The Huachen Image Spring Auction, which ended in Beijing on May 17, refreshed the record of 13 million auctions last autumn with a total turnover of 14.527 million yuan, and under the general shrinkage of the art market this year, there was an 11% growth, continuing to maintain a benign and steady upward trend in the image collection market. There are more than 400 auction objects in this video session, which are divided into original photos of the late Qing Dynasty, famous masterpieces, photographic albums, red classics, rare books of ancient video, postcards, photographic prints, three-dimensional photos, etc. according to categories, and launched three special topics such as "Occupation of Images - 1894-1945 Japanese Image Collection to China", "Five Ports of Trade Ports in the Image and "Photographic Prints", etc.
At the preview site, this reporter interviewed Zeng Huang, a consultant of Huachen Imaging, asking him to talk about his feelings about the results of this auction and what suggestions did he provide to potential collectors?
1870 Shanghai, Fuzhou and other places Courtesy of: Huachen image
CPANET: Hello Teacher Zeng, it is another year of spring auction season, and I am very happy to meet you at the Huachen 2014 spring auction site. Would you like to tell us about the price evaluation system of the image collection market?
Zeng Huang: The image collection market has a history of about 20 years, but the real attention of the domestic public was after the Huachen image auction in 2006, and everyone began to think, Oh ~ photography can be collected.
But at the beginning of the image collection, we encountered two main problems, one is the choice of images, what is good photography, is the photography that can be recognized by collectors in the auction market, there is no standard; the other is at what price is more appropriate for collection? There is no information available for reference. At that time, there were several Huachen imaging consultants, and everyone sat down to discuss. But now it seems that at that time, they underestimated the receptivity of the collection market, such as a protein photo, which was priced at only 2 or 3 thousand yuan a few years ago, and now it can be photographed for thousands or tens of thousands of yuan, and the photos of Bito have now reached about 100,000. After so many years of experience and market accumulation, now we finally have some experience and standards.
At present, the price system formed by Chinese video artworks is actually pushed backwards by the market, generally depending on whether the market can accept it, and slowly forming a standard and system. No matter how good the work, if the price is higher than the value, it is often auctioned, and only if the price is lower than the value, will someone buy it, which is determined by the law of the market economy.
When we provide the market with reference prices, there are 4 criteria.
The first is the price of the photographer himself.
The second is the value of the artistic creation of this photograph.
The third is the cost of creating a work.
The fourth is demand on the supply and demand side.
The pricing of a collection is determined by these four aspects.
CPANET: So, for a new photographer, how should you price your work?
Zeng Huang: Contemporary photographers who have just entered photography have no price in the photographer himself, but he has a price in terms of creativity, and can be priced for creativity. Of course, a young person can't come out and say that my creativity is 1 million, an impossible thing, this is not the behavior of the normal market, such as a young artist said, my creativity is 50,000, this is acceptable. In the market, 50,000 is divided by the total number of editions of this set of works, which is the price of the second part of a work.
There is also a price for the production cost, output cost, shooting cost, time, expense, and travel expenses of the creation. Divide the total cost by the total number of editions to get the price point for the third part. The price of a young photographer's work is mainly determined by the second and third parts.
The advice to young photographers is to have a good idea, and a good idea can greatly increase the price of photos.
CPANET: As a consultant for Huachen Imaging, you also have a lot of photographic works, so what advice do you have for some collectors who may be interested in photography collection?
Zeng Huang: First, be sure to buy what you like;
Second, set what the psychological price point can bear;
Third, if you are not too sure, you can consult people who understand the market situation to see if it is worth it.
We often recommend collections to people, some people specialize in collecting the Yangtze River Basin, some people specialize in Wuhan, some people specialize in Shanghai, some people specialize in collecting Fujian images, we will give a reference to the market price, and the collection below is not a loss.
Collectors generally include three parts of people, with a hobby and purpose of collecting, as an investment, as a speculation of the three. As an institution with a purpose for collecting and a collector with a hobby of collecting, it is important to establish its unique collection context, choose your favorite collection, and collect at a price that you can afford.
