This is the Roger Ballen print I’ve just bought, called Culprit. Am I in the income bracket that can afford Roger Ballens? Apparently yes. This print cost me $100, and I bought it from the online gallery 20×200, a project of Jen Bekman Gallery in Manhattan.

It’s a very fine pigment print on artists paper, from a limited edition supervised by the artist. It’s accompanied by a certificate of authenticity and his signature (though not on the print itself).  I’m very happy with it! I’ve seen a lot of Ballen’s museum prints and this equates with their quality.

The galleries name, 20×200, refers to the minimum dollar price for the prints on offer and the number of artists involved. The artists are both emerging and established and include the great N.Y. designer Paula Scher,  (I have her autograph!) and Todd Hido, the San Francisco photographer. There is a lot of interesting work available.

As Lorenz Hart wrote in his  song My Funny Valentine (hence the bad pun in the post’s title):

Your looks are laughable, unphotographable, yet you’re my favourite work of art.