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What is fine art photography?
by Douglas E. Taylor
What is fine art photography? and how is it different from anyone “taking a nice picture”? Fine art photography is photography with artistic merit that is produced in a documented limited edition or open edition. These two types of editions will be explained below. The fine art photograph should be produced with high quality materials that are archival and displayed with serious archival materials and methods to prevent unnecessary damage.
Link to picture framing web page to understand more about protective methods and materials.
Photography and Technology
Photography has come a long way since the early nineteen-nineties. Technology has enhanced what was a delicate product, a media that was vulnerable to ultraviolet light because of the inks and various colors processes available. Valuable color photography up to this point had to take extra steps to prevent damage, fading from over exposure to light, temperature changes and humidity. Most museums that collected fine art photography were inclined to have two identical prints by a photographer. One print would be for display and one would be stored away and not be seen in the light of day.
All of these concerns were also apparent in the initial phases of high quality laser jet spray printing. This incredible digital process where a printer is instructed by a computer led the direction of things to come. The technical process became a competitive race between manufactures of high-tech equipment and printing materials. There was wonderful potential in these new processes and equipment. There was a market for a better print product that could be more resistant to ultraviolet fading. Year after year there remarkable improvements, escalated by the competitive factor of manufacturers and the demand of the market. 
A significant technical advance that occurred in pursuit of a great quality print with decisive control over the image was the laser light printing methods. Rather than ink jets printing on archival paper, a more “photographic” process was developed. Instead of an intense light bulb exposing the photographic paper, a laser light was used to expose the archival photographic paper. The original negative or transparency would be scanned with a very high resolution scanner. That digital information would be absorbed into a computer file; a computer program could communicate this information intelligently to the laser. The laser could expose the paper in minute detail, not losing any of the clarity or detail. This sensitive method maintains the integrity of the original transparency or negative and also provides the ability to print quite large. The laser could not diffuse or distort image, especially along the outer margin of a large print. This might have been a problem with a traditional projection light exposure.
What has resulted is a better product that is environmentally safer. Many of the previous printing products were toxic and harmed the environment as well as the processor. Today we have a superior product that is more economical and allows the photographer/artist to have more control and consistency over their prints. Most photographers do not process and print their own prints today. The equipment is very expensive and services are readily available. They can work with the printer, sometimes making subtle adjustments, usually trying to capture the f eeling of his or her initial inspiration.
The advances continue and collectors should have more confidence in the photographic product than ever before. Some photographers are printing on rag archival paper or archival canvas, allowing for more options and possibilities.
A limited edition or open edition, both signed by the artist and to be documented on the photograph, sometimes on the back and not always visible from the front. Sometimes documentation is on the mat and/or on the back of the picture framing, along with information about the artist and what method of editioning he or she uses. A limited edition is just that, an edition that has a limited to how many of the prints will be printed. This may include some “artist proofs”. An artist or printers proof is not ethically necessary in most photography processes today. The intention of any proof is to “okay” the image in order to be consistent and to produce the same quality from one to another throughout the edition. The artist proofs should never exceed ten percent of the edition. So if the edition is one hundred there should not be more than ten artist proofs. The smaller the edition the more unique the print is; this is usually reflected in the price. As a limited edition sells out, finds collectors, then the price usually increases as less prints become available. The more popular a print is the higher the value. 
An open edition is a little different. It is only limited by how many prints the photographer wishes to print. Each print is documented, such as print #67, meaning the sixty-seventh print to be produced. Then progressing to 68, 69, 70 and so on. Sometimes an open edition ends up being smaller in number than someone else’s limited edition. Sometimes the open or limited edition ends with the death of the photographer, depending on their estate. Prints produced postmortem should be indicated as so.
An edition is the total number of prints produced no matter what size the prints are. For example if the photographer produces an image in a variety of sizes, the total number of prints should not exceed the total number of the edition. If the edition is limited to one hundred, then maybe fifty of the prints will end up being 16x20, twenty of them 30 x 40, five of them 11 x 4, and the twenty five of them, 20 x 24 inches.
Vista Gallery Fine Art Photographers (click on available links)
Allan Berman, Robert James Desmond, B. Holder, Gary Kaufman,Wolfgang “Wolf” Kohz, Mark Shaffer Mitchell, Steven J. Mueller, Steve Noble, Wyatt Ogilvy, Peter Spain,
Lainie Vreeland, and Richard Warmack
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