PDN Magazine - Paulette Tavormina

The Fine-Art Issue
What
to
Expect
from the Photographer/Gallery Relationship
opposite page: “Cameo,” 2012, from
Gregory Vershbow’s series “Art in a Liminal
Space,” available at Robert Klein Gallery.
this page: Paulette Tavormina’s “Botanical
VII (Tulips),” 2014, available at Robert
Klein Gallery. The gallery was the first to
represent Vershbow and Tavormina, and
established their prices.
PDN’s survey of photographers and galleries reveals that securing gallery representation is a
tricky process that demands mutual trust and plenty of negotiation. By Edgar Allen Beem
S
ecuring representation by
a gallery is often seen as
the brass ring of a fineart photography career,
a validation of an artist’s
value. But photographers often
don’t know what to expect from a
gallery, or what galleries expect in
return. Who pays for what? Who
manages the inventory? Can the
photographer expect an exhibition
soon? PDN surveyed photographers
and galleries about the ins and outs
of gallery representations, asking
what points of confusion should be
discussed, and how photographers
can make the most of their
relationship with a gallery. Here’s
what we learned.
© Paulette Tavormina
Contracts & Handshakes
© Gregory vershbow
The first bone of contention is
contracts. Some people think they
are a good idea, but we couldn’t find
any photographers or gallerists who
had signed one.
“A written document is essential,”
insists noted photography consultant
Mary Virginia Swanson, author of
The Business of Photography. “Many
galleries don’t use one, so artists
need to sit down with a dealer if they
don’t provide a contract to discuss
what the expectations are.”
Swanson suggests artists
then write a memorandum of
understanding, stating what they
understand about the arrangement
in terms of commissions, insurance,
production costs and exclusivity
(that is, if the gallery will be the
photographer’s sole representative).
Commissions & Costs
In general, artists and galleries work
on a 50-50 split for print sales.
“Some photographers seem to
think that 50 percent [commission]
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p d n o n l i n e. c o m ju ly 2 0 14
is too high,” says Cig Harvey, a
photographer in Rockport, Maine,
who is represented by galleries in
Maine, Boston, New York, Colorado
and San Francisco. “But with the
cost of overhead and art fairs, a
gallery would have to sell a lot of
photographs to make that. Artists
don’t always see what galleries have
to pay.”
Artists generally pay production
costs, while galleries pay promotional
costs. Whoever is doing the shipping
pays the shipping costs.
Charles Guice, a gallerist who
works in Katonah, N.Y. and San
Francisco, says he was willing to
help artist Erika Diettes to pay the
production costs of her “Sudarios”
series because printing her images
on large sheets of silk was a major
expense.
“With any sales, the cost of
producing a panel is returned to
[Diettes] before the 50-50 split,”
explains Guice. “With other artists,
I have paid the production costs or
split it with the artist.”
Artists sometimes fear that
galleries will assert ownership over
photographs they paid to produce.
Galleries say that artists should be
willing to reimburse a gallery for the cost of mounting and framing a
photograph, should the photographer and gallery part ways.
“It does get confusing,” says Maja Orsic, director of the Robert
Klein Gallery in Boston. “We may own the mount, and the artist owns
the print, but they can’t be separated.” Orsic says Robert Klein has
occasionally chosen to purchase a photograph in such circumstances.
One of the most common complaints about art galleries is about
slow payment—or no payment.
“There are an awful lot of galleries that don’t pay their artists,”
says Alex Novak, a private dealer in Chalfont, Pa., and publisher of the
E-Photo Newsletter. “It’s not unusual for galleries to delay payment or
not pay at all. On the other hand, many, many galleries make a practice
of paying on time.”
Novak advises artists to do due diligence before they enter into a
gallery relationship.
“The first thing an artist or photographer should do is check out
how a gallery works and pays. You go to their website and you contact
their artists. Ask them, ‘Do they really represent you? Do they pay
photographers on time? What kind of people are they?’”
© 2014 PDN, Photo District News, Emerald Expositions, All Rights Reserved.
Types of Representation
Emerging photographers are sometimes unaware of the different
kinds of gallery representation. These can include the gallery taking a
few prints to sell on consignment, including a few of the artist’s prints
in a group show, or an invitation to join the gallery’s stable of artists.
Galleries make a distinction between “artists in inventory” and “artists
represented.”
“I always have work in my flat files by artists I don’t represent,”
says New York art dealer Daniel Cooney of Daniel Cooney Fine Art.
“Someone might consign ten prints. There is definitely work in my
inventory that is not on the wall.”
Orsic says Robert Klein uses consignment agreements when it takes
prints from an artist. The gallery will take work for one year, and then
check on how well the relationship has worked and whether “there
are no sales, or if there are a certain number of sales,” she explains.
Not all artists in any given gallery are represented in the same way.
For example, an artist with international stature, such as Brazilian
photographer Sebastião Salgado, does not provide prints for inventory.
Representing Salgado simply means the artist will ship a print to a
© 2014 PDN, Photo District News, Emerald Expositions, All Rights Reserved.
july 2 014
pd no nl i ne . c o m
29
What to Expect from the Photographer/Gallery Relationship
gallery if it has a buyer.
“Some artists are directly represented,” adds Orsic. “Some we work
with through other galleries.”
She cites photographers Paulette Tavormina and Gregory
Vershbow as artists included in Robert Klein’s primary gallery.
“With Paulette and Gregory, we were the first gallery to take them
on, so we helped establish their price structure,” Orsic says. “For
Paulette, we consign her work out to galleries around the world.”
