The downside is that almost all art has been elevated to ‘holy cow’ status. The buyer looks for that must-have signature. For many, it doesn’t matter whether they feel a connection with the painting or even comprehend the artist’s work. It’s just another business deal. If one has the cash, even trash will suffice. Provided, of course, it has that signature of saleability.

This obsession for branded art has fostered sky-high prices, thus placing it beyond the reach of many genuine art-lovers. Under the circumstances, the art literate with limited funds is obliged to focus his attention elsewhere.

In comparison to paintings, which have been around for longer than civilization, photography is still ‘developing.’ Given this background, the area of fine art photography is very much in the embryonic stage.

It was less than a century ago that we discovered a different photographic dimension through the vision of Steichen, Steiglitz, Edward Weston, Ansel Adams, Cartier-Bresson, Arnold Newman . . . to name a few.

This small group and others like-minded sowed the creative seed for a movement that snowballed over the years because they were convinced that photography had the potential to achieve far more than the confining role of a visual librarian.