There’s some interesting discussion in the comments on this post, Since when is bigger better? about ever-increasing print size and cost on Conscientious.
My reply to the question is this:
Since when is bigger automatically more expensive/valuable?
Different images work better in different sizes. Yes, there is a difference in material cost, but with archival inkjet printing, it’s not that much. Why charge someone more for a huge print of an image that works better at 7×7? That’s a bit of a rip-off, no? Why charge less because a particular photo happens to work best at a smaller size? I have images that are best at wallet size, but I’m not going to sell them for $5 just because they’re small.
I think we collectively need to be careful about confusing cost and value.