Our friend Mark is placing a print* of one of his Americana photos in an exhibition; he should do well, and the experience alone will be worth the effort. Please wish him a good showing; he is a record-keeper of what America has become since greed became the rule in place of good old Yankee pride.
When I was in college taking two semesters of black-and-white fine art photography classes, I was taught that for judged exhibitions, prints were to be mounted on white mat board with special photography glue. The board was not to be more than a couple of inches larger in all dimensions than the print, and there was to be no beveled covering mat and no frame whatsoever. The purpose of this simplicity was to allow the photograph to speak for itself with no distracting elements. Each photographer was allowed to post his name and and contact info for anyone whom was interested in purchasing a print. However, for non-judged events, I was encouraged to use a single bevelled covering mat and a simple black metal frame, and was taught how to cut the mat board with an inexpensive hand-held mat cutter, and how to cut and assemble my own frames. It all amounted to the photographer being in complete control from film choice to exposure to darkroom preparations to final exhibiting. It was very hard work but also extremely rewarding, especially when people lingered in front of one of my prints. Most did not sell, but all were appreciated; and when your work is well thought of, sooner or later it will sell.
I wish that I could have moved on with photography courses, because the next semester I would have been using large format cameras, and for art photography, the bigger size negatives are simply unparalleled in capturing detail.
*I think Mark has decided to place a different print than the black-and-white one shown on his blog.
4 comments:
We will be wishing Mark a rewarding experience, sell or no. I don't see him in person as much any more but now every time I do see him, he has a cooler packed in the bed of the truck, some camping gear stowed in the cab, and his camera is never out of sight. A modern day hippie I suppose, and he would agree.
go glad Thursday is here. I've been running squirrels off my back porch all day. I am worried about plugging that hole because they make make another and then my patient husband may pull out the bee bee gun to rectify the situation (something I can hardly stand to think about).
Why didn't you continue on with the photography classes?
Mark is obviously one cool and talented dude. He will do good; if he keeps kicking the can down the road.
I plink my babies from time-to-time with the BB, but never from up close and never toward their eyes. Usually a shot close to them is all it takes to get their attention. It just makes them madder and more determined, though. Nope, a few BB's won't do much good, I think; you'll just have to find a better storage place for the peanuts. :-)
Ran out of money. State was paying most but I had just become disabled enough that I could not hold a job, and the income we had then wasn't sufficient for a family of five to do much more than exist. I really liked college, especially at my age.
Thank you both. I can use a little positive vibe as I generally do not get enough of that.
I hope to have people linger and enjoy my photo. I did go with the palm cross. I did not go with a white mat and black frame. I went with a mat about the same color as the cross and then with a light tan frame. Ken is right about the white mat. 99%of the time you see pictures in a gallery or for sale they have white matting.
I would love to take some classes so I could really learn this craft.
However money does not allow this to be something that will happen.
Large format cameras are very very cool. I have been checking out Clyde Butcher lately. Great work.
His dark room is larger than my damm house. Crazy.
The mat and frame are probably the way I would hav gone, too; or whatever the people running the show suggested.
Who knows. maybe if you sell a few prints you may change your mind about about classes. For the kind of photography you do, a 4x4 format camera would be very nice.
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