What do you do with your work?

(That was to Tim Atherton, not Tim O'Brian, or the various other Tims who will probably insert new posts before this one).

I did say we colour folk don't "usually" do contacts :-)

 

Talking of which, I was fascianted by the potential of doing in camera ilfochromes in 8x10 from some posts a few months ago. A friend here has a languishing Ciba processor and even sopme boxes of paper - I just haven't got around to trying it.

Any negative I really like I print either 12x16 or 16x20. I make a few just for safety reasons. I take one and matte it and frame it using Nielsen frames (very simple but I think quite elegant).

 

My work hangs in my flat. Apart from my diploma, that is all that I hang up. Great for conversation when guests come over.

Jeez, not to be nasty or anything but this is the LF forum. If you have to ask

"What do you do with your work", then perhaps you had better but a new set of

clubs.

 

Making photographs is not a hobby, it is a lifestyle. It is about the image, the

message, the statement and the dialogue. I don't give a poop about the

blacks, the whites, or the fixer stains. If you are an artist, then say something!

Do a project, give your prints away, donate them to a charity for an auction,

contact galleries, if turned down contact your community center, city hall or

bank and request an exhibition. These people are dying for folks like you to

offer an exhibition.

 

Eventually, a gallery owner may see you work and offer you a show, and

hopefully representation.

 

Do a project and provide a "series" to the subjecy or subjects. As they say,

just do it. And, if you have no other desire to show your work, then frame it and

pin it up on your walls. Change it often and invite friends over.

 

The possibiities are enless, have something to say and say it. That is what art

is all about be it a social, political, or just documenting nature. Art is to be

made and viewed.

 

Above all, have fun.

I like to exchange some prints with other photographers. Over the years I've built up a nice collection of work and put something out into the world. And I've learned how to print 15 fairly close copies.

I'm surprised so many either never print their work or end up giving it away. I sell all my work, B&W panoramas from a variety of formats, the smallest 6x17. I make a living out of it but don't see it as art, more a commercial product. I process and print myself in my home darkroom using an 8x10 enlarger and roller transport processors, my standard print is a metre long. I sell 10 to 20 of these a week.

<p>

I got into this stuff accidently, a few years ago I came across an antique panoramic photo, it had me fascinated, I wanted to buy it. After some research I found the photographer had produced thousands of them and they were scattered around the country. I reasoned if he could do it, maybe I could as well. I spent the next few years gathering the equipment and learning the techniques.

<p>

Here's some info on the <a href="http://www.bigshotz.co.nz/rp_moore.html">photographer</a> whos work sparked my interest.

<p>

A common remark from people buying my work is "I remember"

I am trying more and more with my personal work to print to a topic or theme as if I was putting on an exhibition. Those that pass the over-critical editing phase get fine printed on 8x10" paper using about 2/3rds of the frame. I then mount on 11x14" and put them in portfolio boxes and store them.

 

I am in the process of giving up one wall with a flexible gallery style hanging arrangement so I can rotate through the various themes.

 

Cheers,

 

Andrew

also . . .

 

in response to some comments above about why would you show your photo's when there are so many good ones around.

 

This year I attended a expressive printing workshop with an australian landscape photographer Gordon Undy (www.pointlight.com.au). One of the key things that I took away from the course was the concept of striving to a level of excellence. This involves comparing your work to others and always looking to improve and practice practice practice. In addition I have purchased a couple of prints by folks I believe are fantastic printers (although not incredibly expensive) which I also hang in my home as a reminder of where I should be striving.

 

@

...loose them

 

But it has been proven very difficult to misplace my 30x30" prints...

Lately I've been making 8x10 contact prints. Proofs of the promising negatives, and prints of the promising proofs. The proofs go into sleeves along with the negatives, and the prints go into sleeves of their own, or on to family members or friends. These are my family albums, and only under very unusual circumstances do I mount or show my prints outside of my home. I have a few favorites in frames in my home, but the vast majority remain sleeved.

What a timely question. I went to an auction this weekend of an estate of a man who had been a photographer for Morton Thiokol (sp?). It had to be one of the saddest things I've seen in a while.

 

There were tables with cameras, enlargers, telescopes, box upon box of prints and slides, etc. A lot of it was not in the cleanest shape, so cameras such as Nikon 2002, Speed Graphic, Kowa Six, etc. were going for between $10 and $100. His prints & slides were being lumped together with a bunch of tools, etc. as a way to get rid of them. Nobody cared about them.

 

It really made me think that I probably will continue to give away a lot of my prints as I make them because I would rather get to see someone enjoy them now than have them left for an auctioneer to try to dump them on someone after I'm gone.

 

I have done a couple of large format portraits with my Speed Graphic and have printed them 16x20 and given them to the subjects and they have said that it is the best gift they have ever gotten. I will donate a large format portrait for a fund-raising auction at my daughter's school.

I am not surprised by the number of photographers who work mostly "for themselves".

 

<P>

I am a little surprised by the comments of the few who seem overly critical of their results.

 

<P>

It is good to listen to your "inner critic", but if your inner critic turns out to be a sadistic monster, maybe it is time to tell him to shut up.

 

<P>

The most telling comment is:

 

<P>

"When I look at one of my prints, I try to <I>imagine</I> what other photographers might say about them."

