I have a few different collections of photography and am wondering if I should stick to just one collection or can / should I use both?
One series is a set of flowers that I shot on polaroid 55 that I solarized the negatives. The other series is a forgotten america.
Please give me advice,
bryan
Replies
Do you think one series would be better jury with than the other?
The Forgotten America set may be a harder one to get in with just because of the jump in continuity from the Horses image, the teepee, and then the gasoline sign. The artist's statement on most of the Zapp apps is limited to 100 characters for materials and technique which leaves you with meaningless bulls**t blather such as "Photographic images processed, printed, matted, and framed by the artist using archival materials" which uses about 98 characters or so. That doesn't leave much room to tie what could be 19th century views with a mid 20th century technology piece. In other words, as nice as the Mobil gas pump is, it's not obvious the connection between it and the other two. That's the slip up that'll keep you out of shows
The flower images are a tighter body of work and more likely to get you in. If you have something in the Forgotten America series that is consistent with the teepee and the horses, then that can be another strong body of work.
The booth slide is more subtle than many realize. It's a chance to show both bodies of work, although in this case, they're far enough apart that you may not want to try it. A key point is to show all three walls clearly. I use a 15mm lens on an APS-c sensor camera to open up the booth space, and have toyed with using my Sigma 15-30 on a 35mm camera just to get the extreme angle and open up the sides more to show the work better. The tradeoff is reducing the size of the back wall due to the perspective drop off. A 12mm lens would be a good one without screwing up perspective too badly. Normally the rear wall is where many place the actual jury shots, but you're better off placing them up front on the sides where they're still seen, but now you've got a chance to show another 6 or so pieces.
The judges get persnickety about seeing work that looks like it could be two different artists or the different bodies of work make them think you don't have focus.
You might want to check out a blog I did on the St. Louis mock jury back in February;
http://www.artfairinsiders.com/profiles/blogs/artist-image-workshop...,
which looks at judges comments about work, order to place them in, what should be or not be in a booth.
Another post was about working out kinks in my own booth shot, and I received some very good help on it, which is http://www.artfairinsiders.com/profiles/blogs/new-booth-image?id=21...
I would have to agree that the floral work is a much more consistent body of work and will likely jury better.
On a side note, I would suggest that you be sure to make an artist statement that details your process to hang in your booth. People do read those and especially if you are using a special technique, such as the Polaroids, it will be a good selling point.
It may also help to ward off some of the more annoying questions. With the current prevalence of smartphones it is probably inevitable that you are going to get some people asking if you shot with Instagram. Asinine questions like that are just one of those things that every artist has to deal with in one way or another.
Nice and Nice. I agree with Larry, jury with one and hang both. Keep it going.
Keep the jury shots as a unified body. For the booth shot, use both arranged in some sort of coherent grouping by theme or technique. The jury shots don't have to be on the back wall in the most visible position, just as long as they are easily seen on the sides. That gives you the opportunity to show more than the 3-4 used for the main jury shots.
Very nice work. Use the both for what, jurying or hanging in your booth at a show. For jurying it should be a more uniform or consistent body of work. As for hanging in your booth at shows, you can probably get away hanging both.
Larry Berman
http://BermanGraphics.com
412-401-8100
I will keep both. You can divide the wall in two sections of your work. What looks better will be showcase the one that sell best and keep the other in the bin.
These are two very strong sets of images, each with their own technique and theme. I think they would be better shown separately if you are planning a show. Either theme would make a strong show. You have the makings of two very good shows. Just keep working. You don't have to stick to one theme or one technique, I think that would become boring for you, but when you do a show, then you need to separate them. Good luck. I like your work.