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ivanbpalli
25th October 2012, 11:52 AM
I’m thinking about preparing an exhibition next year and I’ve been wondering about ‘consistency’. Should all the prints look the same? Have the same size? For what I’ve seen there seems to be a general agreement towards those lines. I do lith prints, and although my subjects are the same (trees) and the photos are all taken in the same place I interpret each photo individually, trying to find the treatment that best suits each image, which means they have a wide range of tones and texture. I also use different cameras which also give different looks. Would all this work against the consistency of my body of work? What do you think consistency is about, or how do you apply it in your own work?

Ivan

Alan Clark
25th October 2012, 12:42 PM
Ivan, I well remember seeing a big exhibition a good few years ago of photographs by Paul Hill, in Derby Art Gallery. There were a lot of prints, maybe about 80 or so, in a big room. All the prints were the same size, all the frames were the same size, all the mounts were the same colour, all the prints were black and white and had the same neutral "colour". The frames were all displayed at the same height and made a contiunous line all round the room. I was, and still am, an avid Paul Hill fan, but such was the "consistency" (visual boredom) of the layout that it took a lot of stamina on my part to work all round the room looking carefully at each print in turn. My wife gave up after a couple of minutes, and in the time I was in the room several other people did the same.
So, if I was you, I wouldn't worry too much about consistency. I have noticed with my own exhibitions that if you have prints in a variety of sizes, for example, some big, some small, and others , perhaps the bulk, in a more normal size, people move back and forth much more, instead of simply "going along the line". I wouldn't worry about cconsistency of image tone either. But I do think that consistency within groups of prints is worth going for, i.e. one framing style for very small prints, another framing style for bigger prints.
All this is very personal of cours, and others will all have their own ideas.
Good luck!

Alan

Argentum
25th October 2012, 01:09 PM
I'm inclined to agree with Alan.

The real crux of it is whether you are doing this to sell work, i.e. as a commercial exercise, or whether you are doing this because you have something to say about the world.

If its commercial then what people (viewers) are doing is looking for decor for their home pure simple. They may say they are want some art but I can guarantee you their overiding thought will be how will that look hanging on my wall in my house. That means a variety of sizes frames and colours will give them a much bigger choice of something that matches their decor.

On the other hand, if you are making a cultural statement and not bothered about selling, then consistency of framing and size makes not a jot of difference if people are really looking at content and not presentation.

Presentation is everything if you want to sell. So often I see local galleries with some reasonable quality paintings but the cheapest presentation the artist can find. Cheap mountboard, the most basic frames poorly assembled etc. It's no wonder it doesn't sell. No one would want to hang that on their living room wall.

Trevor Crone
25th October 2012, 04:20 PM
Ivan, a timely question from my point of view as I've just hung my exhibition at a local gallery, www.thegreenwichgallery.com Picture attached.

Both Alan and Argentum make very valid points and unless the gallery dictates to how the exhibition should look, it will mostly be a personal choice of the exhibitor.

My own exhibition consists of just 24 prints that have consistency in printing, mounting and framing. They are also at the same viewing height. However Alan makes a very valid point that they can look 'samey' and visually boring. I would certainly agree if showing a large body of work, and a variety of frame size and grouping will go a long way in making the work visually interesting.

I saw the Elliott Erwitt exhibition recently at Chris Beetles Gallery and a few of the prints were in different mount colours (white + off-white) and although the frames were all black some had different moldings. I must confess I found this a little disconcerting, but this is purely personal choice.

Tony Marlow
25th October 2012, 04:49 PM
You touch on a point which where I think priorities get twisted. I agree that presentation is very importent but it should not dictate the creation of the image. First priority should be what is best for the image, i.e. size, proportions, cropping, tone etc then the presentation should be designed to show it at its best. I shudder when I hear people say that they predetermine the size and colour of the mount and window and then make their image fit into this. Tail wagging the dog.

Tony

Phil
26th October 2012, 08:14 AM
Presentation is important (and mount colour does add an enormous amount) but as for print size, the only consistency should be your own personality, which should ring out!
It is all about self-expression after all, not some shoe-horning of ideas.
I've never hung a proper exhibition, but I have looked at a lot of pictures and to me the artist's vision is the one thing that should always ring true.
Trevor's print's might all be in consistent mounts but I have seen enough of his pictures over the years to know they're all him :)
Phil

Trevor Crone
26th October 2012, 09:07 AM
SNIP; Trevor's print's might all be in consistent mounts but I have seen enough of his pictures over the years to know they're all him :)
Phil

Thanks Phil much appreciated.

I think photographer's must be true to themselves, where possible, but in the case of exhibiting work some galleries do dictate how work is to be shown.

