Why?
Iraqi woman at a mass grave near Hillah, Iraq. (David I. Gross)
I started building the Mimetic Galleries system over five years ago. I had an exciting idea: What if I had a gallery that could show work without my intervention, and what if that gallery could sell prints of current work while I was still in the field, shooting my story? If I could sell photos from the field, I could stay out there longer. The media, in general, is not interested in many of the subjects that documentary photographers like to cover. I figured there had to be another way to raise some money, and such a gallery might be a piece of the puzzle.
I had to wait for Internet payment technology to catch up, for digital cameras to shape up, but now we are there. So, I have taken the system public and opened it up to other photographers.
The market for art-quality journalistic photography is both old and new. The photography of Robert Capa, Ben Shahn, Dorothea Lange and other journalist/documentary photographers is now sold on the art market. At the same time, great modern photographers find it very hard to get shows in galleries and to sell their work. Dealers say there is no market…but every day people buy newspapers and magazines, in great part to see our photographs.
I think there is a market for our work. And I built this gallery system to help photographers continue to do the work they love.
- David Gross