Research Assignment 211 - Photography Exhibitions

Photography Exhibitions are a really good and exciting way of showing your work and if you are lucky enough to exhibit your work it usually shows you are being noticed and have been invited to an exhibition to show your work.  You could organise your own exhibition and try and gain interest through publicity, flyers and advertising your event. 

Once you have the venue you would need to liaise with them to find out what vertical wall space you have and what fastenings can be used.  This will then help you decide how you will present your work either with framed prints or matted paper or photo mount.  Some galleries with have a collection of frames in which to exhibit your work but most will require you to provide your own presentation method.  Allowing space between your images allows the viewer to focus on one image standing on its own merits so space is needed between the images so it is important not to cram to many in.  Large images always have the wow factor and I really like large images but the quality has to be perfect.  You will need to find out if you have to hang the frames yourself, if you need to be there whilst the exhibition is open, if you have to provide your own refreshments and if business cards are allowed to be displayed with your images.  Galleries will take a commission so this needs to be agreed with them.

Once you have got all the information required and you have decided on your presentation method you can either get an outsider to print and frame the images which can be expensive or you can do it yourself which can be a less expensive option.

Once you have decided on the presentation methods then find out what lighting is like in the venue.  Find out what the colour balance and light levels are like as you want your work to look the best it can possibly look.  Galleries will have the light levels already sorted but other venues like libraries will not.