Wednesday 2 October 2013

Day 275 : debut!

So the night of the 5th London Photo Festival has arrived. I've attended three of them previously to support friends but tonight, gulp, I'm also exhibiting. I haven't seen my photographs printed so it will be an immense relief if they look okay when I arrive.

The themes for tonight are B&W or Night. As a late entry I was asked to submit Night themed photographs because so many of the other entrants have selected the B&W theme.

There's certainly a fine turnout of entrants. The first image I spot on shedding my coat is LB’s striking B&W photograph from Ministry of Sound last year. She’s had it beautifully framed also.

Next I scan the room for my offerings, definitely not here, it’s a sea of monochrome. I walk into the next room and immediately see them on the facing wall adding quite a punch amongst the shades of grey! They are simply mounted and then attached to the wall. Close to my pictures are the tables strewn with our business cards/post cards/promo material. The Going Home picture, the London zinder ground sign at Tower Hill reflected in a puddle on night seems to be getting the attention. It’s intriguing that I took it as a square image and submitted it as thus. It has been corralled into a more standard format.

After the show tonight I'm meeting up with my current boss, previous box and old bosses’ boss plus other team members (past and present). We’re having a little reunion. Sadly we cannot do another night and as it transpires sickness and important presentations cut down our number but I was so delighted that that who could tripped over to see my premier exhibition, and we very kind.

The announcing of the winners was a little more interactive than usual. Zoe opted to not just stand there and talk about images but walk us round the two packed rooms commenting on several before settling on her “bronze, silver and gold” (figurative as it’s more “best in show” and runners up). The “bronze” went to a B&W image of a girl”s fave peering into middle distance (though entitled Eyes on the Horizon), her hair blowing in her eyes. The silver went to a B&W environmental portrait of a tailor plying his craft shot up through a glass cabinet. The scissors and buttons are all scattered and above you see the face of the tailor hard at work. The gold goes quite rightly to LB for her ever so striking image of lasers, silhouettes of faces, very black and a little white. A very worthy winner!

The only outstanding prize is the G-factor, which is the public vote, we’ll find out on Sunday who’s scooped that one. There’s a chance I might sell a couple of Coming Home but I need to print them bigger, much bigger.

I've definitely got the bug, it’s nerve wracking, the indecision over which image to submit is utterly exhausting but seeing your images up there is undeniably exciting so even though Street Photography is not my genre, I'm pretty sure I’ll be exhibiting again in May.

 

No comments:

Post a Comment