This is my first art fair season. At the last show the artists were supposed to be demonstrating their craft. I set up my computer and did some post processing.It was more like faking it, because the work takes more concentration than at least I could give while trying to pay attention to customers, etc.
Because my work centers on Gold County landscape and the detritus left behind, the presence of a computer in the booth clashes with the work and is grating, at least to me. The necessary table for demonstrations also takes up valuable space.
My next show asks for demonstration as well. Other than setting up for a macro shot, which is not a very active demonstration, I am out of ideas.
I would appreciate any suggestions.
Patricia Connors
Replies
Hi Patricia,
I'm in my second year of art fairs so I can't say I'm an old hand - but what I did was take a picture of myself with some prints in the foreground and me doing framing. I do all my own mounting and framing - and printing - so had a good supply of canvas prints in the foreground. Not sure what others do but it's what I came up with.
I think I will go with a combination of photos of a photo shoot set up (one of my favorite places is in my hay barn) and some "before and after" processing photos.
Sorry for the delay in replying.
Good luck with it. I've been at several shows over the years where they ask some of the artists to demonstrate. Most photographers pass on it. One friend of mine used to do wet darkroom B&W prints that he would hand color with Marshall oils while he sat in his booth and he's the only one I know of who did demonstrations. His prints were already processed and dry before he did the hand coloring, so it was just a matter of taping the corners of the print down to a board and then start applying the oils.
Thanks for your reply. Maybe I'll offer to take candid iphone portraits of interested customers and send them to their email for a fee. :)
Or you could just print those candid portraits on hand-gilded paper since you are in Gold Country, right? Then you could also demonstrate how you apply the karat gold leaf to the paper.
Ambra in GOLD
Pigment print on 23k Gold-Leafed Paper
You will need power, water and a table for this:
Curtain off the booth - light tight.
Setup: an old Omega enlarger
some trays, a safe light, dektol, acetic acid - 28% solution, Sodium thiosulphate,
ok... I could not help myself. LOL
How about demonstrating how you use lighting, composition and angles by setting up a subject and lighting then showing how simple, minor movements can have very diverse affects on the image.
Setup: A small object on a rotating pedestal, lighting hung from above - movable, camera on a tripod. Feed to monitor.
I've used this method in teaching.
Pretty techie for this girl, but thanks for stretching my imagination.
I've never been able to figure it out. But one thing you can do is create a sequence of pictures, print them 8x10 and put them in a binder. Then do a talk on what you do from shooting to post processing to printing.
Larry Berman
Thank you so much Larry!
I love this "thinking outside the box" solution.
Patricia