ve asked me to bring back the print sale, and the number of people who read this blog, I honestly thought that the print would sell out in a few days, a week at most. The idea was, sell a hundred prints every February, May, and August, and earn enough money to produce a yearly zine, as well as fund my photo projects. Other photographers go about it in other ways, but this seemed like an option worth trying.

I’ve been praised in some blogs for taking the bull by the horns, but I have to tell you, I may not have been gored by the bull, but I’m standing at the other end of the ring trying to figure out how to win this one. Many people—complete strangers, as well as people whose work and careers I emulate and respect—suggested that doing these editions of a hundred would only hurt me in the long run. That would’ve been bad enough. But the damn thing hasn’t sold worth shit, so I can’t even console myself with having enough money to produce the zine I wanted to do for November.

The one encouraging aspect of all this is that, despite the mild embarrassment at having so misjudged things, my reaction hasn’t been at all what I would’ve thought it would be. If you’d told me that I would go live with a print sale and sell only a handful of prints in over a week, I would’ve guessed I’d be really bothered by it in some kind of deeply personal way. Instead, I’m wondering what the hell’s wrong with everyone. I love this photograph, and I know I’m biased but I don’t love everything that comes out of my camera. The fact that I’ve been rejected and come out with my confidence stronger than ever makes me feel like I have some hope of actually lasting in this crazy art world. Now I just need to get off the ground.

P.S. Given the counsel I’ve received, I won’t be doing any other twenty-dollar sales on my blog or Web site. (If Jen Bekman wants to include me in 20x200, I won’t turn her down.) So if you’re struggling to fund your own projects and don’t have thousands of dollars to pay for art, and you’d like to own one of my prints, now’s your chance.

Excruciating

I am sitting at my computer watching as Auditorium, by James Rajotte, sells out on 20x200. I’m dying to buy a medium-size print myself, but forcing myself not to. It is excruciating. And, frankly, I’m shocked that I’ve held out this long. (This is a testament to just how high my credit-card balances have gotten.)

Copyright © James Rajotte

20x25: My first ever print sale

I crunched some numbers over the weekend, and I have good news and bad news: The good news is, I’m just shy of having enough money to buy a lens I need. The bad news is, I have to pay down my credit cards before I can buy anything that big.

So I’ve decided to print one of my photos (see below) in an edition of twenty-five and sell them for $20 each. Jen Bekman sells her $20 prints in editions of two hundred, so think of the bargain you’re getting here in such a small edition for such a low price. Plus, you’ll have the satisfaction of knowing you helped out a photographer. And you’ll get a cool print.

Here’s the really cool part, though: When the edition sells out—when all twenty-five of the prints are sold—I will buy the lens, and upon doing so, I will send each of the twenty-five buyers an additional free print of a photograph made with the new lens. So two prints for the price of one! All the more reason for you to tell your family, friends, neighbors, and anyone else you know to get in on the action. The sooner the edition sells out, the sooner you get your second free print!

This is all being done through Google Checkout. The cost of shipping is $2 within the United States. For all orders outside the United States, shipping is $5. The prints are archival pigment prints on 8½-x-11-inch paper, signed and numbered on the verso.

Thanks, guys!

Copyright © 2007 Liz Kuball

SOLD OUT

Can you hear the universe laughing at me?

In what can be explained as nothing other than cosmic payback, after putting that two-hundred-dollar 20x200 print on my credit card yesterday, I took my Jeep in for what I thought would be a basic oil change today, and as of the last call from the mechanic, the estimate is up to $845. Oil change, air filter, brake hose, brake pads, rotor resurfacing, PCV valve, rear differential fluid. . . . At least my cardboard box by the freeway off-ramp will be decorated with some lovely art. Look for me at Normandie and the 10.

