Peter Lik’s Recipe for Success: Sell Prints. Print Money.

[msommers]

Meant to post this earlier. Maybe I am jealous of his overwhelming success at generating money, but at the same time I feel like I can't respect him or his work. Thoughts?

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/22/business/peter-liks-recipe-for-success-sell-prints-print-money.html

[ExtraSlow]

is it shady? Yes, but so is the entire art business.

I respect the guys business.

[rage2]

There's a beyonder who bought one at the second level premium price while he was drunk. :rofl:

[msommers]

What was the price tag?

[Mitsu3000gt]

The entire art business is a similar well known scam of sorts. All you need to do is make a name for yourself, and then you can literally do whatever you want and make stupid money. Just look at all the paintings that are 1 or 2 colors, lines, etc. that sell for tens of millions. On top of that, nobody can tell if it's real or a good fake outside of a laboratory full of experts, and even then, they often can't say for sure haha.

I have seen dozens of virtually identical (or better) shots of that exact place as his $6.5M seller on photography forums over the years. Not that it's a bad photo or he isn't talented, but the only thing unique about it is that it was taken by Peter Lik. If he took the same photo of Moraine Lake that pretty much every Albertan has haha, I bet he could sell it for a ridiculous sum as well.

It's also one of those things where "if it's so easy why doesn't everyone do it" comes into play, so you have to respect him for being able to somehow convince people his somewhat common skill is worth so much more than the next guy's. Art of various types (Photography included) is one of those things were a very large number of people are highly skilled in, and it is very easily duplicated.

He is a skilled businessman/marketer IMO, other than that there are probably tens of thousands of people (likely far more) with similar artistic abilities.

Also, with regards to his $6.5M sale, look at the photo he had to 'beat', which sold for $4.38M:

http://www.christies.com/LotFinder/lot_details.aspx?intObjectID=5496716

:rofl:

I will never understand or respect the art business on several levels, but it has certainly proved wildly lucrative for some people. The part you can't really fault him for is taking absurd sums of money from people dumb enough to pay it haha. Every one of us would do the same in his position I imagine.

[rage2]

Originally posted by msommers
What was the price tag?
IIRC over $40k after exchange, taxes, and shipping.

[msommers]

@Mark's post

Which brings in a whole other debate about if photography is really art at all (feel like I read an article not long ago on this). It's all about separating yourself into a style, which these days is getting harder and harder I think. Lik's recipe was/is bright, vivid and wide which clearly worked. But Lik (or Lik's gallery staff) basically saying that everything is limited edition and will be worth a lot of money down the road is almost false advertising. Then again the people likely buying these pieces aren't looking for appreciation of the art but it's rather a nicety that comes with the purchase.

When I look at some work on F-stoppers, it's mostly portrait. And while incredibly creative and the end result is pretty darn impressive, some work I don't know if they should call themselves photographers as opposed to Photoshop Experts - the amount of imagine manipulation and straight up addition of foreign things strays so far from the original it perplexes me. But again it visually works and separates your style from another person which at the end of the day is all that seems to matter.

I guess I look at Lik's technically abilities and think...average. I mean sure it's easy to say that but I can't help think that the saturation levels and location of these photos do most of the work. Also the ability to travel with ease to the same locations in case weather is shit, for example, is also handy.

Appreciation or depreciation of the art aside, I feel there are far better photographers out there and have marketed themselves differently, which usually doesn't result in million dollar photos being sold. I guess at the end of the day as the photographer, which are you after: the money or respect of talent of the arts rather than skill of marketing?

Different strokes.

Plus art critics are typically emotional and incredibly judgmental :rofl:

[Go4Long]

I don't think he's the best photographer, but love him or hate him from a photographer stand point, anyone that doesn't admire his ability to self market just doesn't get it.

At the end of the day, he's made himself in to a multi millionaire simply by telling everyone that walks in to his "galleries" how awesome he is.

[adamc]

His work is terrible, a HDR saturation nightmare.

I follow several NYC based instagrammers that make Lik's "city" series photographs look like grade school amateur bullshit.

[rage2]

Originally posted by adamc
His work is terrible, a HDR saturation nightmare.

I follow several NYC based instagrammers that make Lik's "city" series photographs look like grade school amateur bullshit.
Doesn't matter what photographers think, people like the look. Why do you think we edit the photos like we do for car show coverages? It certainly isn't because I like that look.

[blitz]

The general public thinks HDR is awesome.

I don't care for Lik's work, but you can't fault him for being a rich bastard. He seems like the Kanye West of photographers attitude wise. His $6.5mm sale is total bullshit, for all we know he lent his buddy $6.5mm dollars and he bought the painting. If it's not at auction, it shouldn't count.

[blitz]

Originally posted byNYTimes
People tell me all the time, ‘I’ve been in touch with the gallery, and they say my photograph is now selling for $150,000 a copy,’ ” he says. “So they want to know what they can sell theirs for.”

A tiny fraction of that sum is the answer. A subscription service called Artnet — which bills itself as the most comprehensive database of its kind — captures the resale value of Lik photographs by cataloging auction results, and the most anyone has ever paid for one his photographs is $15,860, for a copy of an image called “Ghost,” in 2008. (It’s a color version of “Phantom.”) After that, it’s a long slide down, to $3,000 for a copy of “Eternal Beauty (Antelope County, Arizona)” in 2014. Fifteen images have sold for between $1,000 and $2,500, and four have sold for between $400 and $1,000. Another handful failed to sell. And that’s it.

I like this portion. Highest paid at auction for a Peter Lik photo is $15,860 :rofl: