I just got back into Portland yesterday after a whirlwind 2 1/2 days at the San Francisco Photo Alliance “Our World” Portfolio Review event. I was so glad, at the end, that I had taken the time to go down for it. It was a different experience than the one I had at PhotoLucida nearly a year ago. I should begin by saying that what I brought with me for the event included 3 portfolios (Displaced, Remnants, and Still Standing, Standing Still), a leave behind marketing piece, postcards, business cards, and a dummy copy of the Displaced book.
I talked with Thom Sempere, the Executive Director of the San Francisco Photo Alliance about the differences between the two events and the thing that stood out to me the most was the intimacy of the event. At certain points throughout the weekend, I had wished that I had come to this event as my first portfolio event rather than PhotoLucida and it had nothing to do with the quality of the reviews or feedback. It had more to do with the intimacy of the event, and with half the number of reviews, I didn’t feel the need to collapse after the entire thing was over. After the 23 reviews I had at PhotoLucida (more if you add roving reviewers), I needed to lock myself in a quiet room for about a week to recover. I didn’t know what to expect before PhotoLucida and I think I would have been better prepared for the whole experience if I had gone to a smaller one like the one held this weekend in San Francisco.
Below is a list of who I met with and what if anything I can take away immediately. I did learn from PhotoLucida that you should wait at least a year to track all of the results from these events and what may appear to seem unlikely to provide any lasting results could drastically change in a short period. So, as things progress from this event, I will update you.
Day 1
Anne Kelly, Associate Gallery Director, photo-eye Gallery
I knew early on that really wanted to meet Anne Kelly. photo-eye‘s web site gets between 7,000 and 8,000 hits a day. I had met Melanie McWhorter, the Book Division Manager for photo-eye in April at PhotoLucida. She responded well to my work and to the book dummy I had created for Displaced. When it was time to start marketing the book, I contacted Melanie and she responded by adding it to photo-eye’s collection of books for sale, as well as posting it as the “Curated Selection of the Day” about a month ago. So, I thought that by meeting Anne, I could gain another connection at photo-eye, and see what we could do to help the sale of the book, possibly through their gallery. She looked through everything I brought and seemed to respond the most to Displaced. We had a nice conversation and at the end of our 20 minutes (which feels like 20 seconds) she suggested that I submit the Displaced series for photo-eye’s Photographer’s Showcase. This is something, that if accepted, will have made the whole trip worthwhile. The amount of exposure and validation given to the artist’s jury-accepted into the Showcase is extremely high. I will be submitting my work this week…
David Maisel, Photographer
When I went to PhotoLucida, I went hard after the gallery owners and book representatives. I didn’t give myself the luxury of meeting with any other photographers who were reviewing and I regret that. So, I decided in San Francisco, that I would actually give myself the chance to see what these successful photographers thought. The questions I was most interested in having them answer were: Am I on the right path? What flaws do you see in this work? What could I be doing differently? I have to say that David Maisel gave me the most encouragement. He said I am definitely on the right path, that whatever I want out of photography will come, and that I need to be patient enough to let it happen organically. I am a big fan of his work so, hearing this really gave me a lot of confidence. There is a different dynamic talking to other photographers. There seems to be at the least, an appreciation for the effort and perseverance. They understand how hard it is, how competitive it is. In the future, if I went to FotoFest or another big portfolio review event, I would definitely mix in a few photographers whose work I respect. If nothing else, it is a wonderful break from the worry and stress of going from one gallerist to another all day…
Anne Veh, Art Consultant & Independent Curator
Again, at PhotoLucida, I hadn’t met with any independent curators or consultants, so I really didn’t know what to expect. Anne is a very warm, outgoing person, and we fell easily into conversation about my work. She was also heavily interested in the book as she has been involved in curating for books as well. She was very enthusiastic about the possibilities. Sometimes during these reviews, you’ll see a reviewer look off, like they’re trying to think about opportunities or other artists to look at. She did that during our meeting, and I felt optimistic that something would come from this meeting. I’m not sure yet what that will be, but she told me she wanted to keep in touch and to keep her informed of any new or updated work.
Christopher McCall, Director, Pilara Foundation
When I researched the Pilara Foundation in preparation for the reviews, I came across this:
“Pacific Waterfront Partners (PWP) was engaged to identify and secure a location for the storage, management and curation of the Pilara Foundation’s photography collection. PWP negotiated and secured approval for a 10 year lease from the San Francisco Port Commission and the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, secured all necessary permits and entitlements for the project, performed pre-development consulting services, oversaw the design process, bid and selected the general contractor for the project, oversaw and managed the construction.
At 27,000 square feet, the Pilara Family Foundation at Pier 24 is one of the largest buildings dedicated to the collection and preservation of photography in the U.S.(By comparison, New York’s MOMA dedicates about 7,000 square feet of gallery space to displaying its photography collection.) The building is used for the curation and active storage of fine art photography.
The Pilara-PWP renovation of Pier 24 achieves the Department of the Interior’s Standards for Historic Rehabilitation, and represents a major turnaround for one of San Francisco’s long-forgotten waterfront gems.”
This new space will be close to 4 TIMES the size of what MoMA dedicates to photography. When I read this, I knew this was a huge opportunity. I have to say that in terms of critical feedback, Christopher McCall was probably the best I got all weekend. When presenting your work, do you ever look at maybe one image here, an image there that you feel insecure about, or maybe a little flaw that you hope no one will see, but then cast those little fears aside as paranoia? Well Christopher picked up on the ones that I had perfectly and we talked about them, productively. I was grateful for the feedback. He also said that by far I had the most exquisite presentation that he’d seen and was genuinely grateful that I had taken the time, expense and effort to show my respect for the work and for the people seeing it by presenting it all so beautifully. He seemed to really like my work and wanted me to keep in touch. I definitely will.
Linda Connor, Photographer & Educator
I selected Linda as a reviewer mostly because I admired her work, but once I got to San Francisco, I realized that of all the reviewers there, she seemed like someone who could end up being a good mentor or just a trusty pair of eyes for future projects. We didn’t have much time to delve into how she got where she was, but we were able to scratch the surface. She looked at all of my work and had many positive comments. One criticism she gave me was she thought I was being too ambitious with the Displaced book. It may be that she didn’t think the Holga work should have been paired with the images from Nova Scotia. I know that may be a doubt in some people’s mind about whether it is was an appropriate decision to make, but I believe the longer you can spend looking at it all, the more it makes sense. She has a show coming up in Portland during August at Newspace Center for Photography and asked me I’d like to have lunch when she’s here. I said yes, and hope to build a friendship with her. I already get the sense that many look up to her as an excellent educator and photographer.