Copyright © Google

Collect this: You Are Important

Oh, I have done a bad, bad thing: I just bought the medium-size print of this kick-ass photograph by Stephanie Cinelli from 20x200, and I know, I know, two hundred dollars for a photograph you love is really not a huge expense, but I am the same girl who, just last night, asked her boyfriend if he wouldn’t mind paying for dinner at Art’s Deli on Ventura Boulevard (even though she tries to offer to pay every other time and it was definitely her turn) because she didn’t know if she had enough money in her checking account to cover the bill. And I am the same girl who, at the age of thirty-four years and eleven months, has only $143.37 in her savings account. But come on, who can resist this photograph with all its sadness and humor, Listerine and Barbasol? This photograph is fucking it as far as I’m concerned. And besides, I’m just doing my job to stimulate the economy. Do yours here.

P.S. My trying-not-to-spend-money thing is going really well.

Copyright © Stephanie Cinelli

Collect this: Embedded

This is my first non-photographic 20x200 purchase. I love L.A., and this image, Embedded, by Aili Schmeltz, captures at least part of the reason why. Get it here.

Copyright © Aili Schmeltz

Collect this: The Seeming Impenetrability of the Space Between

Photographer and blogger Colin Blakely’s image The Seeming Impenetrability of the Space Between is my latest 20x200 acquisition (such a big word for such a tiny apartment). Get it here.

Copyright © Colin Blakely

Collect this: Panda

Love this photograph by Charlie Crane, available from 20x200.

Copyright © Charlie Crane

By the way, anyone have ideas for inexpensive-but-cool ways to frame all these 8 1/2-x-11-inch photos I’m buying from 20x200? The image sizes seem to vary, but all except Brian Ulrich’s photo are on full 8 1/2-x-11-inch sheets. And most frames I’ve found are for 8 x 10 photos. I really want to get these photos out of their brown envelopes and on my walls, but I don’t want to pay more for the frame than I paid for the art.

How are you framing your 20x200 twenty-dollar images? Send suggestions my way.

Collect this: Untitled, Thrift 2006 (0635) and Untitled (Astoria Park, Queens, New York)

My own little Christmas present for myself: two photos from 20x200, one from Brian Ulrich and the other from Carlo Van de Roer. I was so tempted to go the two-hundred-dollar route with the Van de Roer one, but I’m already dreading the credit-card bill at the end of the month, so I stuck with the twenty-dollar version. Still cool.

Copyright © Brian Ulrich

Copyright © Carlo Van de Roer

Collect this: Prospect Park

Just bought another super-cool print from 20x200. This time it’s Joseph O. Holmes’s Prospect Park. This is exactly how I like my snow: in a photograph.

Copyright © Joseph O. Holmes

Even someone seeking a sugar daddy can afford twenty bucks for a print. Come on, what are you waiting for?

Collect this: Plattsmouth, Nebraska, Carts #1

Just bought another fantastic print from 20x200. This time it’s Kate Bingaman-Burt’s Plattsmouth, Nebraska, Carts #1. Very cool.

Copyright © Kate Bingaman-Burt

1x200

My Karolina Karlic print arrived from 20x200 today. (I knew I had bought the print as soon as I saw it for sale, but I didn’t know I was the first of two hundred. Cool.)

You know how many 8 1/2-x-11-inch pieces of paper you’ve held in your life? You know how many photographs you’ve made yourself on 8 1/2-x-11-inch pieces of paper? Well, even so, there’s something really incredible about getting home and finding a brown envelope propped up in the rosemary next to your mailbox, with an 8 1/2-x-11-inch photograph by Karolina Karlic inside.

I can’t stop looking at it.

Collect this: Katarina

I just bought my first original photograph: Karolina Karlic’s Katarina, part of Jen Bekman’s 20x200. Which means that, for twenty bucks, I got one of two hundred images in this edition. And it was made by one of my favorite photographers. Sounds like a good deal to me.

Now I can’t wait to get the photograph! (Patience and I are not good friends.)

Copyright © Karolina Karlic