Artistic Courage - Getting It Out There - Part II

     So it's  February. It's cold outside. There is a ton of snow on the ground . The front walk and stairs of my scruffy little home need shoveling from the last dumping of snow. It's way too early in the morning  and I'm sitting in what I laughably call my office, punching up another blog post. However in the midst of this grey, mid-winter, sub-zero misery I have some exciting news. My pictures have been accepted by a local gallery. https://tarenwhitegallery.com/  Subsequently, I have booked a four month show and sale there beginning March 1st of this year. It's early days yet. As of this writing, my prints are out being professionally matted and framed for display. Each image was carefully selected and printed, in house, on top quality Canon photographic paper through a Canon Pro series printer in full glorious colour. They look really good if I may say so myself!  Initially, it will be a small display of just four pictures. I'm testing the waters so to speak. However, each photo will be a first edition of a limited run of 50 prints in that size. It's all part of a New Year's resolution I made to myself for this year, ''Get the work out there!'' 

    This kind of ties in with the theme of my last post, ''Artistic Courage - Getting It Out There.'' https://refractivereasoning.blogspot.com/2022/01/on-artistic-courage-getting-it-out-there.html  That post kind of devolved into a story of how I dealt with a somewhat nasty critic of my stuff at a local art and craft show. But, the story served as a portrait of the worst that can happen with a public display of one's images. In the overall scheme of things it was kind of a nothing story. At best it can, hopefully, provide a method for dealing with unconstructive criticism. 

    However, dealing with invalid criticism is only one part of the experience of getting the work out there. Another aspect of the experience is printing and framing the pictures for presentation. If I could offer one piece of advice to aspiring photographers it would be this.

                                               ''PRINT YOUR DAMN PICTURES!''

    The two printers that I own are important tools in my photographic process. I value them just as much as any camera I might have in my collection of gear. At  art and craft shows where I've shown my photos,  I've had people comment on my work. ''Your pictures look great. Who does your printing?''  With a bit of pride, I repond, ''I do.'' 

    Back in the dinosaur days of film photography, before the advent of the internet and digital imaging, most  pictures were printed. In those days, photographs had value. Digital imaging and the internet have greatly desensitized us to the value of a photograph. We all have the attention span of a drunken butterfly! A friend or family member posts a picture to a social media platform. We look at it for about 10 seconds before scrolling on to the next thing. At best, we might hit a ''like'' icon or punch up a short comment of ten words or less. Less than an hour later, that visual experience is nothing but a vague memory. I know from experience that this blog post  you're reading right now will stop garnering any significant number of page views within 24 hours of my publishing it. It's almost not worth the effort!

    But a photographic print has value. It is no longer an ethereal collection of electrons digitally cobbled together to make a visual image. A print is a thing.  You can hold it in your hands. It might hold enough visual value that you might frame it and hang it on your wall to be appreciated for far longer than 10 seconds on a social media feed. From a functional standpoint, the object of photography is to make a photograph. Call me old school, but for me, that process involves making a print or having the image printed by a quality photo lab.

    I can remember getting ready for an art show. I was full of doubt and pessimism. Setting up a display for an art show is a lot of hassle for just one or two days of potential sales. Tables and display materials have to be rounded up. Prints have to be made, numbered, dated and framed. Transportation has to be arranged to cart this whole pile of  stuff over to the show venue to be set up for opening time. It's a lot of work for what is often a pretty meagre return on investment in terms  of time and resources. Why was I doing this anyway? Did I really think that my pictures are worth showing to anyone?

    I opened one of the containers of stuff that I had put together for the show. I took out a folder of pictures that I had printed up for show and sale. I layed out a copy of each  print on my bed and looked at them. There were more than a dozen of them. Each picture was a tangible, colour,  glossy 8''X10'' thing that I had created.The self doubt and pessimism I had been feeling vanished.  It was replaced by a strong sense of validation. The pictures looked pretty good.  At that moment, I didn't really care if the show was worth it or if I sold a pile of photos. I really didn't even care if people liked them or not.  

     All I could think of was, ''I'm a photographer. I make pictures. I show them to people.'' Enough said.

                             ...more later

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