Art on the Internet...

Photo by: Guy Aroch 2006

As creative director of an advertising agency in Austria, Andrea Preiss worked with many photographers whose work she coveted, but the images remained elusive — until 

technology intervened. Sometimes she would drop a not-so-subtle hint,

 as she did at Arthur Elgort’s studio when she saw a photo she liked, and said, “

That’s nice, I’d love to have it.” There were instances when a photographer would give her a gift. Other times, Preiss would try to track down images

 by calling photographers’ agents and galleries. 

 “It’s not very simple to buy these things when you travel and work a lot,” she said.

 “The kind of things I want to collect do not really exist in galleries. 

[The photographers] may have had an exhibition and maybe have only one or two images left.” Preiss thought there had to be a better way. An e-commerce site based in Vienna, photographerslimitededitions.com, is her solution. 

The site features the works of top lensmen such as Elgort, Guy Aroch, Marc Baptiste, 

Rankin, Bruno Bisang, Roxanne Lowit, Nigel Parry, Howard Schatz, Ben Watts, Timothy White and Christian Witkin. There are no more than 25 prints of each image. Prices range from 1,000 euro, or $1,530, to 8,000 euro, or $12,240, 

based on the current exchange rate. 

Elgort, whose work has been published in Vogue, Visionaire and Vanity Fair,

 contributed the photo, “Lauren Hutton for Ultima Revlon” (silver gelatine print, 1975),

 which shows the model wearing a white fur coat and sitting on a park bench as Elgort, seated on the next bench, trains his lens on her. 

 “Fashion photography is getting more recognized as an art,” said Preiss, who has photos by David LaChapelle and Helmut Newton in her personal collection. 

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