Does Art Retouching sell?

[YoungRetoucher]

So as a Photographer who loves retouching and the unlimited possibilities it offers but would never ever retouch someone else's photos I was wondering whether one can make a living with art retouching. Basically montages or heavily retouched retouched photographs similar to dragon effects, grimes techniques, cross processing etc seem uncommon in the art photography market as are photographic manipulations. Is it possible to make a good living and sell art at a high level featuring intensive retouching or photo manipulation?

[RobertAsh]

Not sure. I'm in the process of finding out I've had good success so far but I've not been at it very long and it's a challenge keeping the momentum going. You have to do a lot of personal marketing for art-style projects, even more so than for commercial projects, for which at least there are specific, identifiable commercial needs. Not true for 'pure art' that has no commercial driver (e.g. an ad campaign). For that, you have to create a need/desire for specifically your work based on people liking you personally.