I have not yet added "The Cornfield" to my main web's Flash gallery but will do so soon.
In addition to producing a small series of prints fit to the timbre of the history, there has been some challenge in devising a limited edition production plan for the work. One need hardly tell another photographer that pigment inks are expensive and A3+ (13 x 19 inch) art paper, for this project Hahnemuhle Fine Rag Pearl, no less, is dear, indeed. One may go only so far without individual or subscription sales, so here launches that and with a breakdown of intended distribution: Antietam--Limited Edition Print Pricing.
In archival ink-jet printing, as opposed to, say, silkscreen printing, the notion of "limited edition" is highly artificial: inks can be refreshed, and, for all intents, the printer's not going to wear out for some thousands of print jobs. Moreover, there are so many ways to produce and view the same artifact, including here on the Internet, that they threaten the very notion of "limited" anything or "constrained value".
However, in that I have not stepped off with lithography--and won't do it--I am finding production nonetheless limited in fact, albeit not by the technology used: it turns out capital and time come both in short supply.
So far, I have printed just half (10) of the intended run for "The Road to Roulette Farm", which I am numbering, titling, and signing as any artist would for silk screen prints.
The tone's a little less warm in print--each print is proofed beneath a 5000K 13W fluorescent bulb--but the sense of retreat in time to 1862, severe sharps (you can count blades of grass in these prints), and appropriate mood, so I believe, persist.
Each image has come out a unique artifact--there is no question about that.
I work some with each appearing here or in the slideshow noted until the second proof print (No.'s 1 and 2), at which point my job is simply to ask a sophisticated printer to do the same thing over and over again.
If you visit the distribution page, you'll note that there are only five prints available at the price set--if they sell, up that goes; if they don't, well, oh my gosh, I guess I'll have to hold all in reserve or do something else with whatever has been printed. In that I'm holding back four prints (No.'s 1-4), assigning two of each run for public display (bought or sponsored) and retaining another four for entire hand-crafted folios, I suppose I'm looking for just 10 individual print or subscription buyers (subscription price negotiated) nationwide--and so far just half of those at the initial posted rate of $450 per print, not including applicable taxes or shipping).
Above: the Roulette Farm House.
I haven't fixed the extent of the project catalog yet but soon will. I've been thinking of a minimum dozen but no more than two dozen total--then the cut is in keeping with both the restoration of the visual and historical-emotional landscape.
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Oppenheim, James S. "Antietam: A Series in Sepia." Limited edition prints. Work in Progress, June 2008.
Correspondence: James S. Oppenheim