Steve Smith
26th October 2012, 09:13 AM
I think that whatever size you were happy with at the time of printing would be o.k. for exhibiting as well. That's what I would do should the situation every arise.

I certainly wouldn't make a complete set of new prints just for an exhibition.


Steve.

JohnArt
26th October 2012, 11:40 AM
I would second all that Alan has said and just add don't be afraid to show the same image twice if toned or sized differently if you really like what you have created.
I have found that doing this creates discussion among observers as to which they prefer and on a couple of occasions has led to the sale of both images.
Best of luck with your show.
John

vincent
26th October 2012, 01:17 PM
I have had 2 solo exhibitions and my approach is to print my photos on the same paper throughout. Size of mount and colour I keep the same. But the size of the print varies according according to my personal tastes and sense of composition. Most of my work is shot on 35mm SLR and on occasion my Xpan so the print size cannot remain constant.

ivanbpalli
28th October 2012, 12:14 PM
Lost of interesting and really helpful points to take into consideration, thanks a lot to everybody. I don't think I'll be able to show more than 20, maybe 25 images, and being all the same subject playing with sizes and grouping sets of pictures will be important to make the exhibition more visually interesting. which to be honest it's something I hadn't thought about before.

Thank again and I'll keep you posted.

Ivan

peterlg
28th October 2012, 07:15 PM
hi Ivan,
a lot depends on the room, the space, the lighting, the walls/panes at your disposal. The couple of showings I've made turned out to be in less than optimal conditions and I realised too late that I should have adapted the format/size of my photos accordingly.
Peter

andybrown
6th November 2012, 09:00 PM
Hi,
You have some really nice pics on flicker and I went off looking for something and came across something else! This quote of Stieglitz's to Paul Strand when Strand came to him to get some tips....What are you trying to say?
In that film about Stieglitz (on youtube!) he's talking about one of the wonderful shots of a horse and carriage in the snowy New York street and says he waited 3+ hours for the right moment. When he exhibited that shot, others said to him..it's blurred, the lighting is all wrong etc etc but he said he wasn't bothered about any of that. He wanted what we can see in the photograph (if we care to look!)

So, I would say have the courage of your convictions; print them , size them and show them as you would like to see them, not as you think others might like to see them.

There are a lot of very interesting shots there, you should be proud of them and any mistakes you might feel you've made in this show will only help you grow your vision for the next one.....and so on!

Good luck.

Andy.

ivanbpalli
6th November 2012, 09:11 PM
Peter, you're absolutely right, I'll need to take into account where the prints will be exhibited, which makes things more difficult as I have no idea as yet...

Andy, thanks for your comments. I totally agree with you deep inside, and I've always strived to do what pleases me and to come up with work that I find worth showing. Still, one must be very brave to put aside all conventions and go with one's heart. I agree learning from your mistakes is definitely the only way of trully progressing, though.

Thanks a lot for your encouragement.

Ivan

Trevor Crone
7th November 2012, 08:05 AM
All the best with your exhibition pursuit Ivan. Find a gallery that gives you complete freedom to go with your hearts desire, there's plenty out there. Some will even offer free exhibition space, although this seems to be coming rare these days, the economy is making it tight all round.

Rob Hale
9th November 2012, 12:55 AM
Hi All,

Interesting points of view. From a long away I think we have a much freer attitude, by which I mean that in the UK there seems to be a rather tethered view of what is “right and proper” that here in NZ we don’t suffer from, well mostly don’t suffer from.

From the selling angle I suspect that offering the buyer pictures of different sizes and different coloured frames and mounts gives the buyer the chance of finding something that suits their walls and their taste, which should increase sales, one might even offer special mounting, size and colour etc for a chosen image or hopefully images, for particular customers at a premium, prepaid price.

As to the “art” side, this is so personal I believe we should all chose the paper, toning, mounting that works for one’s self ( or particular friends or family ) and or don’t mount at all and use double sided tape to hold a print or prints on a wall or large easel with a large piece of hard board painted mat black, white or dove gray or any other colour ( those small tester pots of paint cover quite large bits of hard board if it is well primed ) one can an also double sided tape water colour paper of different hues on to the board and then stick a prints on to the paper. My current bit of hard board is mat black on one side and a sort of dove gray on the other and about 4 foot by 2 foot ( this was rescued from a picture of the SS Earnslaw on lake Wakatipu but I would make the next one much bigger ). It is interesting to note that a print on an easel looks quite different due to change in angle of the light striking the print.

I have noticed that the top art museums around the world tend to have a lot of diffused light where as the few London galleries I have been in the generally have harsh lighting which often does not suit the prints being lit.

Regards

Rob

Steven Taylor
19th March 2013, 09:12 AM
A bit late to this conversation I'm sure Ivan's exhibition is either come and gone or is so committed that this won't help. Very interesting subject though and maybe my post will revive it.

