Richard Sullivan (richsul@earthlink.net)
Wed, 24 Feb 1999 15:10:41 -0700
Jeff and I are pretty much in agreement.
As for the kinds of orgs we are what-iffing:
As for alt-photo itself I think an organization that grew out of APIS would
be a dandy way to support the technical/art end of things.
For the exhibiting photographer, an organization built on the ASMP model
might be useful.
For the rest of us, that becomes tricky. Anyone who wants exposure need
only set up a web site. Twenty bucks a month doesn't even add up to the
cost of a lens over 5 years.
I have had some experience with art organizations in the past. (Hmm, it
seems most are defunct now...) I was a board member of the LA Museum of
Contemporary Art's Photographic Council and an Advisory Board member of the
San Diego Museum of Photography (MOPA).
I was founding president of Soho Cameraworks, later Cameravision in LA. The
gallery was active from 1996-1984. Our mission was to provide shows and
experience for emerging artists. A "training gallery" if you will. It a
whole different experience to hang a show, have an opening reception, and
get blasted by the critic in the local Shopping News. It was a great time
and lots of folks got their start there: Bruce Barnbaum, Howard Bond,
Steven Cohen, The Kenyon twins now of the Woodstock Center, Patrick
Nagatani, Carolee Campbell (now famous maker of artist's books, prices
start at $400.00) and myself. We even exhibited some of Mapplethorpe's
rougher stuff before he was famous. I was president and had the backing of
the ACLU if things got nasty.
Current economics make it pretty tough to run a gallery like that. It costs
us $100,000.00 a year to run back in those days. Without a gallery an
organization for just plain photo folks would look pretty much like PSA.
Having had much experience in arts orgs, and most of them dead now, I am
naturally skeptical of any movement in that direction. The politics is
awful, and the economics even worse. With your own business you can pretty
much control things, with thse animals, it's rough.
--Dick Sullivan
505-474-0890 FAX 505-474-2857
<http://www.bostick-sullivan.com>http://www.bostick-sullivan.com
http://www.workingpictures.com
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.0b3 on Sat Nov 06 1999 - 10:06:54