Photography Research Institute Carson Endowment

Q: Where do you acquire the pricing data you publish?,
Q: What authority do you bring to the topics you publish?

Q: Where do you acquire the pricing data you publish?

         Photography Research Institute Carson Endowment maintains data files of pricing by professional photographers. The data files are constantly being reviewed and updated as a result of continuing pricing studies. Invitations are regularly sent to a large number of photographers selected at random from across the nation inviting them to participate in a Price Study. To participate they are asked to send a copy of their published Price List.

NOTE: For the purposes of this discussion, the use of the term "Price List" is a direct reference to the price lists of the photographers responding to our pricing studies. It is the data from these Price Lists that is put into the data files.

        It is felt that the published Price Lists reflect the value of photography within their marketing area. It is from this price data file that prices for the 2011 GOLD BOOK OF PHOTOGRAPHY PRICES are taken.

        When we first started our survey program we wondered, what effect regional differences have on prices within any particular region? To find out we set up a control group selected from a metropolitan area, which contained a cross section of population, which ranges from high to low income. Within that area, we sent the same invitation to every photographer listed in the Yellow Pages of the telephone book. The particular area we selected was covered by approximately four telephone directories. When we correlated the information from the Price Lists of the studios and photographers across the nation to the Price Lists of this small isolated area, we found the price spread for commercial photography was approximately the same. This indicated to us that the prices of commercial photography, across the nation, were about the same. In all areas, including our metropolitan area control group, there were high prices and low prices. In the control study and in subsequent studies and investigations, we reached the conclusion that Photography Prices were about the same and fairly uniform across the nation.

        The prices of photography appear to be the result of the photographer's image and reputation as perceived by the photographer, the prospect, and the community in which the photographer operates. If the photographer charged low prices, the photographer got low prices. If the photographer demanded high prices, that photographer was working for high prices.

        What do the Price Lists reveal? They show the value of photography. This is the Market Price of photography. One of the accepted ways of entering any product or service into the market place is to first determine what price people, in general, will pay for the item or service. Once this has been determined, the seller then determines if it is at all possible for him or her to produce the product to be sold at or below that price. If he or she cannot, he or she should not enter the market!

      What this book does is to suggest a Market Price for photography. It is up to you to determine if you can produce photography to sell at the price listed in the book. Because the prices published in the 2011 GOLD BOOK OF PHOTOGRAPHY PRICES are the results of research on prices asked by sellers of photography, no specific profit or markup figures can be given.

       However, it should also be noted that the amount of profit or income will vary with in any one photography business from minute to minute, hour to hour, month to month and year to year, and so forth. Also, one photographer may make a profit for an assignment at an established price while another photographer loses money at the same price (i. e. , 8x10 setup including photograph and one 8x10 print for $150).What we do essentially is to take each specific item, which is listed on the Price List, and correlate it with other Price Lists. Once the values for all items are listed, the median price and highest price for each particular service or item can be determined.

Q: What authority do you bring to the topics you publish?

As for the authority we bring to the subject, Thomas Perrett has over 50 years experience in the business of photography (creating and selling photography). Photography Research Institute Carson Endowment was created in 1970 for the express purpose to study Prices (Hence the acronym "P. R. I. C. E."). First, we started publishing the monthly subscription service Blue Book of Photography Prices. Subsequent studies suggested that the Annual service Gold Book of Photography Prices was highly desirable.