What do you do with your photos?

Pieter12 · Dec 16, 2021

I saw this thread topic on another forum and I thought it was quite interesting and revealing to a certain extent. So I am borrowing the question to post here (if this is even the right category).

What do you do with your photos? Print them? Frame them and fill your walls and those of others? Let them accumulate on your hard drive? Do you post them somewhere on social media, a blog or website? Send or give them to friends, family and admirers?

Do you sell them through a gallery or personal website? Exhibit at art fairs or the like? Do you make any meaningful income from them? Do you take assignments, like wedding or portrait photography? Sell stock images?

Do you submit to competitions, publish books or zines? Take them to portfolio reviews, hoping for some guidance or better yet, some interest from a gallery or other institution?

Andrew O'Neill · Dec 16, 2021

I stick the ones that I like up on the wall. I have shows every now and then. I hate competitions so never play that game. I've had my stuff stuck in books and mags over the years, but never produced a book of my own... if I did do one, it would only be of images. No words. Not good with words...

neeksgeek · Dec 16, 2021

I sell a print every once in a while, perhaps every year or so. I also give prints away for no good reason. Sometimes I’ll donate a print to a charity auction. I post on social media very rarely, I’ve got a blog but it’s dormant. Sometimes I’ll have a show, if I can find a venue or there’s a group show I can join. I do print my favorites and display them in my home; since my work rarely sells at shows, that part’s easy! As for making money, it’s been more than ten years since my photography had anything to do with income!

Ces1um · Dec 16, 2021

desktop and phone wallpaper. Occasionally I'll print them and give them as gifts or I'll have them printed on canvas to decorate the house.

Sirius Glass · Dec 16, 2021

I print them, matte and frame them and hang them on the walls. I used to show my slides. I used to keep photo albums. I make copies and send them to friends and family members especially if it is a photo of a child or pet.

Pieter12 · Dec 16, 2021

neeksgeek said:
Sometimes I’ll have a show, if I can find a venue or there’s a group show I can join.

I have been in a few juried group shows. I have found that if it's a big show with lots of participants, work tends to get lost (not literally).

Vaughn · Dec 16, 2021

logan2z · Dec 16, 2021

I print my photographs, mount/frame them and hang them at home. I've given some as gifts to friends and family too.

I do have a personal goal of self-publishing a book in 2022, so let's see how that goes.

I've been checking my voicemail, but so far MoMa hasn't called to schedule an exhibition of my work. Maybe I should reach out and see if they've misplaced my number

Pieter12 · Dec 16, 2021

logan2z said:
I print my photographs, mount/frame them and hang them at home. I've given some as gifts to friends and family too.

I do have a personal goal of self-publishing a book in 2022, so let's see how that goes.

I've been checking my voicemail, but so far MoMa hasn't called to schedule an exhibition of my work. Maybe I should reach out and see if they've misplaced my number

I know, I have been anxiously awaiting word from the MacArthur Foundation.

MattKing · Dec 17, 2021

Print or project as regularly as I can.
Digitize a few and share some of them - mostly here.
Give framed and matted prints as gifts.
Participate in the Postcard Exchange here.
Wen the groups I belong in arrange a show, I print for exhibition and join in.
We have a show happening now at the Surrey Art Centre - here is my posting of an announcement: https://www.photrio.com/forum/threa...darkroom-group-the-surrey-art-gallery.188273/
Here is a quick grab shot of one of my contributions to that show:

logan2z · Dec 17, 2021

MattKing said:
Print or project as regularly as I can.
Digitize a few and share some of them - mostly here.
Give framed and matted prints as gifts.
Participate in the Postcard Exchange here.
Wen the groups I belong in arrange a show, I print for exhibition and join in.
We have a show happening now at the Surrey Art Centre - here is my posting of an announcement: https://www.photrio.com/forum/threa...darkroom-group-the-surrey-art-gallery.188273/
Here is a quick grab shot of one of my contributions to that show:
View attachment 293385

Nice landscape, Matt.

I can't exactly make out the wall text but I think it says 'gelatin silver print'. What was it shot with?

