Tips Sought For A First Showing

I wasn’t sure which forum would be the best fit for this topic, and I apologize in advance if my terminology is incorrect. I’m challenging myself to participate in an exhibition. A friend of mine owns a gallery, and I’d like to take advantage of this great opportunity. I have limited experience outside of a small college show I did many years ago, but I’ve recently set up a home darkroom to make prints with the intention of eventually showing them at an art space. I thought this forum might be a good resource because I’m sure there are many experienced members. I’m interested in all aspects of the process, from choosing a theme to selecting print sizes. Thanks in advance for your guidance!

I think the "Presentation and Marketing" sub-forum is a better fit, so I've moved it there.
And I've tweaked the title a bit, to make it clear that you are asking for help.
Good luck with your endeavours.

MattKing said:

I think the "Presentation and Marketing" sub-forum is a better fit, so I've moved it there.
And I've tweaked the title a bit, to make it clear that you are asking for help.
Good luck with your endeavours.

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Much appreciated @MattKing

First, congratulations. Not everyone has such an opportunity. Second, what do you shoot? Landscape, nature, figure, street, still life, abstract? You should be able to put together images that go together or contrast, depending on your style and taste. Take out your work prints and tack them to a large wall, or on the floor. Take a good look and start gathering the ones that appeal to you, see if there is some cohesiveness to the group. I think it was Stephen Shore who said, only put as many prints in a book (in this case, a show) as your age. As far as size goes, there are a number of factors: the space you will be showing in, the sizes you can print in your darkroom, how the prints look best--some are more intimate and work at 8x10 or even smaller, some need to be 16x20 or larger. And how much money you can or are willing to invest. How do you and the gallery want to present the work? Pinned to the wall, just matted? Framed?

desertnick said:

I’m interested in all aspects of the process, from choosing a theme to selecting print sizes.

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That's a lot of ground to cover.

Here's a suggestion: run a mock up of the process. Select a theme (whatever you fancy), set yourself to produce images for it, for instance dedicate one or two rolls of film to it. Then select e.g. 3 or 5 images that you'll prepare for presentation - printing, matting, framing. As you go through the process, I'm sure more specific questions will arise at various stages.

May seem so obvious as to not be worth mentioning but I think it worthwhile to place lined book plus a pencil/pen on a table with chair for viewers to record their comments on.

pentaxuser

koraks said:

Select a theme (whatever you fancy), set yourself to produce images for it, for instance dedicate one or two rolls of film to it. Then select e.g. 3 or 5 images

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IMO preparing for a public showing comes after (quite after) picture taking.
@desertnick at that stage you should already have a fairly large collection of pictures to select from (artspeak: body of work). Contact sheets or scans or medium sized prints.
Then you must execute the selection. Not alone, have someone else do the same; why? because your appreciation of your photos may be (is) affected by the context at the time you snapped the picture, which context is absent for the viewers. By context, I mean emotional context. Factual context (place, time) is the only information that I like to see next to a photo; other opinions exist; up to the point where the artist statement is more important than the image.
A joke that needs to be explained is a bad joke. Ditto for photographs. Now I run to the shelter.
Likewise, have a "second opinion" from someone with a good eye while hanging the pictures.

I agree with most of the previous comments. If you are successful, you’ll be submitting work for juried shows—so the choice of work to hang will be someone else’s—hence the value of getting second and third opinions in the early stages of assembling your work. I have often been surprised by photos I’ve taken that other people liked, and equally by others’ dislike of stuff that I loved: we’re often not the best judges of our own work in these situations.

And I second the need to pay a lot of attention to display: how much space between photos, how much white space within hte frames, how high to hang the pieces. I have never shown a piece unframed; photographs need to be properly displayed to be taken seriously by the viewer, so you’ll need to find a friend with mounting/matting skills or acquire them for yourself. Mat cutting requires a special cutter with a VERY sharp blade (I put in a new blade with each new mat) and a very steady hand and solid straightedge. I have many scars on my left thumb and almost no sensitivity in that thumb because of a couple of deeper cuts. In these instances it’s very important not to bleed on the mat board.

bernard_L said:

IMO preparing for a public showing comes after (quite after) picture taking.

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Yes, I agree, but as an exercise, I think there's merit to try to link all steps in the process to become more aware of the challenges involved in ultimately presenting the work. Basically closing the entire loop, as it were. Also if you make a selection from a body of work, you generally select thematically in some way. I think there's merit to a 'mockup' of the process specifically in this sense; the experience carries over to future picture-taking/photograph-making.

desertnick said:

I wasn’t sure which forum would be the best fit for this topic, and I apologize in advance if my terminology is incorrect. I’m challenging myself to participate in an exhibition. A friend of mine owns a gallery, and I’d like to take advantage of this great opportunity. I have limited experience outside of a small college show I did many years ago, but I’ve recently set up a home darkroom to make prints with the intention of eventually showing them at an art space. I thought this forum might be a good resource because I’m sure there are many experienced members. I’m interested in all aspects of the process, from choosing a theme to selecting print sizes. Thanks in advance for your guidance!

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Is this a solo show, or are you participating in a group exhibition? How many of your photos are you planning to exhibit?

desertnick said:

I wasn’t sure which forum would be the best fit for this topic, and I apologize in advance if my terminology is incorrect. I’m challenging myself to participate in an exhibition. A friend of mine owns a gallery, and I’d like to take advantage of this great opportunity. I have limited experience outside of a small college show I did many years ago, but I’ve recently set up a home darkroom to make prints with the intention of eventually showing them at an art space. I thought this forum might be a good resource because I’m sure there are many experienced members. I’m interested in all aspects of the process, from choosing a theme to selecting print sizes. Thanks in advance for your guidance!

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Welcome to Photrio!

Best wishes on your first showing.

@Roger Thoms once won a contest at local art gallery up the street from me where the "award" was a future show. He had to create about 25 prints to fill the room.

Said it was a lot of work. I thought it was a great show, and a great idea. Get into a position where you have to come up with 25 prints.

Bill Burk said:

Get into a position where you have to come up with 25 prints.

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I once had a solo show scheduled and at the last minute it became a two-person show and I had space for 12 framed prints. Bringing it down to 12 prints was a great exercise and it was neat to see how the work tighten up with the removal of the 'extra' images. If some of one's prints are stronger than others, then one has prints that are weak. So consider editing -- more is not better when it comes to gallery shows. It is nice to give the viewer a chance to breathe and enjoy a singular image.

I once cut the window mats for a show by Harrison Ford's brother...maybe twenty-five 16x20 mats for 11x14 B&W street photos. The show was a long line of prints on the wall, 3 or 4 inches or so between the frames. Nice work, but too much.

But get your friend's feedback -- he knows his customer base...and walk thru the gallery and consider how the space is being used and how you can use it.

My first solo show (self-curated) had 33 prints...it was a year-long project (about 40 years ago). A hella of a lot of work for a month up on the walls, but very much worth it, even with no sales. Matting and framing up prints was interesting in a small house (13'x18' measured on the outside.) I used those frames for a couple decades as they sold with prints or got too scuffed up to show.

If you have a theme, have one broad enough for enough variation in the images to keep the viewers' interest. A lot will depend on the display space. One or two linear walls vs smaller more intimate sections, for example. The latter can encourage different or variations of the main theme.

Good luck!