Policy on limited editions: Most of my sales involve open editions. Some are explicitly limited, with specific print substrate (paper), image forming substance, and size criteria included in the descripion of the restriction. Carbon pigments and dyes are considered separate media for this purpose. Carbon on a cotton substrate is extremely archival, particularly on an un-coated watercolor paper like Arches. Glossy inkjet media are the weakest substrate, with matte, coated paper between those two categories.

The reasons for not using overbroad "limited editions" in fine art photography are many. The most important reason to not allow a fixed limit on an image is that images evolve with time when they are printed individually over a lifetime, as I do and as Ansel Adams and other traditional fine art photographers did. With the individual printing of images, the film negative has been analogized to the musical score, while the print is like the performance. Stopping or freezing the evolution of an image -- stopping the abilbity to improve the performance -- is a tragedy. Most of my large prints are, in fact, unique in some way because the image is usually "improved" or changed in some manner each time it is printed.

To allow for evolution of an image, yet apply an overall limit on the numbers of the most collectable prints, I work under and promise to always work under the following lifetime outside limit: The highest level archival prints make with carbon pigments on Arches (or other non-coated, high grade watercolor paper) are under a lifetime, all-image limit of no more than one full-sheet Arches print per week, no matter what the image that is being printed. Given the number of images I have or will have in the future, actual printing time, and other variables, the net result is that in all probability no image will ever be printed with carbon on Arches at over 100 copies, and most likely the numbers will be a small fraction of this. But, it sets an outside limit. (BTW, Mr. Adams has been said to have signed off on more than 80,000 prints, often actually printed by his assistants.)


Paul Roark
Solvang, CA, USA
www.PaulRoark.com