Horatio · Dec 17, 2021

I’ll occasionally print on inkjet, but typically digitize anything interesting and share electronically. I have several I plan to wet print when possible, with maybe one or two worth displaying. I printed a lot (inkjet color and monochrome) back in 2004-2006. I have one of those prints on display.

gone · Dec 17, 2021

I just concentrate on making the stuff. That's my one and only job, because the minute you monetize it, you ruin it. Then, once it's made, like all artists and photographers, I shove it under the bed. The whole thing is pretty stupid, isn't it? It's like writers writing and writing, then keeping what they wrote in a locked chest. Thank goodness I only do analog, except for proof scans of negs to see what's there on a tiny 35mm frame. It would be much worse if I shot digital. I do have gallery shows, mostly just to get people's ideas on the work.

Builders get to look at the homes they built, and see people move into them. Car makers get to see people buy and drive their cars. But people who make creative, art type stuff rarely get to see any of that. We just make it, then on to the next piece.

DWThomas · Dec 17, 2021

I've slowed down on it quite a bit, but in the past have entered work in local art and/or photography shows. I've won a few prizes and sold a few. I've even had a couple of solo shows in small local venues. But mostly it's a challenge of self to see what I can do. I have a number of what I feel are my best hanging on the walls here at home, which occasionally get replaced by newer ones. And I put a lot of my stuff on line, although that's largely a documentation of various travels and events. About 90% of my exhibited work is B&W, darkroom printed. In this millennium most of my travel related photos use electrocuted bits, although there are some occasional film shots, mostly monochrome.

VinceInMT · Dec 17, 2021

I guess my photography is split between what I shoot with my phone and what I shoot with film. With the former, I use it to document what I am doing and share some of it on social media or my blog. Most of this is stuff I encounter when out on trail runs here in Montana or on my motorcycle rides. I document those rides on my blog: https://fjradventures.blogspot.com/

With what I shoot on film, which I’ve been doing since 1973, 99.9% of the work goes in boxes. Some is on walls in the house. I’ve never had an interest in showing or selling. However, 6 years ago at age 63, I enrolled at the local university for a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree with a concentration on drawing and painting which has included several classes in photography. There I had to show all of my work and submit it to class critiques. The same in all the other classes. Last spring I was asked to put some of my work (mostly cyanotypes and Van Dykes) in our outer gallery for the summer and ended up selling 3 of them.

I’m still not that interested in showing although I have my senior show next April. It will be all drawing and painting and one mosaic. It’s not that I don’t want to show my photography there but I haven’t done any work that fits with the theme I selected. I’m still not interested in selling anything because I have another source of income that keeps me in film, paper, and chemicals.

Sirius Glass · Dec 17, 2021

DWThomas said:
I've slowed down on it quite a bit, but in the past have entered work in local art and/or photography shows. I've won a few prizes and sold a few. I've even had a couple of solo shows in small local venues. But mostly it's a challenge of self to see what I can do. I have a number of what I feel are my best hanging on the walls here at home, which occasionally get replaced by newer ones. And I put a lot of my stuff on line, although that's largely a documentation of various travels and events. About 90% of my exhibited work is B&W, darkroom printed. In this millennium most of my travel related photos use electrocuted bits, although there are some occasional film shots, mostly monochrome.

I too have slowed down. Because of COVID travel slowed down and then stopped. When I caught up on processing and printing, I have not started back up. When I can start traveling again photography will start up. I lost interest in photographing things and home and in the neighborhood again and again.

Pieter12 · Dec 17, 2021

momus said:
Builders get to look at the homes they built, and see people move into them. Car makers get to see people buy and drive their cars. But people who make creative, art type stuff rarely get to see any of that. We just make it, then on to the next piece.

Unless it is public art, artists rarely get to see others enjoying their work (usually in galleries or museums, sometimes in collectors' homes). Most artists I know don't just stash away their work. They want others to see it, they want recognition, they want to sell it (can't make much of a living if you can't sell your art--that's why so many end up teaching). There is a reason an artist's resumé lists the collections they are in, the shows they have had, the publications that have featured their work. Even if the work is given to friends and family, the artist likes to know their work is displayed and appreciated--maybe only when they come by to visit! Hobbyists may be content with putting their work in boxes under the bed, maybe their real interest is in the equipment, not the photos.

warden · Dec 17, 2021

I like to print them in the darkroom, and then 95% of them go back in the Ilford box the paper came in. I get a lot of enjoyment out of leafing through them, but that's only a few times a year. I share images online too, but don't sell anything.

