Artomatic Advice?

April 20, 2012 9:06 AM

I'm going to be participating in my first Artomatic this year! Yay! I'm in the second group for site selection! Yay! Um...now what?

I know I'm going to be showing some of my alt. process photos and some of my traditional B&W photos. Other than that...I'm stumped. I'd love to hear from former Artomatic participants (or anyone with experience in this kind of unjuried show) about:

Selection: Most spaces will be 8 feet by 10 feet. I think I have room for maybe...10 framed photos? Should I go with one theme? One technique? Or just an overall "portfolio"?

Framing: standardized or not?

Display: We can paint our wall, and (I think) add lighting. I kind of want to do a faux wallpaper thing, but is that too busy? Should I stick with plain white? Or maybe something bold? There's going to be a lot of art there, I want to stand out but not overwhelm the photos.

Selling: Not sure if I want to sell photos at all, or how to price them if I do.

I guess I also need to think of an artist's statement and how much (if any) explanation I'm going to provide. I'd also appreciate any general advice. Thanks!

posted by JoanArkham to media & arts (2 answers total)

I can only speak as attendee of Artomatics, if that's any help. I think the biggest mistake exhibitors tend to make, is they forget the dynamics of where they are showing--in the middle of a free-flowing party, essentially, with tons of competition for attention, and an audience that is very diverse in terms of sophistication.

The most memorable and successful exhibits--in my opinion--were those that grabbed your attention, and were a clear and coherent demonstration of the artist's voice. I was more touched by exhibits that left me thinking, "I want to see more of what this person does," than those that left me feeling the artist was showing me everything in the portfolio. I want to see a signature style.

So for me, your alt process photos are the way to go. They establish a signature style, and would draw me into the booth. If you want to show a few of your best B&Ws as well, you can do that, but I would assume that you can take classic B&W photos, even without seeing them. And the classic B&Ws, well, there will be a forest of those at the event. Unless they are your masterpieces, I'd leave them home.

As for the artist's statement--please, for the love of dignity, keep it very short and technical. I may be alone in this, but I don't care about your vision, your identity, your love of photography, where you went to school, or how long you've been taking photographs. I'm interested in how you did what you did, and maybe how you came to start using that process.

Let the art do the talking.
posted by oneironaut at 2:11 PM on April 20, 2012 [1 favorite]

Whoa, just saw this. I'm heading out in a few minutes to make my own site selection, so I should be able to give you some answers, but I thiiiiink you may have already made your selection by now.
posted by MrMoonPie at 1:30 PM on April 23, 2012