If your sole reason for exhibiting is commercial, to sell prints or commissions, you will need to appeal to your prospects. Then you have to know who they are, what they like... Minefield.

If, however, you are exhibiting to communicate your vision, the whole picture is significant. Not just size, frame and mount colour but position as well. Grouping images, spacing, viewing height and even wall colour can all be signifiers to your intention. I think Minor White talked about the spaces between the images being as significant as the images.

Captions as well... to caption or not to caption, what you say, the font you use. Sequencing, what image goes first, most (not all) people read exhibitions from left to right, what image is last and how do you get there.

I would play with work prints, lay them out on the floor, sequence them, you'll find some that you have attachment to have got to go, others you didn't think were going to work help to make sense of the sequence. Hang prints at home or, if you can, at work and in your darkroom or garage or anywhere you will see them regularly. It's a great test as to whether an image has lasting appeal or if it's what Lewis Baltz calls a "lollipop".

Whether we realise it or not I believe we are making work because we have something to say. Planning an exhibition sometimes releases what it was we were saying all along. Then you have the words for your statement.

ivanbpalli
26th March 2013, 10:47 AM
Steven, the exhibition it's still a long way in the future as uni and work takes most of my time these days. I hope after this summer I'll be able to push things a bit and see where I get. You make some interesting points. In terms of my intention behind the exhibition I guess it's both, a desire to show my work plus the wish to sell some of it, though I see the latter more as a practical thing to cover some of the expenses.
At the moment I've decided to keep shooting a bit more as I've found some of those lollipops you mention. Due to changes in availability of lithable papers I might need to re-interpret some of the photos I already have so that'll slow things a bit more. Still, the aim is to organize something this year, fingers crossed!

I'll keep you posted and thanks all!

Ivan

Phil
27th March 2013, 11:28 AM
Ivan - you're in Edinburgh. Far from it for me to promote other organisations, but a yearly sub to join Scottish Photographers might be money well spent. There are regular portfolio meetings (in Edinburgh and elsewhere) and a wealth of advice. A lot of members of SP are exhibiting photographers.
The site is here:
http://scottish-photographers.com/
Hope admin don't mind me mentioning it. I am a member, and I think the sub is money well spent.
Phil

Bill
27th March 2013, 07:51 PM
I don't think there is a problem mentioning them as there is a link to them in the Links section already.

Bill

Phil
28th March 2013, 09:30 AM
I don't think there is a problem mentioning them as there is a link to them in the Links section already.

Bill

Thanks Bill. I might have added that link come to think of it :o
Phil

big paul
28th March 2013, 06:16 PM
If I ever wanted to put on an exhibition of my work I would paint the wall white and use drawing pins one in each corner ..

has it been done before ?????

big paul
28th March 2013, 06:34 PM
sorry I forgot to say good luck and hope it goes well

Bill
28th March 2013, 10:39 PM
If I ever wanted to put on an exhibition of my work I would paint the wall white and use drawing pins one in each corner ..

has it been done before ?????

Possibly although I have not seen one. What I did see in December 2011 were prints supported on a bit of string by Bulldog clips.

Bill

Terry S
29th March 2013, 10:30 AM
Drawing pins and bulldog clips eh? = Didn't that printer guy who had the book out at the end of last year... oh what's his name, do the bulldog clip thing???

As I am due to have my first own exhibition of Uni work, these ideas are all of help to me! And any that save all the stress and time in mounting a couple of dozen prints is good = so thinking about the bulldog clips!!! :)

Terry S

Richard Gould
29th March 2013, 12:01 PM
If I ever wanted to put on an exhibition of my work I would paint the wall white and use drawing pins one in each corner ..

has it been done before ?????

Yes, at least in Jersey, where I visited the annual exhibition held by the Jersey Photographic Club, these days a Digital club, and the 50 or so prints were held up by Drawing pins, also the Jersey Eistodffod, which includes photography as part of it's annual arts and crafts section, the prints are also supported by drawing pins, at least they were this year, I would normally enter but when the entries were due I forgot this year.
Richard

Steven Taylor
29th March 2013, 07:11 PM
"...Didn't that printer guy who had the book out at the end of last year... oh what's his name, do the bulldog clip thing???..."

Robin Bell... Yes he did.

Terry S
30th March 2013, 12:07 PM
Thanks Steven for prompting me but an hour of two after posting I remembered Robin's name... age you know! ;)

...and if it's good enough for Robin it's definitely good enough for me! Be interesting to see what the students and the public say though... :)

Terry S

Steven Taylor
30th March 2013, 10:22 PM
"...age you know! ..."

Tell me about it!