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Planning to hang a few pieces -- Questions

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photomem

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I have been asked to hang some pieces in our local coffee house. Believe it or not, there is some high end clientele which come in during the day and they have a history of selling pieces. I am trying to decide something. I am thinking about either hanging some of my prints or maybe doing some cyanotype photograms since those are hardly ever seen in Memphis. Do you guys (and ladies) think that photograms might be too "elementary" to hang seriously?

Thanks.
 
Hang your best work. I'm not being dismissive of the photogram idea (sounds like a great project, to me), but if the other images are stronger, go with them.
 
If you want to showcase your creative vision, etc etc then go with that. Make that your only deciding factor.

If you think selling a few pieces is what you want to do (hint: "yes") then hang accordingly.

You can always see what sells and what seems to interest people, and then adjust the collection accordingly..maybe slip in an experimental piece or two, maybe.
 
If you have the opportunity to show your work, take it! That said, the general consensus on exhibitions is to show a single body of cohesive work. You'll have a better chance of selling if the work you exhibit shows a consistent, thoughtful vision. If you throw a mixed bag of stuff up on the wall, you'll confuse your audience as to what you're all about, and what they're looking at. If you want to do cyanotype photograms, do them - just display them when you have enough to use the space. Do NOT give in to the urge to cover every square inch of wall-space available - this looks horrible and shows that you can't edit your work. DON'T throw up your "greatest hits" to make sure you have a minimum number of photos on the wall, especially when they're just personal favorites without some other connecting theme than "I really liked this shot". DO allow enough blank space between images so that they can be seen as individual works, but not so much that there is no context from one piece to the next. DON'T frame them with whatever you have on hand, so that the frames become distracting. Framing should serve two purposes: a, protect the work, and b, provide a complementary, non-distracting method to separate the image from the background. The goal of good framing is to focus your attention on the work, not to draw attention to itself.
 
If you have the opportunity to show your work, take it! That said, the general consensus on exhibitions is to show a single body of cohesive work. You'll have a better chance of selling if the work you exhibit shows a consistent, thoughtful vision. If you throw a mixed bag of stuff up on the wall, you'll confuse your audience as to what you're all about, and what they're looking at. If you want to do cyanotype photograms, do them - just display them when you have enough to use the space. Do NOT give in to the urge to cover every square inch of wall-space available - this looks horrible and shows that you can't edit your work. DON'T throw up your "greatest hits" to make sure you have a minimum number of photos on the wall, especially when they're just personal favorites without some other connecting theme than "I really liked this shot". DO allow enough blank space between images so that they can be seen as individual works, but not so much that there is no context from one piece to the next. DON'T frame them with whatever you have on hand, so that the frames become distracting. Framing should serve two purposes: a, protect the work, and b, provide a complementary, non-distracting method to separate the image from the background. The goal of good framing is to focus your attention on the work, not to draw attention to itself.

X2 - excellent advice. When I started selling, I put out a range of subjects and styles, and didn't do well. Now I stick with a single theme, fewer images, standard framing and matting, and do noticeably better.
 
MayRay did photograms,

also, we have a high end hotel in town that has a very large collection of photograms hanging in the lobby,
 
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