At the risk of sounding redundant, I'll explain this philosophy once again.
Photographers who have their own website and sometimes have prices listed for their photography on their website, operate a business of selling fine art photography.
Galleries who have their own website and sometimes have prices listed for the photography that they reprsent on their website, operate a business of selling fine art photography.
People who engage in the business of selling fine art photography, whether making 40-50% commission off of all sales, or making 100% commission off of all sales, are selling the same product and deserve the same level of treatment. Photographers stand an equal chance of selling their work through the pages of Focus Magazine as do galleries. In the end, the reader will decide upon affordability and artist's noteworthiness if it's a gallery, and asthetic and affordability if it's a photographer. But, yet again, it's the same concept: You're all selling fine art photography.
If I gave free pages to every single entity, whether sole proprietorship, S-Corp, LLC, etc. that collected income off of selling fine art photography, then I would have no money to publish one of the highest quality publications of fine art photography. None of us are in business to give our products away -- we are all here to make money. Otherwise none of you would sell your work -- you would give it away for free.
I'm more likely to sell a magazine based off of having AIPAD Member galleries advertising inside of it than publishing unknown photographers in it. So publishing photographers' works isn't going to sell more magazines for me. So why offer the opportunity at all? Because we offer a more targetted audience of collectors than B&W, Aperture, Blindspot and LensWork. The people who read FOCUS are the people who are out there buying the photography and keeping the galleries in business. Without us, photographers would have very little way to get their name out there and exhibit their work in front of collectors. There are, literally, hundreds of thousands of fine art photographers today. There are, perhaps 10-20,000 photographers whose work deserves to be published. That number increases each year as photography's popualrity increases. There are a few hundred big-time photography collectors, a few thousand seasoned photography collectors and about 50,000 collectors who do it for the asethtic value. You have to think to yourself, "How am I going to reach those people to show my work?" If your photography is anything other than 100% complete neutral toned black and white, you're not going to do it through B&W. What are your other choices? So there is a demand for fine art photographers who sell their work or want to sell their work, to exhibit their work that is for sale in front of collectors. Focus Magazine is that vehicle that will take many photographers from point A to point B to help them exhibit their work.
We have now taken this opportunity to the next step. Photographers are beginning to find out that publishing a book is absolutely essential in order to become noteworthy in today's market. A vast majority of the photographers who attend shows such as PhotoFest who are seeking representation either have or are planning to publish a book of their work. We are offering a much higher quality book than they might get through their local printer and a less expensive, overall, piece than they would pay at one of the country's top printers -- one of which we are working with. Because of FOCUS Magazine's printing needs, we are able to acquire paper, printing and binding at a less expensive rate because we buy all of this in massive bulk quantities. We literally use close a million sheets of paper to print Focus Magazine. An average sized book would require, at the most, 15,000 sheets of paper. That is something a paper merchant gives us a very steep discount on -- especially when premium art paper can cost, when not purchased in bulk, close to $1,000 per thousand sheets of paper. We already reach a vast audience of collectors and more are subscribing each day -- so, with that, we are able to provide cost effective extremely high quality printing solutions and a guaranteed consumer base for one's book.