Paul Schiek, Artist, Publisher TBW Books
I met Paul as the last review appointment on Saturday. As packed as my schedule had been that day, I believe the reviewers were even more booked. He seemed tired. I was tired. Mostly we ended up talking about St. Louis and our backgrounds. He was from the midwest, I studied there and we were just sharing information about the region and how we got into photography. Honestly, I was so tired, I didn’t feel like even talking about my prints anymore, I just wanted to relax and have a normal conversation. I didn’t think Paul’s work would necessarily be a good fit for me, but what I was really interested in was how he went about getting representation from the Stephen Wirtz Gallery. I was so tired, I forgot to ask. I hope we’ll be able to stay in touch and maybe I’ll get my answer…
Day 2
Whitney Johnson, Associate Picture Editor, The New Yorker
I have to admit, I wanted to meet Whitney purely for the excitement of being able to get some time with a Picture Editor of a huge publication, who sees thousands of images and who I could never imagine being able to get 20 minutes with under normal circumstances. Whitney explained the process by which she ends up searching for images and the database that The New Yorker maintains. She is able to search by artist name as well as with keywords. She felt that of all my work, the series of the abandoned yard sale called Remnants could be the best fit. She said it varies greatly what the time requirement is for her to identify imagery for a particular feature, usually from 1 day to 1 week. I really think this would be a long shot, but you never know…
Dennis Kiel, Chief Curator, The Light Factory Contemporary Museum of Photography
The biggest part of making a portfolio review event a successful one is trying, as best you can, to figure out who are going to be the people that will respond to your work, and that is nearly impossible to do. Reading bios, seeing what a Museum is currently showing, and just knowing someone’s personal taste can make all of the difference in making these meetings productive. I really didn’t know much about Dennis Kiel. I researched, but still felt going into our appointment that it was going to be a wild card. He actually ended up liking Still Standing, Standing Still the best. He said he liked “simple” projects, ones that focused on a single idea or concept and were well executed and easy to view. That work was last in the box to get shown, so not much conversation had been generated up to that point about the work. After hearing what other reviewees were saying about how he responded to their work, I got a very clear understanding of what to send Dennis in the future. This is part of the task also, to get to know these people, what they like not just for what you’re showing now, but for future work…
Stefan Kirkeby, Co-owner, Smith Anderson North Gallery
Next, I met with Stefan Kirkeby, co-owner of the Smith Anderson North Gallery in San Rafael, CA. Stefan has a great personality, very outgoing, friendly and upbeat. He actually liked everything I showed him and saw the connections I hoped for throughout all of the work. Luis Delgado happened to be free during that time slot, so he joined in. Bonus! Stefan seemed to be the most interested in getting moving on a show. He asked me to send him images (which I included on my leave behind). It’s always a good thing to be asked for files… We’ll see what happens, but I really enjoyed the time with Stefan, it was relaxed and fun.
Joanna Lehan, Associate Editor, Books, Aperture Foundation
Joanna, like Whitney Johnson, was another review I signed up for simply to have the opportunity for her attention to my prints for twenty minutes. I knew the chances of that happening on my own were next to none, so I was definitely interested to see what she had to say. She liked the work I showed, but particularly responded to Still Standing, Standing Still. It was strange because the first day of reviews was all about Displaced and Remnants, but day two was all about Still Standing, Standing Still. She talked about seeing it on a wall in a grid. We also discussed the importance of knowing how much, or how little to reveal to your viewers about the work. I told her it seemed like a fine line between letting people know how invested you are in the work, but not drowning the experience of viewing for them either, and allowing something to be taken away. The other interesting suggestion Joanna had was for me to try and get on a symposium or teach a workshop in how to finance your self published book. She was very interested in how I won the grant, got Moab Paper involved, and pre-sold a number of books to end up with a minimal financial investment in the Displaced book. I hadn’t thought about it, but she said that almost every person she talks to at the reviews asks her about self publishing and how to finance the project, find buyers, etc. I think this is a great idea and maybe, the Regional Arts & Culture Council will let me propose a program…
Some other thoughts…
I had lunch on Friday before the reviews started with Ed Carey, Director of Gallery 291. It was my second time meeting him (see earlier posts). The last time we met I presented work and this time he suggested we head out and get a bite to eat which we did at a nearby Japanese restaurant. We had a really nice, relaxed lunch talking about why he decided to open the gallery, whether he missed doing more photography himself, and the state of the fine art photography market in general. It was wonderful to be able to relax and talk about each of our interests and work. I proposed that when the book is done, that I come down, give an artist talk and have a book launch. He seemed open to that idea and we planned to meet and/or talk some more when I head back down to San Francisco in a few weeks to drop off my finished pages to John DeMerritt to bind. Ed has a lot of insight into the gallery world and he’s genuine and kind and I look forward to getting to know him and his wife better who I was able to meet that evening at the Photo Alliance lecture. Thanks Ed!
And a special thank you to Thom Sempere.