Need help from galleries & artists

[Sherry Lee]

Please tell me all the angles about this sort of thing:

I have a customer that brought me some photos from a trip to France (and other places). My 'eye' told me they were SUPERB! The subject matter, composition, lighting........I saw real potential. SO.......I encouraged him to enlarge several of them, let me mat them, put them in some art shows and in the studio and see the response! As I thought, they have been quite successful.

An artist I know told me I should take this photographer on as an "exclusive". I THINK that means that only I could distribute his art. How does that work? I'm sure it involves a contract. What other suggestions do you have for such an opportunity.

Also.........his work must be copyrighted, ofcourse. Does that merely involve putting a c with a cirlce around it when he signs it? Should the c be by the title or his name? And should the year be on it? Would it be the year the photo was taken or the year it was printed? Is there a legal document associated with copyrighting your works?

This is exciting, but obviously I'm going down yet another new path! LOVE this field!

Thanks for any and all help!

 

[stud d]

ok as far as i understand the "exclusive" deal...it goes like this, you are the only in a set area (to be detemined by you and artist) be it miles or all of the land to show his photos. now with this it is a decision reached between the two of you. now since you are the only one selling you need to sell. if the artist saids yes then they may want you to gaurantee a certain number to sell. if not you must buy these images. now each contract is set up differently, so this is something that will need to be discussed. then you market this artist and build him/her up so you may up the prices.

now one thing, where and what is the new work this artist is creating? is that sellable? if you invest time and money in this person you want it to pay off for some time to come.

now as an artist, it is neat to say my dealer. that is dreamy, but it stops there. i can not say that i can only let one person sell my work if i depend on it for money. if i do that than i limit where i can make money in other places.

this is a hard situation for each. most galleries do not want to get into this on a good feeling. they set out to be these types of galleries from the get go. i do not mind to talk with a gallery and try it out. it might work for the both of us and it might not. some gallery owners and some artists are shifty, so with all of this go slowly and keep an ear open.

good luck, sorry if this seems heavy handed

d

 

[Sherry Lee]

That's okay "d"!! I want to hear ALL of it, so thanks for the balanced thoughts/concepts! I appreciate it.