HOW TO START A PHOTOGRAPHY COLLECTION - Part 2

Photo by Clif Wright

Smart strategies for how—and where—to begin buying fine-art photographs

By Bill Shapiro

Before you start hitting the galleries or apps, take a little time and try to define for

yourself what sparks you. The photography market is constantly changing —

photographers and techniques slip in and out of style — so instead of chasing trends,

set your sights on finding a picture or photographer or subject that you really love. The

photograph can speak to an era in history, a time in your life, a particular subject, a color scheme you like, your passions, personality or aesthetic; there are zero rules to this game. In fact, I have a compulsively neat-freak friend on whose walls hang big,

gorgeous photos of urban decay — mostly, I think, to make his house look neater by

contrast. If you love the way a picture looks and how it makes you feel, and it’s within

your budget, then you really can’t go wrong. 

Start your search for inspiration from the comfort of your couch by exploring Instagram. If you know the general subject that love to look at (wildlife, still life, cityscapes, portraits, whatever), you can hashtags to get started. I stay in the loop by looking at @parisphotofair and @photolondonfair (for a broad range of styles and

topics), @Magnumphotos (for world-class photojournalism), @Natgeo (the natural

world), @vintage_vogue (fashion), @burnmagazine (emerging talent), as well as a

handful of galleries that consistently speak to my personal taste (@josephbellowsgallery, @thehulettecollection, @galleryfiftyone, among many others)

but by searching for “photogallery” and then tapping “accounts,” you’ll have a list of

dozens to explore. Obviously, you can poke around BluePhoto.co for ideas as well.

The Library of Congress is an unbeatable source of inspiration: There, you will find

some 1.5 million photographs available not only for browsing but, for a few dollars, to

download and print out. (Most are yours for the downloading but a small number have

some rights restrictions, which you’ll find noted on the site.) From kitschy photos of

roadside America to rarely seen color pictures from the Great Depression to Dorothea

Lange’s iconic image of the Migrant Mother, it’s an incredible place to learn about

photography in general, but also to help define your tastes.

And there’s this: If you come upon a photograph you like on the site, have it

professionally printed, frame it, hang it and see how it looks. If it holds your passion for

a few months, you know that that’s an area you might want to explore more. From time

to time, I dive into the Library of Congress collection just to educate myself on other

work that a particular photographer did over the years, which can put a photo I’m

interested in buying into a bit more context. (Here’s the printer we use at BluePhoto.)

Of course, the best way to educate your eye is to see photographs in person. Pictures

“read” differently in real life — their condition, colors, even their mood don’t look the

same on a wall compared with a screen. And for that, you should visit a local gallery or

a photo fair. A few major US cities host photo fairs; in New York, for instance, the AIPAD fair features dozens of galleries from all over the world that display the work of thousands of photographers. Personally, I love going to photo fairs because I can see a ton pictures very quickly; the concentration of stunning photos —and styles and subject matter — is incredible. “You can find pictures for a few hundred dollars to, well, sky’s- the-limit,” says Joseph Bellows, who has been running the highly respected, photo- focused Joseph Bellows Gallery in La Jolla, California, for the last 20-plus years. “You get a wide variety of dealers and can look around without being bothered. Also, prices are often listed on the walls, so you can sneak in and out, compare, and get an idea of what you like.” It’s probably worth noting that the first time I met Bellows was, yes, at a photo fair.

[Click here to read part 3]