I’ve been asked a few questions about my iPhone print offer. I’ve addressed a few of them on the offer page directly, but I do want to answer some of them in a bit more depth here.
Why a time-limited offer instead of a numbered edition? By far, the most common way to limit the number of reproductions of a photograph (or many other kinds of art) is to do so based on number. It’s a time-honored practice and is effective for selling prints, especially in a gallery situation where there’s a middleman that’s handling the transaction.
Numbering isn’t the only way to go, however. Recently, some photographers have been experimenting with different ways to offer a limited set of prints. For example, Ctein and Mike Johnston have made several time-limited offers to good effect.
Conceptually, I find the time-limited approach to be appealing for many reasons. First of all, it means that the artist can focus attention on the offer at hand and, when it’s done, she can move on to the next thing. Second, it provides for a limit, but it’s a softer limit than a firm number of prints. Basing the limit on time seems to be a good fit for our digital world where the real scarce resources is attention.
Finally, by making the offer this way, I can set pricing at a lower level than I would for a numbered edition. That makes these prints more accessible than they otherwise would be.
Why October 14th as an end date? It’s the day the new iPhone 4S ships. If there’s going to be a time-limit to the offer, the day the latest version of the iPhone comes out of the display case and into the public’s hands isn’t a bad one to use, is it? It’s also a day that works out extremely well with my near term schedule.
Why black and white instead of color? The original photograph was published in color, but this offer is for a black and white version. I have heard from a few people that prefer a color version instead. The color version has its merits, but in the end, its the black and white version that speaks most to me, therefore it’s the one that I’m making available.
What are my motivations here? I posted the black and white version of this image on my blog last week in a post remembering the Macworld 2007 launch of the iPhone. Obviously, it’s impossible to untangle the twin events of Steve’s death and the iPhone 4S announcement last week. One of the most surprising things to me that week, however, was the fact that some found the announcement of the iPhone 4S to be lacking in features. Personally, I think the 4S is an amazing instance of the promise that we all saw when we looked at that first iPhone in its display case.
After posting the photograph on my blog, a few people immediately wrote me and asked if I make some prints. I followed up by asking the question on my blog and on Twitter and got a unanimous answer to go forward, including some encouragement from people that work in Cupertino. Now, I’ve long planned on offering limited sets of prints that I make in my own studio. This photograph has always been on my list of prints to offer. The fact that people were asking for this print dovetailed with my nascent plans. I plan on learning a lot from it and applying that knowledge to future print offers that will happen in the very near future.
I’m a big believer that when the universe tells you to do something you already want to do, it’s past time to get going. All I had to do was get my act together and execute, so I did.
Is this print a tribute to the iPhone? An emphatic yes. By definition, it can also be seen as a tribute to Steve—although I have to say that if that were my primary intent, I have many other images that would do a better job of that. More than anything else, however, I see it as a tribute to the many people who designed, built, and shipped the first iPhone as well as to everyone who has worked on it and its ecosystem since. May they continue to work on things that amaze and delight us and realize that our future is right now.
Posted by James Duncan Davidson.