{"id":624,"date":"2020-01-29T05:12:32","date_gmt":"2020-01-29T10:12:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jrileystewart.com\/blog\/?p=624"},"modified":"2020-12-10T06:48:13","modified_gmt":"2020-12-10T11:48:13","slug":"what-makes-a-photograph-original-and-why-does-it-matter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.jrileystewart.com\/blog\/what-makes-a-photograph-original-and-why-does-it-matter\/","title":{"rendered":"What makes a\u00a0photograph “original,” and why does it matter?"},"content":{"rendered":"\r\n
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\"Example
Authentication establishes provenance to an original photograph.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\r\n\r\n<\/figure>\r\n\r\n

Establishing provenance for fine art photography is just as important as provenance for paintings and other hand-crafted visual artworks. Let me tell you why and how to determine if a photographic print is original.<\/p>\r\n

I recently read a story\u00a0about a gallery customer who bought an Ansel Adams photograph on the cheap ($6). He was elated,\u00a0believing\u00a0it to be an\u00a0original. But, when he later discovered it was merely a cheap reproduction from a calendar, he felt cheated.\u00a0You can read about it here:\u00a0\u00a0http:\/\/petapixel.com\/2014\/10\/07\/print-scam-meets-eye-ansel-adams-gallery\/ \u00a0\u00a0<\/a><\/span><\/span>

This buyer isn’t the first–and he won’t be the last–to be confused about\u00a0the definition of\u00a0“original photograph.”\u00a0 With a little bit of knowledge, and understanding the terms\u00a0used to describe art originality, you will be a smarter collector.<\/span>

It’s fairly easy\u00a0to identify an original oil painting. You can actually\u00a0see\u00a0the paint on the canvas. \u00a0It’s not so easy to tell original watercolors or illustrations from their reproductions. Printing materials today are so good that, without advanced inspection,\u00a0a reproduction of a watercolor or illustration\u00a0can look very much like an original.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Fortunately,\u00a0when\u00a0painters\u00a0and\u00a0illustrators\u00a0sell printed copies of their artwork,\u00a0they usually\u00a0mark them as “reproduction.” Reproductions are made using a variety of mass printing processes, such as digital inkjet or lithographic printing.\u00a0\u00a0Anytime you see contemporary wall\u00a0art marked as a reproduction, you’re looking at a mechanically printed digital picture of the original handcrafted\u00a0artwork, and there\u00a0may<\/span>\u00a0have been\u00a0thousands of copies made. Because of this, reproduction prints are much less expensive than the original artwork.\u00a0<\/span>

Well, if digital prints of paintings\u00a0are considered reproductions, why aren’t all prints considered reproductions? Aren’t modern inkjet photographic prints just copies of a digital image?\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>

It’s true that today\u00a0the vast majority of photographic prints are created using mechanical printers. And the number of copies is virtually\u00a0limitless with today’s printing capabilities. This situation makes defining “original photograph” much more useful today compared to the times when photographers made “copies” in very small numbers and when\u00a0each print was hand made from an original piece of film.\u00a0<\/span>

Uniqueness has never been a strict criterion for\u00a0describing\u00a0art as original. A painter or illustrator can create the same scene again and again, a songwriter can record the same song\u00a0again and again,\u00a0and a photographer can print her photograph\u00a0again and again. Art need not be “one-of-a-kind”\u00a0to be original.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

There is, however, one attribute that all artwork must have to be universally recognized as original: \u00a0provenance. This includes all visual artistic media, even art photographs.<\/p>\r\n

Provenance\u00a0is a set of facts that inextricably link the physical object of art to its creator. Provenance describes the artwork\u00a0explicitly, disclosing its title, the name of the artist, the date of creation,\u00a0its medium, and its dimensions, at the very least. \u00a0The medium will indicate whether the artwork is an oil painting, a bronze statue, or a photograph.\u00a0When you see provenance on a label or caption, you can be fairly\u00a0confident that the physical object\u00a0is authentic to the named artist. When you don’t see provenance, it either means the artist neglected to document his\/her creation or that it’s a reproduction or a forgery, none\u00a0of which is good for you as a collector.<\/p>\r\n

Original photographs, i.e., those with provenance,\u00a0carry another descriptor that isn’t as commonly used in handcrafted art: the copyright status at the time of creation.\u00a0The creator of any artwork is always the first owner of the copyright.\u00a0<\/span>Copyright ownership is especially important to the provenance of\u00a0original art produced through a printing process like photography, digital art, printmaking, stories, and songs, where c<\/span>opyright status is almost always cited in the provenance.\u00a0<\/span>

Like paintings, the opposite of an original photograph is a forged photograph.\u00a0Today it’s fairly easy to download someone else’s\u00a0photograph from the web, run it though editing software, print, sign it, and then frame it for personal or commercial use. Clearly, when someone\u00a0claims someone else’s photograph as their own, that photograph is not an original. It’s a forgery. \u00a0Of course, this violates the\u00a0law, but it can and does happen. Should a buyer of a forgery expect to pay the same price as an original?\u00a0Of course not. Do they? \u00a0Sometimes, but only when deceived or uninformed.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Here’s some of the most common ways to determine originality of an photographic print:<\/p>\r\n