Public Feedback
We had an open studio/Art trail this weekend. About 65 visitors visited the studio. This was the first time that I had displayed my work to the public. I wasn’t sure how I would feel. In my previous life I was used to presenting and talking about strategies and projects but it was never as personal as this was. At the basic level it was ‘Would they be interested in what I am doing?’ Luckily I was only aware of one person who stuck their head round the corner, had a quick look, then walked off.
Most people came in and had a good look round. Some obviously did not want to talk and just looked at the pictures but probably half of them were interested enough to talk, question and be interested in what I was doing. Without doubt the biggest topic of conversation was digital vs traditional photography. However this was always in a positive manner rather than an anti photoshop idea. There was only one person who was anti digital, he owned a digital camera and photoshop but he said that he felt so guilty using them.
The next most popular topic was ‘Why I had chosen Black and White’. I was pleasantly surprised by the number of people who preferred B & W. Obviously reassuring since this is my preferred medium.
The 2 most rewarding exchanges were with a lady who came in and said that she had specifically come to see my work. She took her coat off, put her bag down and we spent the next 30 minutes discussing my work, technique, style and looking at individual prints, talking about what I was trying to achive. It was really rewarding to have that much interest shown in my work. The next was another lady and again we were getting pictures down and discussing composition, how I used contrast to achive a certain look. What surprised me about both of these exchanges was how comfortable I felt describing what I was trying to achieve and how I had gone about it.
So overall a good weekend, positive feedback and I came away feeling that I was doing something worthwhile. The only downside was that I didn’t sell much. A couple of mounted prints and some cards. I just covered my costs which is good. But hopefully building some relationships for the future which can only be good.
Selling stuff
http://www.greendoor.org.uk/art-trail/
It is the Green Door Art Trail this weekend and I am taking part. It is the first time that I have let the outside world into my studio and more importantly tried to sell my work to try and support myself. I have sold work in the past via the internet but I did that at cost because I was still working.
Now it is a lot more real. I have listened to the other artists who have several years of Art Trail experience. Based on this I have I have a range of cards, mounted open prints and finally framed limited edition prints. Everything has arrived and has been put in place on the walls. However today I started labelling and pricing the items. For the smaller items, cards and mounted prints that was reasonably easy I just did cost plus a markup. I kind of knew that I was trying to price products to achieve a certain price point. Where I really struggled though was the limited edition framed prints. These really matter to me and they are the key part of what I want to achieve with my photography. I am not trying to achieve a price point I am trying to value my best work at a value that somehow relates to its merit and give me a fighting chance of making a living. The basics were easy enough, I could work out the costs of the materials. But what value for the pure creative element of the work? My finance background does not help. You can’t work on the hours spent researching a site or the number of hours spent going back and waiting for the right light. So I resorted to a bit of research on the web. Most of what I found related to open edition prints and really just confirmed that my price for the mounted prints was ok. Then I ended up looking at some high end photography websites and galleries. This was just daunting and did not really help as they were way above my league. So I did what I always do when I am struggling and went to Costa for an espresso and a think.
So in the end I came up with a solution. I just decided on a price that I would like to achieve for my work. I kind of threw all my inputs into the pot and boiled them up. The result was something that I would be happy to achieve for my key work.
I don’t feel happy about this state of affairs. I come from a background where I have always been able to apply a set of rules/costs to a problem and the answer will come out at the end. I have never worked with something as intangible as the price of individual creativity. For many artists this is nothing new. But for me coming from a background of rules and logic it is quiet weird.
So this weekend will be a trial to see if my ideal price is anything close to what the public are prepared to pay for my work. I’ll let you know next week.
Influences
When I first started taking photographs I just went out and took photos – I have always graduated towards landscape and seacape. Most of my photography was dictated by holidays and days out. I just took pictures of where we went without having an agenda or even thinking about what I was trying to achieve with my photograph. In terms of actually thinking about what and why I was taking photographs for did not enter my head for the first 20 years of my photography. The first influence that I can actively remember is when I first saw the photographs of Lee Chapman in his gallery in Keswick about 8 years ago.
http://www.leechapmangallery.co.uk/default.html
What I liked was the depth and detail of the shadows in some of his photographs.
My next step forward was in 2008 when I went on a weeks course with Jonathan Chritchley in the South of France.
http://www.jonathanchritchley.net/
By now I was actively looking to learn more and develop my photography. I found Jonathan through some random googling. I went on the course because I liked the pared back and minimalist style of his work. It was on this course that I began to play with desaturating my images and begin to work with long exposure. Through 2009 – 2011 I began to work more in B & W or desaturated colour. When I was made redundant in 2011 I signed up for a 6 month distance learning course with Jonathan. At the end of this I was clearer about my style, definately B & W and using long exposure for work other than water related shots.
This last part of my development came about when I discovered the work of Michael Kenna.
http://www.michaelkenna.net/
I was still in Brussels and had found a great little photography bookshop near to where I lived. I was browsing through the rows of books and came across ‘In Hokkaido’ and ‘Mont St Michel’. I was drawn to them because of the way the books were bound and presented. Then I looked inside and was really hooked. The first thing that got me was the simplicity of the photos in ‘In Hokkaido’. Starkly B & W, just a line of fishing poles in a calm sea or a line of trees on the horizon with a white foreground of snow and a clear sky. ‘Mont St Michel’ took me longer to appreciate less stark but steeped in shadow and dark spaces. All achieved by photographing at night or with long exposures of some times many hours.
Where has this led me? I am moving away from conventional landscapes that surround me here in the Lake District. I like the element of doubt that is introduced with a long exposure time of say 10 minutes. You can see the scene in front of you but the way the light and clouds move during the exposure adds a tension to the process. I am leaning towards seascapes and coastal vistas with big sky and sea areas and perhaps just a hint of of land protruding into the photo. I find that I will take 3 or 4 long exposures of a scene but I am not striving for the perfect technical exposure. What I look for is the best movement and interaction of light and shadow in the photograph and work on that image to get the final photograph. To date I probably have less than 10 photographs in my portfolio that realise what I am trying to achieve. The next part of my journey is to work on that vision for my photography and build up a revised portfolio.
A little bit of history – where I come from.
I have never studied art or photography my background at school and university was always science and I never really thought about studying art or photography. Having done all this science I then got a job as an accountant. Worked in Finance for about 16 years and then moved into IT. Moved to Brussels in 1996 and had a good 17 year career in corporate IT. Got made redundant in June 2011. As with a lot of people made me think about what I really wanted to do.
Why photography? I have been interested in photography since I was about 13. My dad had a couple of cameras and he would let me borrow one. I then joined the school photography club and had that first magic moment in the darkroom watching a first print emerge from the chemical bath. At eighteen I got my first SLR camera and for the next 25 years I dabbled with photography and cameras. I got really serious again about 5 years ago when I bought my first digital SLR. 2 years later I got confident enough to create my website and publish this to my friends. This got me a fair amount of stick but at the same time I received some compliments that kept me going. I kept taking pictures and publishing them on my website. I went on a couple of courses that encouraged me – there will be more about them later. I upgraded my cameras and lenses just before I finished work. We moved back to Kendal in Dec 2011 and I began the work of looking for a studio. I joined Green Door Artists, a not for profit group of artists based in Kendal in Mar 2012. I was lucky enough to secure one of their studios in their new space in the centre of Kendal.
http://www.greendoor.org.uk/
So that is enough history. From now on I will explore what I am trying to achieve moving forward
