The art world is small as we all know. At the top of the pyramid are a few illustrious dealers who have worked hard and have made the right decisions. Below them is a pool of sharks. I was actually written an email by a friend of my fathers who welcomed me to the shark pool. Back the the size of the art world, it being small also means there is a lot of envy and a lot of back stabbing as well as just general politics and misinformation. The honour of acknowledging people for their achievements is overpowered by the desire to place ones competitors in a bad light in order to raise oneself to a better position. This is, of course, a stupid thing to do as lies have short legs and quality does actually survive long after people realise what the moral fibre is that we are made of.
So I hear that one cannot buy at the FEROZ Galerie because I cannot be taken seriously. Apparently I only sell reprints…. Ok, I was a bit surprised by this. I went to find out what is actually meant by that. The term is often used in reference to books, specifically when a book is sold out a reprint of it will be made. In photography there are people who sell reprints, but they are generally called poster or museum shops. I know for example that the SK-Stiftung Kultur sells reprints of work by August Sander which they have every right to do. These are digital prints of scans of Sanders photographs. What I sell, by comparison, is gelatine silver prints made from the original negatives by my father Gerd and his long time dark room assistant Jean-Luc Differdange. These are what is referred to as posthumous or modern prints. There are, of course many photographers who’s work was printed after their passing. Actually there are a lot of photographers who did not print much of anything themselves. Lisette Model comes to mind. Henry Cartier-Bresson comes to mind as well. Brett Weston printed pictures of his fathers negatives as well. I could continue, but I think you get the idea.
So lets jump back to my reputation again, that I only sell reprints… well, I don’t. The only posthomous prints I sell are those of August Sander’s work. Many of these prints are the only prints made from the negative that we know of. The rest of my inventory of vintage material spans a time frame of 120 years. I also have primary market photography by the artists I represent. I am not even going to explain how those cannot be reprints.
Ok, so now I have clarified what I sell. To make this easier to understand, I have this material because my father Gerd has been in the gallery business since before most of the new museum curators were born. This will, by timing, make it hard to remember what he did. It is not really important at this point, but he, as a gallerist, also amassed a very large collection of extraordinary photographs by some ~270 artists. Thats my inventory. I hope that is easy enough to understand.
I hope that is easy enough to understand.
So back to the rumours and fact that people prefer to take the simple route of believing everything they hear as opposed to find the truth for themselves. This form of cerebral laziness leads to slavery. If you want to be a slave, be my guest. I assume if you have read to this point you do not, so if you have heard the rumours about me not being serious or my gallery not being a place to go to, I challenge you to formulate your own opinion. I will surprise you.
cheers, Julian Sander (owner of the FEROZ Gallery)