As an investment, video artwork is currently a very worthy of investment, but first of all, I like it, there is a saying that only if you buy it right, you will never go wrong. My personal advice is that it is best to have some kind of idea, collect these works, form a system, and then roll them out as a whole, and finally make small money into big money.
The other is speculative, for speculative collectors, I personally say it can be played, in this industry I see too many people turning 100 yuan into 100,000 yuan. At the same time, we also see that some speculators are obviously expensive, as speculation or must understand the market, to be cautious. There is also a very important point is that speculation must pay attention not to buy the wrong, know what is a good thing, as long as it is to buy the right thing, the problem is not big, the current image price is still very low, there is a lot of space, we can also see 5-10 times the space.
Collection of photographic prints Courtesy of: Huachen Images
CPANET: Can you tell us about the highlights of this spring auction?
Zeng Huang: In the collection of this spring auction, I personally obviously feel that the quality of the photographic collection has been greatly improved, and I feel that it is so good. If you go through the Huachen auction catalogue 3 years ago, you will find that there are many works in the catalogue of three years ago that may not enter the auction hall now. If you go through the first catalogue, a considerable part of it may not be able to enter today's Huachen Image Auction. This shows that the image collection has gone up another big step.
This spring shoot set up several new collection veins, enriched the system of Chinese photography collection, such as the collection of photographic prints, which is a combing of the early history of photography in China, before the photographic printing technique was not mature, photography needed to be disseminated through mature prints, and by 1910-1920, after the maturity of photographic printing technology, printmaking withdrew from the field of communication and became art. However, when printmaking is used as a means of communication, does it mislead the construction of the image of China in Western society? For example, in an 1880 print, the figures of John Thomson in Fuzhou, Beijing, Taiwan and other photographs were collected in a single print, and named: Beijing Street. Huachen Images is doing this topic in order to open up the relationship between early photography and art, and to discuss photography collection in art history. And not just in the history of photography is discussed.
The other is portfolia, which I call a "representative portfolio," which means that artists print their work as a representative portfolio for dissemination. Or that 100 photos of a certain exhibition select 10-20 photos to print into a representative portfolio to disseminate. Chinese photographers do not yet know much about such a form of photography display, dissemination and sale. The representative portfolio of representative works of unescortitudinal photographers printed by UNESCO was donated to UNESCO. A small number of Chinese contemporary artists have begun to disseminate and sell in this form. For example, some artists, whose editions are sold out, can do some representative portfolios; when doing exhibitions, they can also make a representative portfolio.
There is also a section of the treaty port in the image, which is also very important, because photography is closely related to trade. Photography entered China in the early days with the First Opium War, and it was not allowed to enter the north at that time, so the earliest photographs of Beijing did not spread to the north until around 1860, and it was also with the Second Opium War that spread to the north. Therefore, the spread of photography in China is related to the Opium War and treaty ports. Therefore, these images are also very valuable collections in the early history of Chinese photography.
CPANET: Thank you Teacher Tsang Juan.
Three Gorges of the Yangtze River Landscape and Folklore Photo Photography: Courtesy of Alberto Amade: Huachen Image
Huachen 14 Spring Auction No. 895 Collection "Three Gorges Series of the Yangtze River" This group of 25 protein photos was taken by the French general Alberto Amade during his visit to the Yangtze River during his diplomatic representative in Tianjin to France, recording the scenery along the southwest coast of the Yangtze River and the customs and customs of Chongqing in the late Qing Dynasty, including the scenery and cultural customs of the Three Gorges, Wushan, Chongqing Fotuguan, Guhuangling Temple, Guizhou, Zhangfei Temple, Shapingba Village, Zhaotong, Deze and other places. In the late Qing Dynasty, very few photographers were able to go deep into the upper Yangtze River basin and southwest region, and the group of photos was eventually sold for 86,000 yuan.