Photos now find collectors

Photography is now seen by many in Bengaluru as deserving of the attention of serious art collectors.

It is also accepted as an investment option, according to award-winning photographer Ashish Parmar.

"I have seen my fine art wildlife work being sold at higher prices. About a decade ago, my not-so-edited works were not accepted as they are now," he says.

His wildlife and landscape pictures fetch between Rs 50,000 and Rs 2.5 lakh each.

Apoorva Guptay, also a photographer, believes good pictures always stand out.

"But the trouble is, most often, the investor doesn't know what to invest in. The way we have financial agencies guiding investors about the economic aspects of paintings, curators and art critics should guide investors in photography. Some galleries and curators are taking the effort to put photography in the forefront," he says.

Globally, says documentary photographer Asif Khan, photography does present itself as an investment option.

"There wouldn't be much reason otherwise for anybody to buy a Gursky or Sherman. And their prints have fetched higher prices over successive years," he says.

For the uninitiated, Andreas Gursky is a German photographer known for his landscape and architecture pictures. Cindy Sherman's pictures are displayed at the Museum of Modern Art in New York.

The era of camera phones and social media is creating a photographer out of everyone. Is that a reason investors don't consider photography an investment option?

"For a prudent investor with a good eye, social media opens up a world beyond galleries," avers Khan.

For the photographer, social media has made the market more accessible. It is now easier to catch the eye of an investor, curator or gallery.

Jay Thakkar, a consultant with Ernst and Young and a photographer by passion, says, "There are those who put their photographs on social media and that helps them sell. A photographer I know is selling prints of his pictures of Ladakh and Spiti after posting them on Instagram. It has become a new way of marketing photographs," he says.

He believes the days are not far when photography will be as much an investment option as any other traditional fine art.

"But what photographers need are proper spaces to exhibit their creations," he adds.

Apoorva finds few of the photographs on social media platform Instagram well-crafted and articulated. "I'm not quite sure if the affluent are consciously investing in photography," he says.

He believes they see value in it but may not prefer it over traditional options. "In fact, a lot of people I know are buying photographs and they are not people with a lot of money. They sometimes barter them against their own photos," he says.