giclée snobs

By 28/04/2009photography

The term “inkjet print”, which is very matter-of-fact, sounds really plain and is no money-jerker obviously. The galleries liked “gelatin silver print” much better I suppose. After trying “Iris print” (better already, but has the annotation of industrial tryout or proof print, not the big seller either), someone must have thought of the beauty and snob appeal of the French language. He came up with the new name for the good old inkjet print and called it “giclée”… Genius. Giclée (notice the exotic accent adding some noblesse) means “squirt” in French. They have beautiful words for almost everything, I love French, and beautiful things. Having said that, I go for the gelatin silver if you don’t mind (no matter what you call it).