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Sunday, December 23 2007, 9:36 PM
Photographic Originals, Editions and Reproduction
Original Link
Lately I have been asked by several people what is the difference between an original, a reproduction and an edition.
Let me start off by talking about an original piece of art.
An original is the first of anything that is created. With that said, lets look at a Jeep for example. When the Jeep fist came to market many yeas ago, the car that people saw on the lot, even though new, was a copy, a reproduction of the original concept / prototype that was created by the engineers. That prototype that was used to create what we know today as the Jeep was the original. All the jeeps we see on the road today are the copies of the original they created.
Now, if we look at the art world, an original painting is the painting that the artist painted on the canvas using their hands, medium of choice (oils, acrylics, pastels, etc) they chose to create that piece of original art. This means that there is only one original painting that the artist produced and once that original painting is sold, given away or destroyed for that matter, no other original is available, as that was the only one the artist ever created by hand upon the canvas.
If we look at the photographic art world, the problem is that most photographers do not create originals, but rather copies or editions.
What I mean, is that if we photographers are to make a true original photograph and have it be considered an original, we must follow the practices of that of a painter by only producing one original print by hand, in the darkroom, from the negative we used to create the photograph. That single photograph becomes the first and final print made from the negative used to create that photographic vision. This means that no more than one hand made photograph can ever be made from the negative that that we used create that photographic vision if it is to be considered an original photograph.
What about limited or open editions then?
A limited edition by definition is an edition made to a set number of prints and printed at one time in sequence. This means that if someone states they have an edition of 25 then all 25 must be created at one time in order to call it a true edition. The problem in the photographic world is that most photographers do not follow this practice and only print an image when an image is sold, which goes against the practice of creating editions. This means their limited editions are false and are not editions at all.
Open editions on the other hand for the photographer are photographs printed from the same negative over and over again each time a photograph is sold, given away or whenever the photographer wishes to produce an image from his negative. To me, this is the most honest practice for selling photographs if one wishes to re-create the same photograph over and over again from the negative that was used to produce the photographic vision.
Now, this brings us to reproductions.
A reproduction is just that, a reproduction, a copy of an original.
In the painting world, a reproduction is a copy of the original painting; it is usually in the form of a lithograph, an inkjet print, a print on Fuji Crystal Archive paper or maybe even one on Kodak Endura paper. Most painters will photograph or scan their original painting after they create it or before they sell it or give it away, so they can offer reproductions of their painting at a later time or just offer reproduction and keep the originals for themselves.
In the photographic world in order to sell a reproduction, we must follow the same guidelines as the painter. This means that the reproduction cannot be created from the negative but just like a painting, from a scan of the original photograph just as described above.
Just like a painting, once the original photograph is sold or given away with the destroyed negative, there is no way to ever produce it again as their was only ever one original photograph ever made by hand, in the darkroom to being with.
Kevin Saitta
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