Welcome!
I became tired of all the things COVID was preventing me from doing and started focusing on what it could enable me to do. I can’t forget the sadness and frustration over the last year, but I feel reassured that some new projects have been launched, including The Photographer's Report.
What can you expect?
Insight
Integrity
Information
Inbox by 12 noon every Tuesday
It won’t always be pretty. There will be stories (more like parables), facts, and side notes. I will share pictures from my archives (even the embarrassing ones) and share irreverent strategies to move your career forward. When pulled together, they offer an inside look on being an artist, being a gallerist, and navigating your career as a fine artist who works with photography as their medium of choice.
What’s new?
There is plenty of information out there, and it’s not hard to find. Some things come across my desk that I think you should know about or know about again. They are curated opportunities that you should consider, and I will tell you why you should consider them.
From The Archives
When I opened my gallery in 2004, I believed that every artist that I worked with I would work with forever! You know by now that all good (and not so good) things come to an end. This is true with working with galleries and working with artists. (True, there are some artists - Thomas Allen! - that I have been working with from the start).
The lesson here is to constantly reevaluate your professional relationships and see if they are continuing to benefit you. But don’t also forget to evaluate if you are benefiting the other person. There are too many artists listed on too many gallery websites that are “represented” when in fact, they haven’t been shown in years with prints squirreled away in dusty black boxes or Nielsen metal frames from the 1980s.
It’s time to reevaluate your professional associations. Is sticking with an old, outdated association really just preventing you from moving on? How would I know you are available as an artist if you are on someone else’s website, languishing away in a bin or a cubby somewhere, holding onto a dream that maybe one day you will get a show?
Time to cut the cord and make yourself available.
(photo + graphic by Francisco Garcia, 2004 | Artwork by Jona Frank)
Things To Check Out
The first portfolio review that I was ever a part of was back in 2001 when an early version of Photolucida was launched in Portland, Oregon. This year, their auction is online, and it’s a great opportunity to score a review (and help them raise money). You may even find some familiar faces there ; )
The quickest, most effective way to make contact with professionals is the portfolio review. I’ve happily done dozens of these and have included artists in group and solo exhibitions as a result—a more detailed report on what to do and not to do in a future TPR.
The must-see exhibition every year at Brooklyn Bridge Park (and beyond), Photoville is taking applications for exhibition proposals. This is an amazing opportunity to create and curate something uniquely your own and have 1000s of people see it. Stretch your curatorial muscles. Hint: make it timely and topical and not about you.
As always, if you think someone you know can benefit from TPR, send this along.
If this weekly report is not for you, unsubscribe. It’s not personal.