Contacted by a gallery

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davidjc

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The other day out of the blue I was contacted via email by a gallery in Amsterdam, which is starting up in December and will show modern photography. They were asking about a series of photos I did with the possibility of having some shown and sold in the gallery. From the initial email it would appear that I pay towards the printing of a limited number of 100 prints or so and do a 50:50 split on profit with the gallery. The gallery being theredbirdgallery.com.

I am very inexperienced in this area, what sort of questions should I be asking?
 
I'm a newcomer to photography myself but would suggest that any gallery wanting to showcase and sell your work would not ask for money. Be very careful...
 
Does sound a bit dodgy them asking you for money. Can you not ask them to take the printing costs out of the first 3/4 sales or something?
 
I did find it very dodgy and will proceed with caution, as im not going to send cash to someone and never see it again for a start.
 
I recieved a reply to my email saying that the costs of printing etc are covered by the gallery. It was just the wording in the first email that made me suspicious. OutLore they noticed some of my images on Flickr.
 
Mmm I'd be tempted to tell them you would rather arrange the printing. Say you do it yourself or have a trusted lab to ensure your colour reproduction is the is faithful to the digital image. Also suggest you will arrange the mounting / framing also.

They may be legit but alarm bells are ringing slightly at this stage...
 
Hmmm they are Chinese people emailing you out the blue looking for photographers for an exposition in Amsterdam?

Domain was created on the 16th June 2009, with no contact details other than the creator, a Dutch domain name selling company.

From the redbird website, looking here:

http://www.theredbirdgallery.com/blog/?page_id=469

All the investments of marketing, building up storage, exhibiting the artworks, e.o. are completely for the gallery
Click to expand...

Yeah, so you just have to pay for all of the prints - so 1000, 3000 or 7000 euros.

It might be legit of course and I could be totally wrong, but they are brand spanking new, you don't fit their self proclaimed target artists, they emailed YOU, there is no physical verifiable premises in Amsterdam and there is financial risk for you personally to get the ball rolling.

Thats got all the earmarks of an offshore scam to me - albeit a rather specialist photographic one.
 
I'm in my finall year at uni for my Photography degree, and we are having our exhibition in London and inviting gallery owners to the exhibition. So, I find it bizarre that gallery would browse Flickr for images when (from what we'e learnt from our lecturers) gallery owners want to see work in the flesh to see how it would fit within their gallery. What you've been offered sounds really dodgy. All I'm saying is that we are putting in a years worth of work to persuade gallery owners to come see our work.
 
desantnik said:
Hmmm they are Chinese people emailing you out the blue looking for photographers for an exposition in Amsterdam?

Domain was created on the 16th June 2009, with no contact details other than the creator, a Dutch domain name selling company.

From the redbird website, looking here:

http://www.theredbirdgallery.com/blog/?page_id=469



Yeah, so you just have to pay for all of the prints - so 1000, 3000 or 7000 euros.

It might be legit of course and I could be totally wrong, but they are brand spanking new, you don't fit their self proclaimed target artists, they emailed YOU, there is no physical verifiable premises in Amsterdam and there is financial risk for you personally to get the ball rolling.

Thats got all the earmarks of an offshore scam to me - albeit a rather specialist photographic one.
Click to expand...

On further emails with them, I have found that they cover the printing costs involved. So there is no financial risk involved there, which makes me think if it were a scam what would be in it for them. I still find the whole thing abit odd though.
 
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