Today byThom announces Gallery-in-a-Box. This new product effectively solves four problems. First, it provides an outlet for my images in a way that provides some meaningful revenue without a lot of investment of my time. As you all know, when the state of Pennsylvania changed its laws regarding affiliate income, the loss of B&H's support took away a substantive portion of the income this site makes. Second, Gallery-in-a-Box allows pro photographers with a gallery to deal with the issue of too many places, not enough time or money. Next, it gives art gallery owners the ability to pick and choose amongst a huge array of options to sell. And finally, it allows collectors to finally get access to my images.
Here's how it works. I've taken terrabytes worth of images in the 30+ years I've been photographing. From that collection, I've taken a selection of my best original files (mostly NEF, a few other raw formats) from 200+ worldwide scenic locations and put them all onto a 1TB drive. I will sell 100 of these drives for US$2500 each. Each drive includes a declaration of rights to the purchaser that allows them to print and sell these images (they may not be subdistributed or sold to stock or for editorial purposes; the rights granted only include the right to print and to sell that print for display purposes, in other words, gallery rights, thus the name of the product).
Why would another photographer or an art gallery want such a product? Well, let's start with the galleries: normally relationships with a photographer are a constant negotiation. Both sides are trying to extract benefits for themselves, the negotiations change over time, and it's rare that either the gallery or photographer get what they want in the end, thus the relationship crumbles quickly. The photographer spends a lot of time and energy trying to forge a relationship that brings in money, but the return for effort is minimal. For the gallery, it's a matter of image selection and cost of acquisition. Gallery-in-a-Box solves both problems. The gallery gets to select the images they want and, other than the initial cost plus actual print and framing costs (which are the smallest cost of the puzzle), pay nothing else for each print they sell, thus maximizing profits.
Many photographers have galleries of their own. To keep up with the Mangelson's of the world, they either have to specialize (thus reducing their potential market size) or they need to constantly update the images in their galley with new material, preferably material that goes beyond what they've been photographing and exhibiting. Traveling to any of the many exotic locations represented by Gallery-in-a-Box would set a photographer back far more than the US$2500 they spend on the product, thus to a photographer with a gallery of their own, having the ability to add fresh new images to their walls without taking costly trips is a large benefit.
A few collectors might want Gallery-in-a-Box, too. There's been strong demand for prints of my work, to which I have not responded. An excellent large gallery print would sell for US$800 or more, so for little more than the cost of a few such prints, a collector would be able to not only get Thom Hogan prints, but be able to choose which of my many images to display. When they get tired of one, they could print and rotate in another. To facilitate this, I've included several dozen Photoshop files with my full set of corrections and printing instructions.
When all 100 drives are sold, Gallery-in-a-Box will be removed from the market and no longer available. Because some will want to create "limited editions" from this product, for an extra fee (variable with location of purchaser due to travel expenses) it can be arranged to have Thom come by and sign up to 100 prints made from the collection.
To order Gallery-in-a-Box, click here.