Once I donated a print for a charity sale, and had it framed beautifully. It didn't sell even for charity, lol.

The world may never know my greatness.

MattKing · Dec 17, 2021

logan2z said:
Nice landscape, Matt.

I can't exactly make out the wall text but I think it says 'gelatin silver print'. What was it shot with?

Thanks - glad you like it.
Gelatin Silver is what the label says - that is what the curators like.
Plus-X in one of my OM bodies with the 35mm f2 Zuiko lens.
The older MGIV RC Cooltone developed in a mixture of last gasp Polymax T and new Dektol. It has also been selenium toned.
The title is "Waterlogged"

jtk · Dec 17, 2021

They are not my photos until I have personally printed them. Storage is therefore not much of a problem. A big wicker waste basket can be a joy.

jtk · Dec 31, 2021

Should have mentioned: My serious print storage (backed up by that inspirational waste basket) is two steel wheel-around cabinets from big hardware store: Craftsman and Husky brands. Each cart also has skinny drawers that hold much of my photo junque including Pentax cameras/lenses that never seem to get used anymore.

Both roll-around cabinets (carts) have 6" deep roll-out steel drawers now hold probably 100 11X17 and13X19 and smaller prints, each print in a Profolio Art archival (fwiw) sleeve, often dis-organized into slim Profolio binders. My now-standard size is 11X17. Nothing is mounted because exhibited prints are in plastic/glass frames that hang nicely.

Time for me to buy a third wheel-around. Maybe $200 each. Steel is infinitely more "archival" than anything of wood or plastic. Also time for me to reorganize prints thematically or chronologically or whatever.

One of my roll-around cabinets is perfect for my Canon Pro 10 printer, the other for my copy stand.

faberryman · Dec 31, 2021

jtk said:
Also time for me to reorganize prints thematically or chronologically or whatever.

Always autobiographically.

NightPix · May 6, 2022

Pieter12 said:
I saw this thread topic on another forum and I thought it was quite interesting and revealing to a certain extent. So I am borrowing the question to post here (if this is even the right category).

What do you do with your photos? Print them? Frame them and fill your walls and those of others? Let them accumulate on your hard drive? Do you post them somewhere on social media, a blog or website? Send or give them to friends, family and admirers?

Do you sell them through a gallery or personal website? Exhibit at art fairs or the like? Do you make any meaningful income from them? Do you take assignments, like wedding or portrait photography? Sell stock images?

Do you submit to competitions, publish books or zines? Take them to portfolio reviews, hoping for some guidance or better yet, some interest from a gallery or other institution?

A related question is: what happens to thousands of photos on a hard drive when I head off to that great darkroom in the sky? I suppose they will never be seen again.

Alan Edward Klein · May 7, 2022

momus said:
I just concentrate on making the stuff. That's my one and only job, because the minute you monetize it, you ruin it. Then, once it's made, like all artists and photographers, I shove it under the bed. The whole thing is pretty stupid, isn't it? It's like writers writing and writing, then keeping what they wrote in a locked chest. Thank goodness I only do analog, except for proof scans of negs to see what's there on a tiny 35mm frame. It would be much worse if I shot digital. I do have gallery shows, mostly just to get people's ideas on the work.

Builders get to look at the homes they built, and see people move into them. Car makers get to see people buy and drive their cars. But people who make creative, art type stuff rarely get to see any of that. We just make it, then on to the next piece.

Post it on Flickr and leave the link on your posts as I do. At least someone is looking at them if not The Met. We can enjoy your photos then.

NightPix · May 7, 2022

Alan Edward Klein said:
Post it on Flickr and leave the link on your posts as I do. At least someone is looking at them if not The Met. We can enjoy your photos then.

Very well said. Like they say, life is the journey, the destination is the same for everyone.

What do you do with your photos?

Pieter12

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