Are You Shy or Hesitant About Showing Your Photography In Public? Why?

[Pieter12]

"I would never belong to a club that would have me as a member"
--Groucho Marx

 

[RezaLoghme]

Two different things:

- Exhibiting prints in public
- Posting photos on a forum

I don't like the second option too much. There are also some good reasons to be careful about spreading one's work over the internet, esp. when thinking about unfinished/unreleased projects.

 

[Pieter12]

Two different things:

- Exhibiting prints in public
- Posting photos on a forum

I don't like the second option too much. There are also some good reasons to be careful about spreading one's work over the internet, esp. when thinking about unfinished/unreleased projects.

Curious as to why you would be reluctant to post/share an unreleased project (please explain how you would release it, too) or one in progress?

 

[RezaLoghme]

- IP/legal aspects
- Maybe i want to change things later
- Work in progress could be affected by premature publicity about it
Etc

 

[snusmumriken]

I think of showing photos as being like a conversation. Like sharing a joke that tickles you, or a fact you find sobering. “Look, this is something I selected with my camera, and processed into an image that I find satisfying. That’s what I’m like, what interests me, my take on life. Maybe we have something in common; maybe not, it doesn’t matter.”

I have no ambition. I made a website during lockdown, but I don’t industriously promote it. I love going to exhibitions and gallery shows, but I don’t want a gallery show enough to pay for the framing. Only family and friends who visit ever see my prints (which are much better than the web images)—three at a time, on the wall. First and foremost, my photos are for me, and my aim is to produce something that I can look at with unreduced pleasure over and over again. But it is also a really heart-warming feeling when a photo gets an affirmative response unexpectedly.

I don’t really feel that’s a predicament.

 

[JerseyDoug]

I have a few of my photographs on display in public places. In all cases they are on display because of the subject matter, not because any "artistic" qualities. A recent example is a photo of the old police station in my former town. The building is soon to be demolished and replaced by a much grander structure. The photo is now hanging in the town hall but they said they will move it to the new building when it opens.

 

[RezaLoghme]

Curating - or "pruning" - is key.

 

[DF]

I have a few of my photographs on display in public places. In all cases they are on display because of the subject matter, not because any "artistic" qualities. A recent example is a photo of the old police station in my former town. The building is soon to be demolished and replaced by a much grander structure. The photo is now hanging in the town hall but they said they will move it to the new building when it opens.

I'd like to see that picture of the 'ole police station - just how old is that police station, because I gotta say, it's not out-of-the-ordinary that great buildings have been lost to make way for mediocre cooki-cutter architecture.
Really old police stations sometimes can be art-deco-era gems if you look closely.