Maine Medical Center disses fine art photography…
In March, Maine Medical Center invited submissions from Maine artists for works to enhance the walls of their new facility. I’ve just heard from the consultant company that fine art photographers were wasting their time when they responded.
Big bucks have been committed by the hospital to sculpture and paintings by Maine artists. But not one fine art photograph has been purchased. Instead, the fine art photographers who submitted works for consideration received notice yesterday that there is now a new call for submissions “specifically for photographers”. Before you rush to review your photo archives, read on:
1) The photographs selected will hang on a long corridor near the Staff Stations.
2) The smallest print size that will be accepted is 16×20.
3) No black and white photographs will be considered.
3) And for the “shutterbugs” who are successful? (Please don’t use the word “artist”) “An honorarium of $125 will be paid for each unframed photograph.
Healthcare facilities need a specific uplifting mood to prevail in their healing environments and hire professionals who are experts in this field to help them select appropriate art. Many of the submissions I made on behalf of two of the Maine Heritage photographers represented by VoxPhotographs, and the submissions labored over by several of the photographers exclusively represented by VoxPhotographs are gorgeous, positive and serene images from the early 1900′s through to 2008 that would allow patients and their families to lose themselves in a positive stream of thought, relax into a beautiful Maine landscape or generate hope to everyone who passes them on the walls. I’m sure other fine art photographers who submitted images felt their images would be considered as well.
Unfurling Sail, 1930 © Ralph Farnham Blood Estate
Acadia Sunset © 2007 Jim Nickelson
Okay, you’re thinking. Obvious sour grapes here.
Sorry to disappoint you. Both the gallery and the individual photographers could have handled a rejection. You win some, you lose some. We were all really curious to see the outcome of this long process for the Medical Center and how our work fit or didn’t. But to be totally shut out of the process as artist? Wow, that hurts.
I guess Maine’s fine art photographers and photograph galleries have a lot to learn – that photographs just aren’t worth the paper they are printed on. Are they ART? Hey, they’re just “prints” so why are they priced at….GASP!!!!! $750? Anyone can push a button, right?
Why didn’t Maine Medical clarify three months ago in the information supplied that fine art photographs would not be welcome as submissions? It would have saved the photographers a lot of time — time they could have spent learning how to paint.
June 1, 2008 at 9:31 pm
Had they offered the $125 “honorarium” to painters, it would have made the newspapers. They should be ashamed of themselves. LOVED the images you selected for them. Wow.
June 2, 2008 at 1:39 am
Heather, Not all photographs are works of art. Most, in fact, are not. It is your job as a photography dealer to know the difference and to educate your clientele. Feeling insulted because a hospital doesn’t value photographs as much as you do is a little naive. As I have tried to tell you on a number of occasions, “A photograph never speaks for itself.” You have to be able to explain what it is and why it’s worth what you’re asking for it. I have purchased scenic landscapes such as Acadia Sunset for $125. You should expect to have to work with institutional clients to develop their appreciation for fine art photographs, but you can’t do that if you think every pretty picture is a work of art.