The Mimetic Galleries System
The dream of the Mimetic Galleries system is to allow under-financed documentary photographers and photojournalists to sell fine art prints of current work, from the field — even from the mountains of Afghanistan —in the hope of making enough money to stay on the job. For many of us, a $1,000 sale can mean another month in the field. It’s not about getting rich, it’s about doing the work we love.
Easy to use, customizable, flexible.
The Mimetic Galleries system is an online gallery and print sales system. It is a dynamic website that allows photographers and other visual artists to manage galleries and exhibitions easily and quickly, with minimal effort and no outside assistance. In addition, a photographer can also sell limited edition fine art prints.
Unlike Flikr, DigitalRailroad, Artnet, and other image cataloging websites, the Mimetic Galleries websites look and feel like art galleries. Artists can arrange their work as in a gallery, complete with mattes and frames.
The system uses automation to keep content fresh on front pages and to free the artist from the burden of maintaining the web site.
The print sales system is particularly flexible. Currently, the system is customized to use Paypal although it can be adapted to use other fulfillment systems. A unique feature is the ability to make a sale, automatically send an order to a printer, and then automatically divide the payment between the gallery, the printer, and the artist. The system holds multiple print providers, giving artists their own choice of printer.
Who is it for?
The Mimetic Galleries system is for individuals and groups who want to create and manage art galleries on the Internet. It is for photographers and artists who need a portfolio and who wish to sell prints of their work. It is for cooperatives and agencies, humanitarian and non-profit organizations who need self-promotion and want to raise money, and for traditional art galleries.
How does it differ from other portfolio or catalog systems?
The Mimetic Galleries system differs from other presentation websites because it lets you show work in a gallery or book layout, it handles fully automated limited edition fine art print sales, and it has special features to help photographers who work in the field. It uses low bandwidth for slow Internet connections. It can automatically adds your pictures to exhibitions. It even moves old shows to the archives so new material shows up first.
The Mimetic Galleries system allows groups of photographers to collaborate, too. You can arrange joint exhibitions or share space in a gallery. You can broaden your audience appeal by showing more than just one person’s work. Getting eyes to your website is the most difficult part of Internet marketing.
The Mimetic Galleries system is not a catalog website like PhotoShelter. Those websites are designed like lighttables, and they excel at storing large archives of images, at keyword searching, and at sales to the media. The Mimetic Galleries are designed to complement those systems, not replace them. In fact, anything you upload to a Mimetic Galleries website can be automatically forwarded with FTP to another site, such as an agency, an archive, or a client.
Advantages over existing systems
- Current systems show artwork in a catalog or slideshow format. The Mimetic Galleries system presents art in the way that artists like to show their work, in gallery and book formats.
- Current systems require constant maintenance. The Mimetic Galleries system automates presentation, organization, and sales.
- The Mimetic Galleries system tracks and manages limited edition sales.
- The Mimetic Galleries system lets you fully customize the look of your galleries and exhibitions, and different galleries and exhibitions can have their own look-and-feel. You can even develop new layouts.
- The Mimetic Galleries system allows multiple galleries, with multiple artists, on a single website.