People say that art is a great investment.

Well yeah, for people who are already rich. We are fabulous, yes, but rich? Not so much.

What to do if you want art on your walls that’s not your own? Search the web for an artistic windfall?

No, silly! Get Photojojo to do it for you! We’ve been combing the market and found 20 great photographers you can afford, even on a wee skimpy budget. Most of them sell prints for $25 or less.

So give your piggy-bank a friendly pat and put him back on the shelf. The little guy can remain happily unbroken.

20 Photographers Whose Work You Can Actually Afford

p.s. At PMA this week? If you wanna meet up with the Photojojo crew, drop us a line!

p.p.s. Hey, remember when we wrote about JPG Magazine going under? We’re happy to report that they’re back!

Photo credits: Yijun (Pixy) Liao, Carlo Van de Roer, and Joseph O. Holmes

Where to Find Affordable Photography

Well, first of all: ask your friends. If you know other photographers, see if they want to trade some of their photos for some of yours. Easy. Done.

When you’re out on the web though, it’s hard to know where to start. Two of our favorite go-to sites are Etsy and 20×200, because they boast a wide range of indie photographers. 20×200 aims to bring affordable art to The People (that’s you!) and competition on Etsy keeps prices low.

What kind of photos will you find? Etsy tends to have more decorative, vintage-look photos (think TTV and Polaroid), while 20×200 usually has edgier work by emerging photographers.

1. Dorthe Alstrup

Danish photographer Dorthe Alstrup’s photos range from dreamy landscapes to portraits of life in suburbia. We like the slightly unreal quality of all her pictures.

2. Christine Berrie

OK, so Christine Berrie’s not a photographer. But she does these awesome drawings of vintage cameras, so we’re gonna go ahead and say it counts anyway.

3. Dan Boardman

We love the spare, simple quality of Dan Boardman’s photos. They’re quiet and soothing, without being sentimental.

4. Alicia Bock

Alicia Bock is better known for her TTV pictures of flowers, but we couldn’t resist this summery Polaroid diptych.

5. Diana Brennan

We can’t help ourselves; we have this odd little streak that just loves natural history and taxidermy. Too much PBS when we were kids, maybe.

Anyway, Diana Brennan has a knack of making taxidermy pretty. Honestly.

6. Beth Dow

This is one of the last available photos from Beth Dow’s oddly sinister black-and-white series “In The Garden.”

7. Juliane Eirich

We freaking love this photo by Juliane Eirich. They’re fish. On a clothesline. What more can we say?

8. Joseph O. Holmes

Joseph O. Holmes’ work ranges from street portraits of cooks on their breaks to silhouettes from the American Museum of Natural History.

9. Yvette Inufio

The peaceful quality and ultra-pale palette of Yvette Inufio’s pictures makes us feel like we’ve just had a vacation at the beach.

10. Yijun (Pixy) Liao

Something about Yijun (Pixy) Liao’s photos just cracks us up. The Imaginary Girlfriend series is a great mix of wistful and funny.

11. Kim Ludy

Kim Ludy, a.k.a. Trampoline, is one if the featured artists in Poppytalk Handmade this month. Rather than throwing out badly-exposed Polaroids, she makes them into minimalist collages.

12. Tricia McKellar

We like Tricia McKellar’s vintage-style photos of birds on telephone lines. She has a talent for adding to her photos digitally without going overboard.

13. Dana Miller

Dana Miller takes photos at the edges of the urban landscape: cyclone fences, abandoned lots and hidden, forgotten corners of city parks.

14. Sharon Montrose

We’ve been fans of Sharon Montrose for years, so we were really excited when we found out she has a shop on Etsy. Her new series of animal portraits is simple and clean and beautiful.

15. Brad Moore

Brad Moore photographs suburban landscapes with the eye of a designer.

16. Rachel Papo

Rachel Papo takes portraits of people as diverse as Israeli soldiers and Russian ballerinas in a way that makes the similarities more obvious than the differences.

17. Elizabeth Soule

All of Elizabeth Soule’s prints start out as SX-70 Polaroids. We particularly like the “Little Zoo” series mounted on 5″x5″ wooden box frames.

18. Nancy Stockdale

The subjects of Nancy Stockdale’s Polaroids vary from roadside signs to paper dolls. We really like this diptych of cherry blossoms.

19. Carlo Van de Roer

Carlo Van de Roer seems to have a thing about swimming. He’s interested in the interaction of people and the places where they enjoy their recreation, which tend to include pools, hot springs and the ocean.

20. Jen Zahigian

Jen Zahigian, a.k.a. Roadside Photographs, is featured in Poppytalk Handmade this month. Her photos of roadside signs are printed on metallic paper that makes them look like vintage postcards.

Want more?

This tiny list of 20 of our favorites only scratches the surface – there are eighty bazillion great photographers out there.

The Photographers of Etsy member list is a good place to start if you want to find more. We also like Poppytalk Handmade; the artists change monthly, so it’s a good place to look for photographers you haven’t seen before.

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