Last weekend I spent Friday night and Saturday showing my work at the Westport Arts event. My main reason for doing this was to learn how art fairs work, how to set one up, and what kind of products I need to make sales. I learned a lot. I showed several Palladium prints and found most people didn’t understand what that was. I had one college student ask me where I got my edges. I spent a lot of time educating folks on the art of making a hand-made print vs. an inkjet print. They were amazed I could make a negative from a digital negative and equally so when I told them about the paper coating process. The “edges” were nothing more than excess emulsion that was turned black by the overexposure to UV light. I did have several archival inkjet prints to show as well. This allowed me to gauge the reaction to my photos and see which ones were popular and which were photographs people didn’t understand.

I learned that I need an artist’s statement with some of my work. I don’t think of my work as photos. To me they are pieces of art using the photographic method. I think that means I am attempting to create a work that elicits an emotional response not just a, “Wow that a nice shot.” I did bring my picture of a tree with no leaves and a somewhat disturbing background and that one was a hit. People would ask me where this tree was. I told them it was in my mind because if they were to see the real tree or the original photograph they would be very disappointed. The tree in the piece was in my mind and that’s how I saw this tree.

Overall a very fun and educational weekend. I met some other great artists and enjoyed some Jerusalem Cafe curly fries. Wow.

The digital negative has to be printed as a negative so I use Photoshop to adjust the curves and contrast then invert the image into a negative. I use information from the Reeder and Hinkel book, Digital Negatives. This book is very helpful.