There's more than one way to stage a gallery show. Just conduct it on the Web and let viewers take home the art for free.
A Bay Area photographer is testing a new formula by which artists can get their work out into the public eye, and maybe make some money, too.
James Radke invites art aficionados to his Indentured Press gallery, where they can download up to 50 of his digital photographs. The photos, which visitors must print themselves, are available for free, for a limited time. Then, for 50 bucks, collectors can mail Radke the printouts and he'll bind them, along with informational text, into a numbered, first-edition book.
"Everybody's part of the printing of this monograph, an experiment in interactive digital publishing," said Radke, a 42-year-old photographer based in Oakland, California, who is known among fellow photographers for his photos of jazz musicians, and whose work has been included in the Polaroid Corporation's permanent collection. "Ironically, this process harkens back to when monks would hand-make every copy of a 'published' book."
Those who order the book get their printouts bound together with special tape used primarily for binding legal documents. Radke adds heavy acetate covers and dates each copy.
The 50 images offered on Radke's site were shot using an Olympus 600L digital camera, which was provided by Olympus America. Visitors will need Adobe Acrobat Reader to download the photos, which document Radke's commute between his home and the Center for Electronic Art in San Francisco, where Radke studies Web design.
"There is no point of departure other than my daily commute and the images I respond to," said Radke. Of the series' title, Digital Photographs from the Web, he said, "I don't think that by titling the series this way I'm putting the technology first. It does just happen that I'm putting the images online, though."
The snapshots themselves are spare, yet poetic. One is an image of a shadowy figure ascending a cement staircase. Another captures a neat row of commuters reading on a train. Yet another focuses on steam rising, phantomlike, from a city street. The series, shot over seven months, has the feel of a visual diary composed in a photographic version of haiku. Radke believes that he's the first to publish an artist's monograph in this manner. But if it's such a good idea, why hasn't it been done before?
"I don't think anyone's done this before because no one wants to be ripped off," said Radke, who makes the images available at 200 dots per inch. "The images I make available are equal to any art monograph you can find. At 200 dpi, they could be used commercially. And if I find out anyone does use them commercially, I'll just send them a bill."
Radke wants collectors to print and hang the digital photographs in their homes. He likes this concept of free advertising. Of course, he wants potential collectors to keep coming back for more. To encourage repeat visits to the Indentured Press site, Radke has been unveiling each of the photographs gradually since the beginning of May, posting only five a week.
Once all 50 are uploaded, the images will stay online for a year and 10 days. After that, the digital photographs will no longer be available on the Web and Radke will cease making the hand-bound books. If at the end of the limited-time offer, the Web site and the hand-bound monograph have proven popular, Radke will approach a traditional book publisher.
By then he will have hard evidence that his art has an audience. "Personally, I'd rather have people seeing original prints on the wall," said Radke. "But, you know, this is another way for people to see them."
