Limited Edition Prints

There are a number of issues to consider when someone asks, “Is this a limited edition Cibachrome?”

Sometimes people assume that without setting a limited number of prints, the market would become flooded with copies of the image. This does apply to mechanical processes such as offset lithography, where thousands of posters can be printed on a printing press. Or if the photographer has commercial photographic labs make his prints or if they are printed digitally, then hundreds of prints could be produced whenever desired. In those cases, limiting the editions makes sense.

However this isn’t the case with my Cibachrome prints. I am the only one to print my Cibachromes. Traditional photographic printing is a painstaking procedure and one I approach with great care and meticulous craftsmanship. No Cibachrome goes out of my darkroom that does not meet my extremely high standards. I work on my Cibachromes until I can’t find a way to make it better. This limits the number of prints available. I have only so much time and energy; I have many different photographs to work with and my Cibachrome paper and chemistry is no longer available.

I limit the number of prints available by a method that I think protects everyone’s interests. As an image continues to sell, I raise it’s price. As the price is raised, fewer prints are sold. Eventually a price is reached which effectively halts the sale of the image. For those people who purchase a print early, their print has increased in value. The number of prints becomes limited.

This method of limiting the quantities of prints is an attempt to have a balanced method to address everyone’s concerns and I hope it is acceptable to you.