20x200

Artists are often confronted with the question of, "How much should I charge for my work?" Some photographers choose to charge a relatively high per-piece price point and try to maximize their profit at the high-margin, low-quantity point on the demand curve. Other photographers may choose to go for lower margin-per-piece and higher quantity. Brooks Jensen has written a good argument in favor of the latter, arguing that if you charge more than $20 per piece, then you're pricing 99.999% of the world out of your market. At a recent night photography show, one of the featured photographers told me he was surprised how well his 8"x10" prints were selling when he set the price at $20.

Along those lines, Jen Beckman is announcing a new on-line photo gallery called 20x200. The concept is that all photos will be for sale for $20 each, in limited editions of 200. If you're a photographer, and if you believe in the more-sales-at-twenty-dollars business methodology, then this new site may sound great.

But there is a catch. In order to be represented in this gallery, your work has to be selected from Beckman's Hey, Hot Shot on-line photo competitions. Fair enough? Not if you remember that the entry fee for Hey, Hot Shot is $60.

For low-end collectors, this site looks very promising. But for photographers who are looking get on-line representation, I'm less excited. If your work gets selected, then you obviously need to sell a handful of prints just to recover your $60. But if you're work doesn't get selected, then you're out $60.