Limited Edition?

Regarding "Wisconsin #7" above, Andy Chen brought it to my attention that 14 States in the U.S.A. actually have laws governing what may and may not be called "limited edition" fine art prints. So, in the interest of full disclosure, I should state that NO print offered on this site will be a limited edition in the legal sense. If I "limit" the number of prints offered for sale, it's only because that's the number I'm willing to print and package for a given sale at a given price at a given time. It doesn't mean the print itself is limited for all eternity. I will make this clear in all future print offer postings.

Frankly, I've never seen the sense in limiting editions of photographs. From the photographer's perspective, why would you want to cut yourself off from being able to reprint and re-interpret your negatives or files again in the future? I suppose you might say that limiting the edition (in the legal sense) increases the value of the offering, but evidence from a number of studies proves that that's more a matter of perception than reality. A famous counter-argument is Ansel Adams's Moonrise Over Hernandez, New Mexico, which is among the most valuable of photographs—despite the fact that Adams printed more than 800 of them in his lifetime.

Posted by: MIKE JOHNSTON, thanks to Andy C.