 

<P>

The only response I can make to this is: stop imagining what other photographers <I>might</I> say (in your cruel imagination), and show some prints to other photographers, to find out what they <I>really</I> say. Ask them to be critical.

 

<P>

And remember not to take the negative comments personally. In fact, you can disagree with critical comments, but you should first try to understand <I>why</I> the comment was made. (And the same is true for positive comments.)

 

<P>

The goal is to learn and improve. If you think your colors are off, or your composition is weak, other photographers can give you some ideas or advice on how to improve.

You're right, Michael. I'm going to tell my "inner critic" to shut up. My post was a little over the top (tried for self-deprecating humor, but failed miserably).

Some of mine photographs are published, some go to a stock agency, some are mounted and sold, and the best are being exhibited here and there. Most, however are dormant as negatives.

RJ, you and I have corresponded a lot about my starting into large format. While this falls more into marketing, in a sense that is what most of us are trying to do anyway when we answer the question you posed about "what do you do with your work." Here are some things I am doing and plan on doing to keep my stuff out of "boxes." Maybe it will stimulate your own ideas.

 

The framing studio that has been framing my images has just agreed to put half a dozen up on the walls of their two stores. They typically have to purchase posters to frame and put up on their walls. I give them the images, printed on my 7600, without charge until they sell. They frame them and when they sell (let's be confident here and not say if)they get 25% of my price for the print and make the money on the frame. They get to select the images to put up (makes sense to me as they know their customers better than do I), and don't have to buy anything up front. We both win. In a short while, I am going to be hitting every framing shop in Tucson with the same offer.

 

As a novice medium format shooter, and now an even more novice large format type, I have seen lots of wonderful work on the internet. Providing your(the generic your)work is good enough, the difference between those who get to do a lot of photography and those who can only do as much as their vacation and non-professional budgets allow lay probably more in their marketing skills than those photographic. Recognizing that, I am hosting an Idea Party for a select group of non-photographic friends (8) whom I perceive to be creative and consistently able "to think outside the box" as problem solvers. These folks are going to help me brainstorm ways of marketing, getting my work in front of people, and generally think of uses for my photographic images that I haven't already come up with.

 

The internet seems to work well for a very small number of people, and gallery owners, who are often much maligned in this and other forums and who really do know their markets better than we do, are so limited in number and scope that I see them as a potential only after I have become successful using other venues.

 

I have come to realize that I must put the same passionate and focused energy into selling my work as I do in creating it if I am to get to do more. For me it has been much easier to see my images as self-exploratory processes that "reveal the artist within" (when caught up in my narcissism), than to acknowledge that marketing offers the same opportunities and challenges. (Of course, I'd still rather not have to do it.)

 

Thanks again RJ for all of your help, and thanks to all of the other teachers on this forum who have contributed their knowledge. Best of luck to us all. Ain't it grand!

<p>I have also struggled with this question and have taken to heart many of the suggestions that Brooks Jenesen has written about through the years in LensWork magazine. I have done three thing to help keep my prints from disappearing under the bed.</p>

 

<p>I joined two critique groups here in Portland, OR that concentrate on sharing work and critiquing it. This gets me to actually produce work to show and gets me lots of feedback on how I am doing AND gets my work shown/shared.</p>

 

<p>Secondly, I took a community college course on web site construction and made a web site so that I can always have a space for displaying my work. This was fun and creative. In the few months I have had the site up, I have had almost 1,000 hits. I cannot think of a better way to get my work seen by zillions of people. I carry a "business" card that I printed with just my domain name on it so that people who want to contact me go to my web site first, see my work, and then can email me. People seem to love this. I also got the site linked and listed everywhere I could which has dramatically increased the traffic. I don't care about selling my work, but just want people to see it.</p>

 

<p>Lastly, I used an entry-way corner in our house as a rotating display area for my work. I use standard size frames where work can be swapped in and out and installed some very inexpensive track lighting (home depot) so that it is shown at its best. This way when someone says "oh, so you do photography" I can simply switch on the light and say "yes, look at these". Otherwise in the past I had to get out the box and find a light and by that time people were on to other things. The picture above is of the simple display wall.</p>

 

<p>Without doing these things, I think no one would see my work and I too would be depressed with all the accumulating boxes of prints that never see the light of day...</p>

 

<p><a href="http://www.scottjonesphoto.com" target="_blank">ScottJonesPhoto.com</a></p><div></div>

hi curtis:

 

i like jnorman do habs photography, and a lot of it is in the library of congress or the

state of maine/commonwealth of massachusett's archives. when i was a teenager, i

studied bookbinding and just a few years ago i learned how to do japanese binding. i

mention this because other documentary photography- streetscapes & portraits of

buildings before they are razed ( last rites) are either enlarged or contact printed to

pages that are later stitched into a single edition book ( it isn't very hard to learn).

these books are sold to public libraries for the local history collections.

i used to part own a cooperative art gallery outside of boston, and at that point used

to show my work all the time. while photography hanging on a wall looks great, i find

that a series of images in a book is a very intimate experience no matter what size

the images are.

 

out of all the books i have made, 11x14 down to 5x7 covers, i have to admit, my

favorite is a series that i made small prints from 4x5 negatives - i think they were

2x2.5 printed on 5x7 paper. :)

 

- john

I keep mine in little green film boxes.

 

-j