Re: First gallery ' experience'

Kate,

Don't be too sure about that—I think you'll find plenty of gallieries in the
US that are pretty dumb about what is good "fine art photography". Don't be
discouraged, there isn't a person out there that hasn't been turned down by a
gallery and probably more than once. Frankly, I don't understand why about
3/4 of the art of any kind that is hanging in galleries is worth the space on
the wall. A year or so ago I saw a show of polaroids thumbtacked to a wall in
an upscale gallery and they were priced at $3,000 each. The gallery owner
came up to me with this big smile and said "aren't they fantastic?". Well, I
will have to commend him for actually approaching someone who entered the
gallery and trying to push the work—many gallery owners prefer to sit at their
desk and ignore you when you walk in to see a show. But anyway, I stared at him
with pained disbelief and asked him when he was taking down the proofs and
putting up the final prints.

I think that alt photo is experiencing a resurgence rather than the other way
around as the gallery owner you quoted said.

Mark I. Nelson
www.MarkINelsonPhoto.com
www.PrecisionDigitalNegatives.com
PDNPrint Forum @ Yahoo Groups
In a message dated 2/7/06 2:56:42 PM, kate_mocak@zoznam.sk writes:

> Finally I picked up all my courage and showed my alternative prints (gums
> and gums over cyanotype) to the owner of the gallery specialized to
> photography ("Central European House of Photography" in Bratislava). The
> response I got was approximately as follows: he didn't see any added value
> in doing 19th century processes in the 21st century. They are obsolete. He
> didn't see any 'author's statement' in photographing industrial architecture
> because this topic was fully exhausted in the 70s and 80s. On top of that,
> what on earth is the reason to combine old processes with industrial
> architecture. Etc, etc...
>
> I can accept the fact that my photography lacks the 'author's statement'.
> (Even though until now nobody has been able to explain to me what exactly it
> is.) But saying that alternative processes and pictorialistic photographs
> have nothing to tell to the today's audience is a bit 'too strong coffee' as
> we say here.
>
> I'm frustrated and have to sleep on it. Just wanted to share this experience
> with you. Hopefully there are other parts of the world where we are not
> regarded as retarded.
>
> Kate
>
Received on Tue Feb 7 22:54:22 2006