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Havana Cruise. Havana, Cuba. December, 2016. © Clayton Hauck
After neglecting my print-selling side hustle for a full year, I got excited about offering my work again a few weeks back in the run up to the holiday market I organized at my studio building. In addition to my own prints, we’re planning to begin selling photography prints in our Realm Books shop sometime next year… and in addition to that, I’ve been working with Maddy at the Kimball Arts Center to set up a print shop for the various artists-in-residence who have shown work over the last few years. So, yeah, I have printing on my mind.
I bring all of this up today because this image, made back in 2016 on my first and only trip to Cuba, has been released as the 17th title in my limited edition series The Camera You Have. You can view the series (and perhaps purchase a print or two) over here. I don’t recall selling a single print from a web visit, but have done a solid amount of sales from in-person events and shows. This traction is what has kept me going, despite the challenges involved in selling art.
Without getting into all of the detail here, I will briefly discuss a few learnings from the couple two-tree years I’ve been offering my work available for sale:
1) It’s hard. It’s at times demoralizing but at other times really rewarding!
2) You have to control your costs. When I first ventured down this path, I was paying a (really good) print shop to make all of the prints for me. Because of this, they were really nice but also I had to price them quite high in order to make the whole operation make any financial sense. I loved the aluminum panel backing we ended up mounting the pieces to, but have since scrapped that idea in order to simplify things and control costs. Also, that print shop has also since closed, forcing me to do everything myself. This has been a learning experience but one I’ve been really enjoying, plus it’s now allowing me to produce works that I can price lower and still make a reasonable profit on.
3) Everyone is price sensitive. I made the decision to lower my price points after experiencing the friction of asking $99 for an 8x10” signed & limited print. I’ve also decided to simplify my pricing across all images and now offer three sizes: (S) 8x10 for $49; (M) 11x14 for $99; (L) 16x20 for $129. The prints are no longer mounted but I’m not cutting corners on the paper and only use the best stuff — Hahnemuhle.
My hope is to continue offering new print editions as I have time to do so, but also really want to sell out of some of my older works so I’m not sitting on huge piles of inventory. If you’re previously considered buy one, perhaps now is the time!
-Clayton