Holding a photography exhibition: where do you start?

Where do you start? Am I good enough? Where would I do it? Who would come? These questions and many more are probably running through your head if you’re thinking about holding a photography exhibition.

This blog is to encourage you to give it a go. I am an amateur, very part-time photographer, but because an opportunity arose I did it. I could not be more pleased that I did. It was not as scary or costly as you might think.

I have styled the blog around the most common questions that I had or that people asked me about holding a photography exhibition. You can just skip to the ones that interest you. At the end is a quick summary of the key points, a light-hearted video of the opening and a slideshow of the photos I used.

Am I good enough?

How do you answer this question? Most of us, if we are sharing our photos, feel at least some pride in our work but we are also super critical too. Get some trusted feedback, look at your engagement from those that already view your photographs. I had some recognition from blog sites and a photography magazine which helped bolster my self-confidence. You don’t have to be a national geographic photographer, I’m certainly not.  So most likely the answer to whether you are good enough or not if your reading this blog is going to be Yes.

Where should I put it on?

This is a hard question to answer without knowing where you are. There are a few options for holding a photography exhibition. Look in your city for free spaces to give it a go. In my case it was Riccarton public library that had a dedicated wall for exhibitions with all the hanging equipment already installed. In this case I also knew someone who worked there that encouraged me to make use of the space. You could also take your work to local galleries and ask to exhibit it. Some galleries, especially small local ones are more than happy. Sometimes local cafes and restaurants will hang your photography. Get creative, a workspace, an open night at a school, a local space that can be hired for a short or long time. I had done an evening exhibit of a few photos previously at a work concert.

Do I need a theme?

I was really torn on this one. To a large extent New Zealand landscapes was my theme, but within that should I narrow it? I asked a few photographers I respect, they suggested themes were for projects and an exhibition should be your favourite pieces. That is what I ran with. The slide show at the end of the blog shows you the full range of photos to give you some idea. In the end I had mostly New Zealand landscapes, one from Melbourne, some black and white or neutral tones and most colour.

People seemed to enjoy the mix. To complement the exhibition at the opening event I had a 10-minute slideshow going around with another 80 or so photographs that got extremely good feedback. Some of the purchases came from the slideshow.

How many photos do I need?

This is dependent on the space and of course the size of prints. It also depends if you want to hold your photography exhibition alone or do it with others, more on this below. In my case I had a long wall to fill, but you could not move too far back to view them so I had eight A3’s framed and 12 A4’s framed.  Because of the short distance to stand back, the smaller prints worked well. I made sure there was a 60cm to a 1m gap between photos and this worked well when people stopped to explore a photo as they didn’t block the view for anyone else.

Exhibit alone or with others?

This question came up for me early on but for several reasons I was ok this time to do it alone.  I would though love to hold a photography exhibition where a few of us exhibit together. In this case I exhibited by myself because I already had a lot of the frames ready and was offered the space in a timeframe that worked for me. I am pleased I did this as it really built up my confidence. If you do it as a group, you would just need to agree on things like, how to present them, pricing, payment if you hire, etc. None of that is rocket science or difficult to do.

How long should my photography exhibition be on for?

This will most often depend on the space you are using and the timeframes they allow. In my case I had the freedom to choose so went with three weeks. The first week was to open and let people know about it and then two more weeks to try and get people along. I think that probably worked quite well for me.  It will also depend on the publicity, if it is a well-known gallery space it might only need to be there for a very short time and will attract appreciative people easily. A public library is a little more random.

Where do I get my prints?

If you are thinking of putting on an exhibition you are probably printing photos and have a favourite place. If not then ask around among other photographers, in my experience they have been happy to share recommendations. I got my prints done for this at Kens Cameras in Christchurch as I can print a large number onto a big sheet and then trim it myself making it a bit more affordable. Being local it also meant I could quickly reprint one that I sized wrong and there was no delay. Regardless, make sure you have done the best to calibrate your screen to the printer and had some test shots done well in advance.

How do I present the photos?

I really struggled with this one but in the end showed them as framed prints. This worked well. People assumed that there was a lot of money in the framing but, with Briscoes and K-Mart (in NZ) you can do some nice simple framing for not much money. A little trick we did was some of the frames came with perspex instead of glass. We took them to a glass business who cut new glass for them easily. The final look was just fine. I also went for framed as I already have a gallery in one room of our house. This meant I did not need to purchase many new ones.

I also sold some of the prints framed so the overall outlay was very manageable. I have seen the prints put onto a backing board and not covered at all, but I was not confident to do that in a public space.

As noted above the space I used had an existing system set up for handing so apart from making sure they were straight and evenly spaced we did not need to supply any hooks or other hanging equipment.

Every photo had a little story under it and the year and season it was taken, also including the camera settings.  I included settings because I was in a public space and thought that might be interesting to people. Some photographers prefer not to do it as it can change so much depending on the light, but I did get lots of good feedback about having them there.

Do I sell my prints and how?

This was an interesting dilemma and one you need to cover with the manager of the space before you start. I assumed with it being a public library they may not like that but at the end of the day they had no issues.  There was a short bio of myself and under that had prices for the A4 and A3 prints framed and unframed. I left cards out to be taken and put a little qwerty code that took people directly to my prints page.  Even with all that people asked me “were they for sale” and how to buy them. So short of putting prices and details to purchase on every photo I am not sure what the solution is. I didn’t want to appear too commercial in a public space.

After the opening I did go back and put some stickers on some that said “sold – prints still available” for ones that had sold at the opening. No other photos sold during the exhibition, but I had read enough to know that was likely to be the case. A different gallery might have a totally different outcome though, and of course a different photographer.  We did consider doing a special price for the exhibition but decided not to though that could be another option.

What promotion should I do?

This is probably the area I am least effective at and where my confidence did let me down. If you’re an Instagram follower, you will know I bombarded Instagram. I also made a Facebook event both for the opening and the exhibition. I don’t think you do two separate events as it just ended up confusing some people about when the photography exhibition started, and the opening was on.

I did some promotion at my work and through our City Council events page. The library did some advertising promotion for me in their newsletter and I did write to one local paper.  I shared the Facebook event around a few other Facebook pages, but I didn’t have my own Facebook page for TheAfterWorkPhotographer, but I do now. 

Given it is a public space you do get people popping past and I did talk to the library about maybe having signage another time to direct people to it.

 

Do I have an opening event?

YES. This was my favourite part of the event, I invited friends, family, workmates and Instagram folk.  I expected at tops 30 people to turn up but 60 ended up at the event. It created a real buzz. People spent time really exploring my photos and discussing them. This gave me a real confidence boost. The fact some also purchased them was beyond my expectations. So, in short for the opening it was very simple, we had:

• A function for 2 hours
• A Separate room for food and drink (that was because the library is a public space you won’t always need to be separate)
• A slideshow going
• No alcohol because of it being a public space but we had a nice punch and non-alcoholic bubbly and finger food
• A few watchers to direct people given the space, again not always necessary
• We had plenty of catering, but I was so busy we didn’t end up putting it all out. Make sure you do have someone assigned to this. The family was my back-up but they were too busy chatting and having fun too.

 

  

 

 

 

 

A short take of the opening night

Do I hang out at the exhibition?

I did a couple of times when others could come along and catch up with me. I really enjoyed these opportunities, so I think scheduling to be there at least once a week would be great.

Process in short:

1. Decide if you are doing it alone or with others
2. Identify and book a potential space
3. Visit and decide how many photos to hang and how you are going to display them
4. Sort your press releases, advertising and invitations – including an opening night
5. Get your prints done with time for re-prints in case there are errors
6. Organise your frames or backing board to display
7. Do a sheet of stories for each print and your own bio including any pricing
8. Do your open night menu – don’t underestimate
9. Get helpers organised for hanging the day it begins (check if a ladder is available)
10. Keep promoting
11. Organise to be there sometimes to meet people and just enjoy
12. Have fun and take a few photos/video of the exhibit and opening event.

Photos I exhibited