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FRONT: Sell, Print & Ship Your Photos
By Karen Freer
The FRONT website is officially LIVE 🎉 Launched by photographers Jamie and Luke, FRONT is your new go-to platform to sell, print, and ship your incredible work with ease 📸 We caught up with the guys to find out more about their journey.
Welcome back, Luke and Jamie! FRONT is finally launching after years of dedication and hard work. How does it feel to see your vision come to life?
[LF] It’s amazing, we have definitely taken way longer than planned but we’re so proud of what we’ve built, can’t wait for everyone to see it and start using it.
[JC] - I’m not sure if I am more excited to have people using the Front platform or to have some new art up on my wall.
Can you tell us more about FRONT and how it works? How do you think it’ll help our community of UK film photographers?
[LF] To put it as simply as possible, FRONT is a platform for people to sell prints of their work. They create a profile, upload up to 12 images, set the price and then share their profile with the world! Once a print is sold, we take care of everything from payment and printing, to shipping and customer service.
Essentially, FRONT not only makes it easy for the community to sell their work, but also physically own a piece of artwork from a photographer they admire, at any level.
Also, we all like making money right? We have a very transparent system in place to make sure the photographer gets rewarded fairly and generously.
It’s been a while since we last caught up. What are some of the biggest challenges you've encountered in preparing for the launch?
[LF] Apart from Jamie…?
Basically we didn’t really know what we were doing, but we didn’t realise to what extent! It was one of those moments of over ambitiousness that made me think I could do the who build myself. We worked with various other people along the way, but it just wouldn’t materialise.
Finally, Brendan got involved this year, and he is basically the saviour of this entire endeavour!
[JC] - Dealing with Luke 🙂
Apart from re-starting the build process every couple of months, never having enough time, learning as we go and spending most of our money on film rolls and camera gear that distracted us (thanks AW) I’d say it’s all gone pretty smoothly.
What initially inspired you to start FRONT?
[LF] I printed some of my work for the first time in ages, and thought “more people should be seeing their photos in print form” instead of just JPGs on their computer and on Instagram.
At the same time as this, I was trying to buy a print from a photographer in America, and it was a nightmare. I spoke to Jamie about this idea, and it turned out that he’d experienced similar things too.
[JC] - We had both tried to buy prints from photographers we followed on Instagram and the process just wasn’t as smooth as it should/deserves to be. The journey seemed to be - send a DM, wait on a response, wait on the photographer to make a print, wait for it to be delivered and then do a dodgy bank transfer.
The core idea is based around photographers easily selling their work in print form and making money from it.
What unique features does FRONT offer the film community, and how does it stand out from other print-selling websites?
[LF] For a start, we won’t just be sending out a print rolled up in a tube. We’ve put together a nice package to send out that will include the print, a zine we’ve put together, stickers, and some people will also receive a 1-of-1 print of a photographer from 1 of us.
We know that there are other platforms around that are similar to FRONT, but as far as we’re aware, none of those have been created by people from within the photography community. Jamie and I are both working photographers, as well as shooting film for more of the ‘hobbyist’ side of things.
We go on photowalks, we enter photo competitions, we talk to other photographers on Discord and Reddit, we’ve been customers of AW for years! We’re totally immersed in this world, and we think we have a good understanding of what people like us want.
We’re not developers or business guys who’ve seen a gap in the market, we’re photographers who wanted to provide a platform for other photographers to sell prints and make money from that.
If you DM FRONT on Instagram, it’s us who reply. If a customer contacts FRONT, it’s us who send the email back. We’re not a huge faceless company, and we’re not interested in taking 50% commission.
[JC] It’s supported by Analogue Wonderlanders. That seems to be a pretty big achievement in itself.
Do you have any future plans or ambitions for FRONT's development?
[LF] So many plans. Things that will be great for photographers using the site to get more exposure, some different printing methods, and other things that will help us run everything more smoothly. We’re aware that there will probably be some unexpected issues in the first few days and weeks, but once they’re ironed out, we’ve got some many ideas to come!
[JC] - Loads. I throw ideas to Luke and Brendan (our web developer) most days. Around 1 in 500 get a thumbs up.
Our next two biggest developments will be more print sizes available to choose from and ‘Front Pro’ membership accounts for super keeno’s. More details to come soon.
We have loads of ways to also get the community involved, but I think for now, we just want to make sure everything runs as smoothly as possible over the first few weeks or so.
Thanks for chatting with us! Where can our audience go to learn more?
[LF] www.front.photography or Instagram if they want to say hi - https://www.instagram.com/front.photography_/
We also have a podcast that we’ll be starting up again weekly. We’ve spoke to loads of great people on there and it’s on YouTube, Spotify and wherever else you can listen to stuff like that.
https://www.youtube.com/@FRONTPhotography
[JC] - Feel free to call Luke directly on 07783……. :)
We are so excited that FRONT is launching and we hope after reading this interview that you will get involved. Let us know in the comments section what you think.
If you need to get your photos developed and scanned before uploading them onto FRONT, look no further than our in-house Lab.
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