Printing Photographs One of One

On my trip to Amsterdam, I only had a couple of hours of sunlight to work.  The key to water reflection shots, is full sunshine, so when I had the chance, I locked into a scene and tried to get as much out each situation.  In these shots,&…

On my trip to Amsterdam, I only had a couple of hours of sunlight to work.  The key to water reflection shots, is full sunshine, so when I had the chance, I locked into a scene and tried to get as much out each situation.  In these shots, I knew I had good light, and loved the warping reflections of people crossing the bridge.  This is a perfect example of the single edition prints.  I took 6 photos of this scene, and printed 6 different photos. 

Two years ago, I started getting bored with my photography.  Instead of creating new work, I was fulfilling orders from photographs I had done years before--I was feeling less than creative.  

By printing single editions of photographs, I feel that I better encapsulate the true nature of photography.  What used to be impossible, freezing moments in time, now become 1/125 of a second printed on watercolor paper, or 1/30 of a second, when using a slow shutter speed. At any shutter fraction, these micro moments allow us to pause the intricacies of sunlight reflecting on a lake.   Printing each millisecond only once, I feel that I'm better representing the fleeting nature of what photography allows.  
  

Amsterdam Bridge Reflections 13x4 printed on watercolor paper1 of 1

Amsterdam Bridge Reflections 1
3x4 printed on watercolor paper
1 of 1

Amsterdam Bridge Reflections 33x4 printed on watercolor paper1 of 1

Amsterdam Bridge Reflections 3
3x4 printed on watercolor paper
1 of 1

Amsterdam Bridge Reflections 53x4 printed on watercolor paper1 of 1

Amsterdam Bridge Reflections 5
3x4 printed on watercolor paper
1 of 1

Amsterdam Bridge Reflections 23x4 printed on watercolor paper1 of 1

Amsterdam Bridge Reflections 2
3x4 printed on watercolor paper
1 of 1

Amsterdam Bridge Reflections 43x4 printed on watercolor paper1 of 1

Amsterdam Bridge Reflections 4
3x4 printed on watercolor paper
1 of 1

Amsterdam Bridge Reflections 63x4 printed on watercolor paper1 of 1

Amsterdam Bridge Reflections 6
3x4 printed on watercolor paper
1 of 1

I started doing the math on my editions, if I take 30 photographs, and do an edition of 50, I'll have to sell 1500 prints before selling out.  Considering that I surpassed taking 100,000 photos years ago, the edition scale was becoming more ridiculous, the more photos I put into editions, the exponence  became laughable.  If I add another 300 photos, at an edition of 50, it will take 15,000 photos to sell out.  

These were just printed, all are 3x3 on watercolor paper

These were just printed, all are 3x3 on watercolor paper

I just printed 92 new photos, some slight variations of each other, like above, 92 photos in editions of ones, an easy 92 to add up.  Had I had done my previous editions, 92 times 50, leads to a staggerring 4,600 edition size that could have been inititiated during the last week of March 2015.  

So really, the edition size was actually holding me back.  There's no way I would have added 92 new photos.  By moving beyond these large editions, it's constantly pushing me to come up with new work.

by Kasey Child