Because the number of places for photographers to show and sell their work has fallen off a damn cliff. Small and mid-size galleries are going bust, bookstores are devoting less shelf-space to photo books, and the photo book business itself has become more difficult — and more expensive — to navigate. Our goal is to make BluePhoto a must-visit destination for folks interested in discovering incredible photographers and buying anything photo-related. We’ve invited photo book publishers and galleries to open storefronts on the platform because the goal here is simply this: Create a vibrant marketplace for photography.

Two old friends with a deep love for photography. Bill Shapiro is the former editor-in-chief of LIFE magazine, and then of LIFE.com, which won the National Magazine Award for best digital photography. Bill has written about photography for the New York Times Magazine, Esquire, Vanity Fair, The Atlantic, Vogue, Texas Monthly, among others. He is also a contributing editor to the Leica Conversation series. His full bio is here. Andy Blau held numerous executive roles at Time Inc. including General Manager of TIME Magazine, and was the driving force behind the relaunch of LIFE magazine and, later, of LIFE.com; he served as the president of both publications. Andy also dreamed-up and then engineered the partnership by which 12 million photos from the LIFE archive were scanned by Google, making them available to anyone with access to the Internet. His full bio is here.

BluePhoto is a highly curated space and its storefronts are only available by invitation. That said, we will absolutely consider unsolicited submissions. Please send up to 20 images (as a single pdf) to info@bluephoto.com and write “Photo Submission” in the subject line. Our decision to extend an invitation is based on how much we like your pictures (or photo book or whatever) and whether we think they will sell. Yes, that’s completely subjective. If you do not receive an invite, it doesn’t mean we don’t like your pictures; there could be any number of reasons behind our decision, and you are welcome to re-submit in six months. If you have a friend or colleague that you believe would be a good fit for BluePhoto, please ask them to drop a note to info@bluephoto.co.

Zero. Opening a “storefront” and showing your photos (or photo books, etc.) is free. There is no set-up charge. There is no monthly or annual charge.

We take a percentage of every sale. For photographs, we take 15 percent—far less than a gallery, where the commission is usually 50 percent. For books, it’s 10 percent, and for clothing, it’s also 10 percent. We want you to be successful, so if you sell 10 prints or pull in $10,000 worth of sales over the course of a year, our percentage will drop to 12.5 percent for future print sales. We do need to be transparent here and say these rates are not set in stone. This is a new business and there may be some tweaks, up or down, but we feel that this is a fair place to start.

Our fee will be used for the upkeep of the site, advertising, marketing, customer service costs, and all of the expenses related to running a small business.

BluePhoto is, you know, a platform for people who love photography, and so anything you sell must be photo-related — and you must own the rights to the images you sell. For instance, you may sell art prints, photo books, zines, photography-based T-shirts or other clothing, and probably things we haven’t thought of. If you’ve got an idea, ask us. This is the important part: You must have the rights to any image that appears on anything you sell, and you must have releases from any people depicted in your images if they will appear on merchandise that is not fine art prints (that is, posters, t-shirts, etc.).

You can’t sell photo gear. You can’t sell posters or apparel without a model release for your image. You can’t sell anything if you don’t own the rights to the image or have the appropriate releases.

Absolutely! BluePhoto Collective is meant to offer you an additional distribution channel, not take one away. We believe that pretty quickly — through advertising, social media, and word of mouth — our site will be able draw quite a few shoppers that wouldn’t have found you otherwise.

Our goal is to help photographers sell their work and if that means directing a potential buyer to your gallery or publisher, we’re all for it. We will be inviting galleries and book publishers to open storefronts on the site as well. If you’d like to bring your gallery or publisher to BluePhoto, that’s great. Have them send a note to Bill@bluephoto.co and we’ll explain how it works, and get them set up.

No. While we believe that limited edition prints will be more sought-after — and that numbered prints can bring you a higher price — we do not require that you limit your editions. Some photographers on the site offer both limited editions and open editions, even for the same photo. In this case, the physical size of the prints in the editions must be different: On BluePhoto, photographers tend to sell prints as open editions at a smaller size and limited editions at a larger size.

We believe that buyers will want your signature on your print because people like objects that were touched by the artist who created them. A signature will help buyers feel more connected to the work and to you. It’s just more authentic, more special. We also believe that people will pay more for a signed image. So ideally, yes, you would sign your prints. This is not required, but it is requested. (For photographers who don’t do their own printing, we have Certificates of Authenticity that you can sign and send to the printer.)

Shipping costs will be added at checkout, and they’ll vary depending on the size of the photo, etc.

Yes, we do ask that you number your prints. For an open edition, you (or your printer) could simply write: “#6 BluePhoto Edition.”

BluePhoto is a curated platform and, initially, we will be highly selective about the photos we choose to exhibit. This is an extremely subjective process and should you not receive an invitation to exhibit, it’s not because your work is “bad.” It might be because we feel your aesthetic or focus is “off-brand” for us; it might resemble the work of another photographer on the site; or we might like it, but don’t believe it will sell to a wide audience. And we might be wrong about that! (Also, we could change our minds: If your work is not accepted, you may resubmit it in six months.) If you have included photos that picture full-frontal nudity or naked children, you will likely not be accepted. Same with extreme violence. If you feel we have made a mistake, you are free to drop us a line and we will take another look.

Yes, and, honestly, this is a tough one because we’re in favor of artistic expression. But as a new platform, we also want to approach this cautiously. We hope you understand. First, let’s talk about nudity. Please don’t include any nude photos of children or, for the sake of clarity, anyone who is – or who might appear to be – under 21. At this stage, please do not include photos that feature full frontal nudity. As we launch the site, we’re going to limit the number of nude photos in any photographer’s store to ten percent of their total offering. (So if you’re offering twenty photos, two may be nudes; if you’re offering fewer than ten, one may be a nude.) At this time, we are going to be cautious about photos that appear to show extreme or graphic violence. Finally, there will almost certainly be some tough judgement calls and we’ll do our best to be thoughtful, clear, and transparent about our decisions.

Yes. It’s your store. But you must notify us 30 days before you close it. You are still responsible for fulfilling all outstanding orders or any which may have occurred before your store is removed from the site.

Yes, with 10 days advance notice we will pause your store. Also: Enjoy your vacation.

No. You will have to pay for printing, but most photographers build that cost into their pricing. Shipping costs will be calculated at check out and will be covered by the buyer.

We can help. We work with a first-rate printer, Brilliant Graphics, who prints for Sally Mann, Mark Seliger, among others. Brilliant Graphics agreed to give BluePhoto photographers a discount.