Staging your first exhibition
If you want to get your work into the public eye, what better way than your own exhibition? We find out how to turn that pipe dream into reality
Words Georgie Woof
Exhibiting your work and having crowds flock to see it is a dream for most pro photographers, something to aspire to. However, for first-timers the whole experience can seem like a costly nightmare. But, believe it or not, you can afford to have your dream exhibition, if you plan carefully. To help you succeed we have explored some of the routes you can take to getting your work in the public eye.
The most important thing to address, before you even begin to contemplate the how, when and where of exhibitions, though, is the why. Obviously an exhibition will be great for marketing your work, but what is the purpose personally for you as a photographer? More print sales, more contacts? Or do you simply want your work to be seen by your colleagues and other artists?
Pro contributor Steve Gosling currently has an exhibition of his pinhole photography at Gibson Mill, West Yorkshire. He told us: “I think you always need to be clear about the purpose of your exhibition. You need to address questions like, are you hoping to raise your profile? Or just looking for a venue to sell your work?”
In fact, how you plan your show depends on your reason for having it. If you are trying to sell prints, then hanging images for £300 in a coffee bar on sale won’t necessarily yield great profits as sales could be few and far between.
“I think when displaying work in a restaurant you have got to be careful of your target audience,” Gosling comments.
“What I find is, when people go into a coffee bar and see your images they’ll admire them, but they’re not necessarily going to spend hundreds of pounds on one then and there. Most people don’t go out for a coffee expecting to spend three hundred quid. I know I don’t! Personally, I’d probably put my smaller open-edition prints in that sort of venue, whereas if it were a commercial gallery I’d be putting in larger limited-edition prints.”
Picture by Steve Gosling
Gosling believes there is a time and a place for every print and so he adapts his work to each gallery to succeed.
“When I had a display at the Harlow Carr exhibition I put in 20 of my 16x20 prints, which suited the venue perfectly. The exhibition I had at Joe Cornish’s gallery last year, I saw Joe had all these 30 or 40 inch prints, and I realised if I put 16x20 prints alongside Joe’s large-format prints they’d look puny. So I decided to put in larger prints.”
Location is everything. It may be a fantasy of yours to follow in Steve’s footsteps and get your prints in somewhere as prestigious as Mr Cornish’s gallery, but, if you aren’t fending off the invitations to exhibit work just yet, there are other places you can approach yourself.
Landscape photographer Chris Gilbert, who has recently begun staging his own exhibitions, has a few theories about where to aim a display.
“I don’t use café and restaurant galleries. They are a good way of getting your work seen, but that’s just not the kind of venue I want. I try to aim higher.”
Having learnt from experience, Gilbert knows the key to location is knowing your buyers.
“I know where I want to pitch my stuff and I think I know who my buyers are,” he explains. “And they don’t go to cafe exhibitions. I put my work in a very carefully selected small number of places. My buyers tend to be slightly old, more affluent people. They’re outgoing, they’ve got spare capital and know what they’re looking for. They come to the Peak District because they love it and they’re probably slightly more cultured. So I go to where they go.”
Currently, Gilbert is also trying to open his living room as a gallery. He explains: “The local planning authorities are happy with our plans, and we’ve cleared it with the insurance and mortgage company. My only hurdle is the Highways Agency, because we have no parking.”
It is key to remember the more people in the supply chain the less of a sale you get yourself, so if you can sell directly through your own space then it initially covers those extra costs. And in turn maximises profits.
“There are always ways of getting your stuff out there. I’m also on sale in a local gallery,” says Gilbert. “The owners love it, as my images are of the area surrounding the gallery, which is exactly what their visitors want to see.”
