A few years ago, Willem Photographic published
the Chrissy Portfolio, a collection of 16 black & white images of model
Chrissy Blair, photographed by Dominic Petruzzi in Southern California. There
were 30 sets of the Chrissy Portfolio, and it completely sold out. It is fairly
uncommon that any photographer's portfolios "sell out". Most (probably
all!) of Brett Weston's portfolios never sold out. And more recently, Jock
Sturges, a famous photographer whose work is highly collectable, published
his "Standing on Water" Portfolio in 1991 (27 years ago!), and it
still is not sold out. It's not easy, especially at high-dollar-per-image prices.
Willem Photographic has just completed its second portfolio, entitled "The
Lydia Portfolio" (subtitled "Our Summer In Europe") by Kate
Moore, an accomplished, "rising star" fashion photographer who recently
photographed a new clothing line for Abercrombie & Fitch. The subject,
Lydia, a fashion model in Europe, had never before been photographed nude.
Because she and Kate are good friends, the two of them decided to take a European "holiday" together,
during which Kate photographed Lydia in Ireland, Croatia, Italy, the Isle of
Capri and in the Mediterranean and Adriatic seas.
After sorting through almost 3,000 images, Willem Photographic selected 20
full color images for the portfolio. As with the Chrissy Portfolio, they were
all printed by master printer (and photographer) Ryujie Douglas at the Willem
Photographic Studio in Monterey, California. The 16x20 archival pigment prints
are on Fine Art 250-pound/15 mil Museo Max 100% cotton rag paper (even more
substantial than the Chrissy Portfolio paper), and each one is signed by the
photographer. Each of the 30 portfolios is in a protective, uniquely-designed
clamshell case, with a title page that has 6 more small color images of Lydia
and Kate frolicking during their summer together.
The introductory price of The Lydia Portfolio is $2,750 (a bargain at approximately
$135 per print for the 20 images). The proceeds will be shared equally between
the model and the photographer, so you would be helping them both with their
careers.