Art dealer Daniel Miller of Duncan Miller Gallery in Santa Monica,
Calif., has created a category he calls “representation lite.” The gallery
“sponsors” members of the Verge Photographers group, which includes
seven emerging photographers: Claire Mallett, Jamie Johnson, Marjorie
Salvaterra, Rico Mandel, Sarah Hadley,
“Sadie and the Moon,” 2013,
Susan Swihart and Tami Bahat.
by Cig Harvey, available at
“Verge is on our website, but we don’t
Joel Soroka Gallery. Harvey,
represent them,” says Miller. “We also
whose work is represnted
sponsored a booth at Photo LA. It’s a way of
by five galleries, says
supporting photographers before they are
photographers should hold
really selling stuff.” Duncan Miller Gallery
out for galleries they can
only takes a 30 percent commission on the
grow with: “You don’t want a
sale of work by Verge Photographers.
one-night stand.”
What “Exclusivity” & Commitment Mean
Most photographers with gallery representation have their work sold
by several geographically dispersed galleries, but even dealers disagree
over the issue of exclusivity.
“We all want artists to make a good living and it’s virtually
impossible to do that with one gallery,” says gallerist Miller.
But Novak says, “If an artist is in a lot of galleries, I don’t want to
represent them. Over time, a photographer will sell less with a dozen
galleries competing. They bid down the price.” He cites the example
of one well-known photographer who made millions of dollars in the
1990s, but “over-exposure killed him.”
Photographer Dave Anderson of Little Rock, Ark., is represented
by galleries in Atlanta, New York, San Francisco and Newport Beach,
Calif., but he cautions that even some well-established galleries might
not be worth an artist’s time.
“There was one gallery where I was very impressed by the
dealer’s curatorial eye,” Anderson recalls. “He had a lot of interesting
photographs and some major exhibitions. But then I came to the
realization that I didn’t see a second show for any of the artists.”
Harvey agrees that photographers should “want someone you can
grow with, make a life with. It would be awful to be dumped after one
show. When you’re just starting out, you’re
so desperate to have representation, but
you have to hold out for the right one. You
don’t want a one-night stand.”
Cooney, the New York dealer, works
with a lot of emerging artists and says
that one of the greatest misconceptions
young artists have about galleries is that
“their life is going to be happier, all their
problems are solved because they have a
show.
“Lack of a long-term vision with some
artists can cause problems,” he adds. “I’ve
had a couple of instances when a first
show didn’t sell and the artist said, ‘I don’t
want to show with you anymore.’ It can
definitely happen on both ends. But I feel
more determined if nothing sells.”
Photographer Keith Carter of
Beaumont, Texas, is represented by nine
galleries around the country. He says that
keeping track of so many relationships can
be challenging without help.
“Many photographers would benefit
from having a business manager,” advises
Carter. “Mine has been my wife, Pat. She’s
careful, thoughtful, patient and firm. I, as
the artist, am a wuss. I want everybody
to like me. Many artists are just not
beautifully organized.”
© cig harvey
Managing Inventory
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p d n o n l i n e . c o m ju ly 2 0 14
© 2014 PDN, Photo District News, Emerald Expositions, All Rights Reserved.
Keeping track of inventory can be a
headache for both artists and galleries.
“One difficulty we come up against is
artists relying on the gallery to organize
their prints,” says Orsic, including keeping
count of how many prints are in an edition,
how many artist’s proofs they have and
© Keith Carter
What to Expect from the Photographer/Gallery Relationship
“Conversation with a Coyote,” 2013, a wet-plate collodion tintype by Keith Carter, available at the Howard Greenberg Gallery. Carter is represented by nine galleries
and says that managing all those relationships and maintaining records for each would be challenging without the help of his business manager, who is also his wife.
how many images they’ve sold. “But [artists] don’t keep records of
what we have. We keep records of what we have, what leaves the
gallery for sale or for approval or to museums. We try to keep a paper
trail of everything.”
Cooney, the art dealer, cautions that, “It’s a mom-and-pop business.
Not a lot is really written down. A lot of people leave things. Most of
what I have in the flat files are not signed.” He adds, “I have stuff from
artists I have parted ways with. In one situation, an artist left unsigned
prints for five years. I threw them away. Then they sued me for the
retail value and I had to pay them something.”
Artist Anderson, too, had an incident when he left a gallery and
the gallery could not find a print he had consigned for sale. “They
were honorable and paid me for what was missing,” he says. “The only
answer to [the problem] is to have an industry-wide, accepted system
of print tracking, and that seems highly unlikely.”
The Association of International Photography Art Dealers
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has a code of ethics that simply states: “Members agree to honor
all contracts, invoices and consignment agreements.” There are,
however, no established standards or guidelines for artist-gallery
relations.
“Early in my career,” Carter says, “a dealer told me, ‘Keith, the way
these things work is however you can get them to work.’”
Ultimately, the photography art scene is a small world where
personal and professional relationships are often inseparable. That
being the case, it behooves artists and gallerists alike to be sensitive to
one another’s needs.
“You’re only as good as your reputation,” says Carter. “Word gets
around pretty quickly. You want to be honorable. If you want to
traverse the gallery world, the first order of business is to do good,
solid work and try to keep evolving. Look for a gallery you can have a
relationship with and where someone cares about your work. A little
of that goes a long way.”
© 2014 PDN, Photo District News, Emerald Expositions, All Rights Reserved.

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