Getting ready to exhibit
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By Michael Keller in Photography Published: Tuesday, 06 May 08 - 12:45 PM (GMT -05:00) Last Updated: Tuesday, 06 May 08 - 12:57 PM (GMT -05:00) |
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It's been awhile since I actually put together a set of photos for an exhibit, and I had forgotten how much work is involved. As usual, you think if you plan it out right, you can get everything done on schedule. As usual, you're wrong.
First, selecting images is a real pain. You get a bunch of pictures you like, and realize they don't go together. Maybe you've been working on a project and you're exhibiting your project, but I photograph anything I find interesting, which makes for a great deal of randomness. That can be OK, but in this case I'm exhibiting with another person, so I have a responsibility to fit in, sorta. Often you don't even know what the images look like until they're printed (you can't decide on a computer screen), and then you have to select sizes and, in the case of digital inkjet printing, papers.
So you spend a few days deciding, then you have to make final prints if you don't already have those. In the meantime, you have to order frames and glass (based on the image sizes you decided on before you actually printed the pictures), and then you cut mats. You think "I can assemble all the frames tonight," but of course Murphy points out a flaw in one of your prints requiring reprinting.
If you frame yourself, you're surprised at how hard it is to get supplies for an actual exhibit. Even the art supply store in town is geared to selling a packet of wire and screws to hang one piece, not ten. Brown paper for the back? K-Mart, not the art store.
In the end it comes together, just like that college term paper, sometime in the wee hours of the day of your deadline. It's almost a relief to turn the work over to someone else to hang.
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