hi Tom,

I'm by no means an expert in this area but I do have a bit of past experience selling prints off the back of an exhibition. Certainly I can sympathise that getting the whole thing together inevitably ends up costing a fair bit more than initially anticipated, especially in my case as I currently handle my own printing at home.. also pretty time expensive... ideally I'd have liked to have had a number of copies of each print I thought would do well on hand, ready for sale, but stockpiling before knowing demand is often a recipe for disaster..

My rather humble "student on a budget" way around it was to number each image on display, and then set out a couple of folders in well-indicated places so that people could place orders. Each A4 sheet in the folder contained the image number (and a small colour thumbnail) as well as a table for filling out details such as print size request, contact details etc. In addition to a range of sizes and glossy/matt papers, I offered the option to have the picture mounted and framed, or just mounted. I have a local guy who does me good rates so I quoted him and his details and incorporated that into the finished price. In case you were wondering, all of the sales I made from that exhibition were print only.. I'm not sure whether that's a general thing, but personally I don't think you'd be losing any sales by not offering framing. It may help present a professional approach to offer at least mounting however, although i wouldn't deem it essential.

Is the exhibition solely of your work? If so I'd say you are more likely to make an impact and if you do make a good impression with a potential buyer I'd say they'd be more likely to order and wait for a print to arrive than, say, at an art fair where so much is available everywhere you look at seemingly knock-down prices - in this environment I'd imagine your average punter wants to get in, get what they want, and get out. The level of trust in the seller in the crowded environment probably wouldn't be as high as if you met the artist at their own exhibition, as is likely in your case. I think the best case scenario would be to have plenty of everything, but like I said above, stockpiling is expensive and possibly wasteful... you'll have to decide based on your budget, but the improvised method of sale I adopted on that occasion seemed to work ok.. ;)

good luck with it all!

Adam

Adam Edwards Photography