Digital BW, The Print

In my experience the way this thing works is that a limited number of 
prints OF A PARTICULAR SIZE and MEDIA constitue an edition. 
Photographers as different as Ansel Adams and Jan Groover and many 
many others have been successful selling different editions of the 
same work in different sizes and media.

So, in effect if you change either the dimension of the work or the 
inks or, even the type of paper used, you could have a totally new 
edition. And, there is also the attempt to rarify a print by putting 
something like drawing or bees wax on the surface.. There is no law 
governing this. I always leave it up to the gallery since this is 
their responsibilty and what they get paid for, not mine, as I see it. 
Personally as a photographer I would never "destroy" anything. I 
always thought it silly that Bret Weston burned all his negatives in a 
big ceremony. I guess he did that so Cole wouldn't try to print them ;-
). 

In the virtual world we live in, any copy of a file is an idential 
copy so who is to say that many copies don't exist in the 
photographers basement or a safe deposit vault. Is someone going to go 
in there with a warrant and search for all existing files on all cds 
and hard drives? However, limiting a set of a particular size and 
media philosophically is perfectly fine for me if that is what they 
agree on to do for economic reasons. We all need to make money. Many 
collectors do want to know how many copies of something will exist 
before laying out cash for a body of work. But I don't think this 
responsibility should be dumped in the printers lap. That is between 
the artist and his or her gallery or sales representitive and it 
should be clearly written up and signed by all parties as a contract.  
And, I don't want that job. 

John