Inkjet Collection

After two visits by collectors to my place last week - both looking for old "vintage" darkroom prints - I began to wonder whether the darkroom prints would be worth more to future generations, or whether inkjet prints were now worthy for collectors. Neither visitor wanted to look at inkjets.

Think back to the early days of photography when it was considered a mechanical form of reproduction and the photographer was just a guy who pushed a button. What was that compared to painting? Where was the art?

I think there is a similar feeling about inkjet prints: there is just a machine that prints out pictures like a printing press. Everyone has an inkjet printer in their home. Anyone can make an inkjet print.

True. And anyone can take a picture.

Anyone who has tried to make a really fine art inkjet print knows the difficulties involved. Your ideas about a particular print change over time; your technique improves; and if you go back and look at an inkjet that from a few years ago and compare it with a recent inkjet from the same capture or negative you will see huge differences in terms of technique and interpretation.
From the collector's point of view, I would think this is exactly the time to collect fine art inkjets. It's the early truly fine-art prints by that will have more value in the future. In other words, you will need, as a collector, to understand the process - and to have an eye - just as with any art form - but you can pick up the equivalent of a Van Gogh for next to nothing.

I predict that some inkjet objects of art created today will one day be worth as much as any expensive darkroom print of days gone by.