Getting Your Work 'Out There'

Just received an email from Derek announcing an upcoming 'show' of his work at a local coffee shop. Another friend is a supporter of a French Lanuage School and has a show next Spring of his pictures of France. This summer I had the proprietor of a Truck Stop want me to place my photographs in his Restaurant (I had visions of grandeur through galleries at the time so said no, now I'm thinking I made a mistake).

there's only one certainty - if you don't look for venues, you aren't going to get your work seen. Here's some suggestions for getting your work 'out there'

1) display your work in your own home - so at least friends can see it - you never know who might have a useful idea.

2) display your work at work - even if you are a janitor and can only put up work in the storage room - anywhere's better than no where.

3) don't be afraid to ask - the school janitor might progress from the storage room to the main hallway and be seen by a local arts supporter.

4) anywhere with a wall is a possible venue.

5) while traditional glass framed prints is 'the norm', it's also expensive - it cost me $5000 for the framing for my recent show. Consider instead framless glass, plastic lamination, foam board mounting, cheap frames from Ikea, Walmart, Costco, etc. Standardizing on frame size is good, standard matte openings doesn't work or at least I think is too limiting.

6) Consider malls, libraries, restaurants, coffee shops, book stores, schools.

7) there are entire books on getting published and some useful free information in some of the audio blogs at Lenswork as well as in articles in back issues of Lenswork Magazine. The editorials in Lenswork are well worth reading.

8) Be ready to get your work out there - have a series of good prints always ready to show. At the very least these could be loose prints in a printing paper box. I'd strongly encourage a large white border for the prints (as if they were matted)and on real paper - not plastic and please not gloss. A heavier art paper will look a lot more impressive (unless you are talking wet darkroom in which case glossy dried matte will be just fine thank you). Better would be a portfolio box from somewhere like Light Impressions. A recent article on Luminous Landscape referred to printing on Epson enhanced matte then binding up to 110 images at the local bindery. the result was an attractive book of images for around $60. Moab Paper makes leather bindings for their paper to make an attactive presentation book though it isn't cheap either and I think I'm going to try the local binding method. If a lot of people are going to handle the prints, loose is probably better in so far as if one gets damaged, it's easy to replace. Don't make the prints so large that they can't be held easily - paper that is too thin or too large to support itself between the hands is an invitation to damage.

Feel free to add your own comments on venues that have worked for you, either generating sales, interest or feedback that has been helpful.