Gearing up

I’ve been wanting to hold an exhibition of my work for quite sometime. Not with the intention of making any money off of it but just to show it to people in the hope that they will appreciate it. Of course I wouldn’t mind selling a few prints. Finally I have decided to go through with it.

Now that I’ve committed myself to hold an exhibition, I soon realised that it’s much easier said than done. The main thing, the venue.

I rang around the local galleries and few cafes, all we’re charging well over the estimates I had in my head. Not that I’m being cheap or anything, but I can’t seem to justify spending close to $1K (in most cases) for a 7 day exhibition when I don’t make any money from my photography in the first place. Maybe I’m looking in the wrong place, or maybe I just need someone to bear the costs with me. That said, I don’t have any photographer friends and I’m not that active on photography forums etc. Besides, if I have an exhibition in collaboration with someone I don’t know, there is a high possibility that it may lead to disaster. So, that option is out (not completely though).

I was sitting at my favourite cafe and having a chat with the owner (who’s a close friend) and expressed my interest on having an exhibition without realising that I hadn’t asked him if I could have it at his cafe. In the middle of my droning speech about how disappointed I was, he slaps me on the head and tells me that I can have it at his cafe. I asked him how much he would charge me…another slap on the head. That’s settled. A free venue. What more could I want.

Next thing I need to address is the number of photographs I want to display, the theme (if any), how to display them (framed or unframed), what sizes will be effective, etc. etc. I haven’t yet decided on the number of photographs, but I have decided that I want all the photographs in black and white (you may have noticed my obsession with black and white photographs). But I have a problem with that decision; I don’t have that many ‘exhibition-worthy’ photographs in black and white (why do I want to hold an exhibition again?). Now I have two options:

1. I can take new photographs with the theme of the exhibition I have in mind or;

2. Make sets of related photographs.

The second option gives me a bit of flexibility as well. This removes the limit of ‘only black and white’ that I have set for myself. That said, I am leaning towards the first option of taking more photographs. But that will, inevitably, delay the exhibition since I only have time till the end of February till my university break ends. Lots to think and plan about.

Then is the question: “to frame, or not to frame.” I am on a budget so The best option right now (financially) is to go with the no frame approach. But that leads to more problems. Firstly it’s not that kind of a venue. And secondly, this is my first exhibition so I have to make a good impression. I’m thinking of hitting up a certain Swedish furniture store to see if I can get something cheap in price and not quality.

Then is the issue of the overall presentation of the exhibition. It is a very busy cafe and I don’t want it to seem that the cafe owner has just put up some new wall art. So I need to make sure that my marketing is spot on and started well in advance (about a week should be enough I think. Anymore and it could have an adverse effect). I need to design leaflets and posters, and do the usual social networking hype.

Website…need to make one.

Black and white can be considered a theme but if the pictures are completely random, they simply won’t make any sense and would kill the mood of the exhibition. If I go with more than one theme and organise them in sets, I will need more photographs and their size will be smaller i.e. won’t attract that much attention.

What paper to go for? Black and white looks amazing on metallic paper. I like the shinny 3Dish feel you get from it in the light.

You can probably judge my level of confusion by the randomness of this post. I just hope I can get everything sorted in time and don’t let my impatience get in the way of me holding a decent exhibition.

Would love any suggestions or tips anyone can give me. I’ll keep updating my progress on my blog and make a dedicated page here with all the info regarding the exhibition once I start promoting it.

Here are a few pictures I took of the venue. I would appreciate any ideas that anyone can give me regarding placing and size of the photographs.