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Fine Art: The Next Generation
Fine Art: The Next Generation
New venture offers cyber gallery for writers, photographers.
Douglas W. Stowell, of Ashburn, is offering writers and photographers the chance to have their work exhibited and purchased on a global scale, thanks to the capabilities of the Internet and his own ingenuity.The medium is a Web site that went up in May known as PEN, an acronym for Photo Essay Network, and it will be a place writers and photographers can come to have their work critiqued, edited and exhibited for, literally, the world to see.
The first effort is “A Trip Down Silo Road," which features more than 100 photos of vintage silos and barns from family farms across the United States. Stowell said more than half of them are from Virginia. Others are from Michigan, Maryland, Pennsylvania and Utah.
“I got the idea driving through Loudoun, just getting an appreciation of rural Loudoun, seeing all the barns and silos there,” Stowell said.
He said his site will differ from other sites offering photographs in that it will include writing as well as photography. Stowell emphasized that the site is open to anyone of any level of expertise.
“We are for any amateur writer-photographer who has good ideas and images and a story to tell,” Stowell said.
Stowell, 66, said he has spent most of his professional career in marketing and consulting, primarily with start-up companies. He is currently working for a consulting firm three days a week at Tysons. His focus here is economic development and helping U.S. companies broaden their reach globally. PEN, he explained, is three months into the six-month concept phase that is usual in new businesses.
“We will develop a process where someone can submit an idea,” Stowell said. “We review it with them. If it meets our standards, we will assist them in putting the entire photo-essay together. We will provide the editorial and technical support to do that. We will then publish it on the Photo Essay Network.”
Working with Stowell is another consultant, Kevin Rogers, of Front Royal. Stowell said Rogers will be working closely with him via online conferencing in handling all the many technical programming aspects of Web-site management.
Each project will include one essay and about 120 slides, all of which will be downloaded online directly to the buyer.
“We will market it ?and it does take marketing ?and then share in the profits,” Stowell said. “That's a formula we're still working with.”
Buyers can purchase the entire $18.95 package or they can purchase individual photographs which will range in price from $2.99 to $9.99.
Two other projects are in the works, he said. One will focus on skydiving, the other on covered bridges in the United States.
“I think the key here for the success of this project will be in the wide range of ideas that viewers will come up with,” Stowell said. “It's virtually unlimited. Any level person can participate. We're not looking for professionals. We're not looking for those who are counting on this for revenue.”
Stowell indicated the market is out there and it is the baby boomers, that segment of the population that is facing retirement.
“As more and more baby boomers retire and with the existence of the digital camera, this all makes it easy for somebody to take quality photos and, with an editorial commentary, create a quality photo essay,” Stowell said.
One of the things they have already learned, Stowell said, is that there will be a need for some kind of hard product.
“Once something has been electronically downloaded to the buyer, they can print it; they can do anything they want with it,” Stowell said.
The specific kind of hard product suggested by one prospective client, Stowell said, is to have an extra large digital frame so that the slides can be DDE_LINKexhibited on a wall at home or in the office DDE_LINK, with a new slide appearing every 15 to 30 seconds. This would require a updated chip similar to the ones used in electronic frames currently on the market.
Phase 2, Stowell said, will involve developing an actual software package that will be made available to people so they can get into PEN's structure.
The third phase, Stowell said, is to sell it to a large server such as Google.
What would Stowell's asking price be?
“I could take $50 million,” he said.
Contact the writer at ecarlton@timespapers.com
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