Kate Engelbrecht has a terrific idea: to pre-loaded disposable cameras available to as many adolescent (and shorter) females as want them, to collate and display their best (in her opinion) pictures. Editing and sequencing appeals to me too: I do it all the time, and it’s a pleasure, therefore I think her idea is a good idea.
Look at her warren of web sites and act quickly. The project is ongoing, but nothing is forever. Begin with:
It’s a go. The exhibit of pictures regarding facades will take place at the Barrington Area Library for about seven weeks, from early February to the end of March (into spring break).
A reception is scheduled for the evening of Friday, February 13. Bring yer own cookie.
Will I do a mailing? I dunno. E-mail blasts are effective, but there’s nothing like getting a piece of mail delivered to one’s door. Will there be a related assignment? Prolly, of some sort. Will anything (gasp) sell? Odds are agin’ it; that’s Allstate’s stand.
Paperwork, a necessary evil. Wait: nothing about it is actually evil, but it is necessary, just as archiving one’s work is essential. (True, Mario Giacomelli would toss his negatives into a bowl on the dining room table, but few of us want our pictures to look like his.) My contacts are mostly all together; work prints and exhibition prints are currently intermingled, but I can locate a specific negative with astonishing alacrity, and I make that claim modestly.
I was asked to provide a resume, a biography and an artist’s statement. I don’t know of anyone who writes an statement before it’s required. Out of habit, even though I know what and how to write, I looked for self-help websites and found a ton of ’em. Often, an artist’s statement can be painful to read, especially when they run on, take irrelevant detours or, worst of all, tell the viewer how to look at the work. Artists do not always understand their own work, and what they think of it is occasionally more revealing about them than the work itself is. One option for me was to provide a “bio-statement.” Bingo. Concision. Done.
An inventory of 10-20 pieces submitted for consideration (not the final batch, but certainly representative) needed to have dimensions, titles and prices. The dimensions were incomplete since some of the pictures exist only as work prints. Pricing work can be a monstrous head game; more on that at another time. Titles: yeesh. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy titling my pictures, and I have two Gemini-style tendencies. Place and date usually suffice without being too clinical, for one. The other is a predilection for cryptic/goofy names. I used to suppress that, but at some point ceramics guru Bob Wilson goaded me into going that route as well.
Bob, by L.D.
Some of this material got e-mailed to the people who wanted it, and some of it needed to be delivered to the venue, which is local, so I drove it over. Rather than leaving it at the front desk, as directed, I asked for the individual in charge on-site to come out to meet me. This very nice woman explained the entire exhibit program of the venue, took me on a detailed tour of the space, and also walked me through the collection that they own, complete with aesthetic critiques of some favorite pieces. Um, thank you.
Nobody’s noticing now, but when we all return next year (next week) check out the work on display in the Voluminous Cases by (in no particular order):
Andi, Taylor, Chris, Jaime, Amy, Aimee, Claire, Ryan, Ryan, Ryan, Ryan, Ryan, Ola, Liz, Katie, Stef and Delaney.
Be sure to comment on the pictures here ASAP!
The second annual Interstate Creative Camera Invitational is coming up faster than anyone could reasonably anticipate. This year the entrants are encouraged to relate their work to the theme “Multiples,” calling attention to the medium’s ability to reproduce an image any number of times (infinitely, in theory), and to alter the same image in a variety of ways (or not). Get ready…
Creative Camerawork 