The sour economy has made photo collectors cautious about spending money—a psychological shift that has led to a slowdown in sales, especially at the higher end of the market, according to art dealers.

With a major photo art fair taking place this week in recession-battered New York, dealers are reluctant to make predictions about how collectors will behave.

“It could be determined 48 hours in advance by the [stock] market,” says Paul Berlanga, director of the Stephen Daiter Gallery in Chicago.

The Daiter Gallery is one of over 70 dealers setting up booths at the Park Avenue Armory for the Association of International Photography Art Dealers (AIPAD) Photography Show. AIPAD New York runs from March 26 to 29.

The word “caution” was mentioned often this week in conversations with over a dozen photo art dealers, including AIPAD members and non-members, some attending the art fair and some staying home.

“People are discouraged. They’re insecure. They’re going through a period of adjustment,” says Robert Klein of the Robert Klein Gallery in Boston, a former AIPAD president.

Klein says he is bringing more work to his booth at AIPAD New York than usual, favoring work that connects with a popular audience, such as prints by Horst P. Horst and Herb Ritts. He hopes to increase sales by appealing to a broader market, in case fewer niche collectors show up.

Some AIPAD members, after considering the cost of travel to New York, decided to stay home.

“This is just a time when I personally didn’t want to take the financial risk,” says Kathleen Ewing of the Kathleen Ewing Gallery in Washington, D.C., a former executive director of AIPAD. “It’s an expensive fair.”
 
Ewing says “caution is in the air” among collectors. The most passionate collectors are still buying, but “people in that next layer down are thinking seriously about spending their money,” Ewing says.

Ewing wasn’t alone in deciding to skip the show this year. To fill open spaces on the floor, AIPAD organizers opened the show to non-AIPAD members for the first time.

“We had a very few spots that were still available at the Armory,” says AIPAD president Stephen Bulger, of the Stephen Bulger Gallery in Toronto. AIPAD mainly invited galleries that are already candidates for joining AIPAD, which has a long process for admitting members. “We didn’t really open the floodgates,” Bulger says.

Bulger says the show has made other changes this year, such as inviting dealers to show video and computer art, and organizing a thematic exhibition within the show titled “Innovation.”



Ellen Miller of the Miller Block Gallery in Boston is not an AIPAD member and was invited to attend this year for the first time. Her gallery represents a variety of contemporary artists, not just photographers. But Miller admires the AIPAD show and decided to jump at the chance when they invited her to participate. “It made more sense for me to choose a fair where I would get new exposure as opposed to the same exposure that I’ve had over the years,” Miller says.

Outside of AIPAD, gallery owners are making adjustments such as holding fewer show openings and relying more on person-to-person connections to make sales.

“We're making shows a bit longer, so that immediately leads to less in the way of advertising, framing costs, printing and mailing,” says Martin McNamara, gallery director of the four-year-old Gallery 339 in Philadelphia, which is not part of AIPAD. “It's a quick way to maintain the integrity of what we're doing but ease back on expenditures.”

Howard Greenberg of the Howard Greenberg Gallery in New York is attending AIPAD. He says the low end of the market—prints under $10,000—has slowed down but is not getting worse. It’s the more expensive prints, over $20,000, that are getting hit the hardest. “The higher end is tough right now. We’re selling a picture here and there on the higher end, but that’s where there’s been a real loss of business,” he says.

In Los Angeles, David Fahey of the Fahey/Klein Gallery says his gallery is not attending AIPAD for several reasons, including a scheduling conflict with the opening of the new Annenberg Space for Photography in Los Angeles. But he says the economy was only one of several concerns. “It seems like the market’s a little more affected on the East Coast than it is on the West Coast,” Fahey said.

Stephen L. Clark, owner of the Stephen L. Clark Gallery in Austin, Texas, says he’s cut back on openings and is doing more networking with previous customers. Clark usually attends AIPAD New York, but is skipping this year. He made the decision in October after hearing New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg on the radio talking about job losses in the city.

Clark says he feels lucky to be in Austin, where new construction means people are buying art to hang in buildings. His gallery specializes in contemporary, regional photographers. “I’m a fall-back position for a lot of people,” he says, for customers who might ordinarily buy $40,000 paintings but instead are buying $4,000 photographs.

“The thing I’ve seen more than anything is how slow people are to make a decision—even if they’re going to do it,” Clark says.

(Correction: An earlier version of this story misstated Ellen Miller's first name.)