Carl as "The Scream"

No, not that one. N is for narrative. It was the most prevalent buzzword I heard at Fotofest, both from reviewers and fellow artists. In the last 10 or 15 years it has become the core of contemporary photography. For photographs to have value or to be “important”, they need to be connected with a group of images in a story, theme or idea that ties them tightly together and creates a narrative for the viewer.  It’s not enough for photographs to be strong, compelling, beautiful, disturbing or well executed. In fact it seems they can have few or none of these qualities and still be considered successful. And I realize this isn’t news to those who are paying attention to the world of fine art photography. I’ve been to review events before (Fotofest 2004 and Photolucida 2007) and have heard similar feedback. And before I come off as a cranky anachronist, I’m not against this concept. I get it. It makes sense in certain venues or contexts. What I find a little puzzling is that this seems to be the ONLY way one can get recognized for their work at certain levels (New York galleries, contemporary art museums, etc.) And I wonder if it is a good thing for our art form to be so narrow in our view of what is accepted as valid and important. I think there is a risk of alienating those who are less well informed about the current state of contemporary photography. Have you been to a gallery or museum show and observed the reactions of many viewers as they look bewildered at what hangs on the walls before them? Does that make you feel like you’re superior because you’re on the inside and you get it and they are just the commoners too ill-informed to appreciate REAL art? Or do you think perhaps you are the emperor standing there bare-ass naked? Anyway, just a few thoughts that went through my head as I was flying home Saturday night and digesting all that happened during my four days of reviews in Houston. Please understand there no sour grapes here. I took away valuable feedback from almost every one of the 20 or so reviews that I had. And several of the reviews have led to great opportunities and most of them have given me plenty to think about regarding my work.

Houston, we have a problem! Namely, getting lost. I was attending Fotofest with my good friend David “Ike” Eisenlord from MN. We are both relatively intelligent, savvy guys and we even had a GPS. But, between the traffic and the road construction, getting from the airport to where we were staying proved to be a challenge.

Are we there yet??

Speaking of where we were staying, a local art collector and kind-hearted soul allowed us to crash at his beautiful and unique house. We could hardly believe our eyes when we arrived and saw this:

"Wow, really? Do we have the right address?"

If you’ve not been to a portfolio review event before, I highly recommend it, at least once. I find it a good thing to do every few years because it helps put things into perspective to show your work to someone who has never seen it before and is knowledgeable in your chosen media. It’s hard to be objective when you are so close to what you do, and even friends and family who love you can be blinded by their relationship with you and by becoming too familiar with your work. Of course, part of an event like the Fotofest Meeting Place is choosing the right reviewers and being lucky enough to draw those that you want to see. Overall, I was happy with who I got and only had one review that was mostly a waste of time. Over four days I had 18 formal, 20-minute review sessions, and a couple of less-formal reviews squeezed in as well. I won’t discuss them all, but want to give credit to those that were the most productive and thought-provoking. The work I brought with me included 14″x17″ gum over platinum prints of some of my wet plate collodion images including portraits, still lifes and landscapes. I also brought a selection of my square landscapes shot on film with a Hasselblad and printed as 17″x17″ gum over platinum prints. My main focus was on the collodion work, but brought the other body of work to show certain reviewers. I also brought a Blurb mockup of a book of my collodion work that I am working on. I’ve had lots of help with the layout and design by my good friend Matt Magruder, a photographer and graphic artist from Austin, TX. I wanted to show it to a few book publishers that were there, mostly for input and guidance. I didn’t really expect to land a book deal and I didn’t.

One of the many photo exhibits during the 6-week Fotofest

My first review on the first day was with Ed Carey of Gallery 291 in San Francisco. This is a relatively new gallery that I’ve had my eye on because they carry work by other artists using alternative processes and it seemed like it would be a good fit. Plus, being a Bay Area native, representation in San Francisco has been a goal for a long time.  It turns out Ed already had me on his radar and was familiar with my work. It also turns out that Ed is a great guy and is very easy to get along with. We had an excellent discussion and I’m going to meet with him at the gallery in April to discuss what our future plans will be. This was a great way to start off the review process.

The Review Room

I had a good review with Peggy Sue Amison of The Sirius Art Center in Cork, Ireland. Ike did a residency there last year and made a bunch of very fine images while he was there. We may apply for a joint residency next year. Another excellent review was with Maggie Blanchard of Twin Palms Press, a publisher of many fine books including a recent favorite of mine Counterpoint by Robert and Shana ParkeHarrison. She was fun to talk to and proposed some challenging questions about my book project. Virginia Heckert, a curator for the wonderful Getty Museum in Southern California provided some great insight into where my work might fit into the current art market. She was also extremely complimentary of the quality of my prints which is nice to hear from someone who has had their hands on some of the finest prints in existence. If you’re ever in SoCal, a visit to The Getty is a must. I had a great time talking to David Bram editor of the online magazine Fraction that has featured some really interesting work. In particular, check out David Maisel’s work in Issue 10, incredible landscapes by my very good friend Bill Schwab in Issue 3 and some amazing night photographs by another great friend Clay Harmon in Issue 2.  David Bram is a newcomer on the scene, but has become very well connected in a short time and is a fountain of promotional ideas for photographers. My work should be appearing in Fraction some time this year. One of my last reviews on the last day was with Brooks Jensen, editor of Lenswork Magazine. Brooks had seen some of my earlier wet plate collodion work at Photolucida in 2007 and did not connect with it. This time I only showed him my portrait series and he liked them a LOT. The ball is in my court to make a submission to Lenswork, but I think I have a very good chance of being published by them in the future. The funniest reviewer experience I had came near the end. The reviewer was a collector and a very intense-looking fellow who was hammering away at his Blackberry when I walked up to his table. He said “Give me just a minute, I’m having domestic issues. All THREE of my ex-wives are giving me hell today.” I just smiled and said “Wow…”

In addition to the review sessions there is a huge amount of other Fotofest related events going on all over Houston. One evening Ike and I went to the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (that happens to have one of my works in their collection).  We saw an interesting exhibition Ruptures and Continuities: Photography Made after 1960 from the MFAH Collection. One of the coolest things at the museum was a lighting sculpture/installation that is in the tunnel that connects two of the museum buildings. You walk through this incredible, glowing light that envelopes you. I felt like I was in the movie Tron. It looks like this:

One night there was a Texas hoedown/BBQ for the Meeting Place reviewers and reviewees at Goode’s Armadillo Palace. Three types of meat with a delicious, spicy BBQ sauce.

So, what to I take away from this experience? Was it worth it? The costs are significant. Registration is about $800, $400 travel expenses, $300 printing costs for new business cards and a printed promo card to leave with each reviewer so they will hopefully remember who I am when I follow up. Luckily, thanks to a good connection on Ike’s part, we had free lodging in an amazing house. In the end, yes, it was worth every penny for a number of reasons. First, an event like this is a huge motivation for me to get work done. I’ve done more printing in the last month than I’ve done in the last year, and that is a GOOD thing. I’m really happy with how the prints look and having a deadline made me change a few things in the darkroom that have further streamlined my process, also a good thing. I made some new friends and got to see a few old friends I hadn’t seen in years. But, most importantly, showing my work to so many people in such a short period of time has made me really think about my work and what I’m doing and why. In general, the feedback was fairly consistent, which I take as a  positive. Almost across the board the reviewers thought my images were very strong; a good sense of composition, emotional impact, etc. Most of them LOVED certain images as individual images, but overall the work was not cohesive enough and lacked the one thing most of them were looking for first and foremost, a narrative. Clearly I’m out of step with current critical thought in photography, but I knew that going in. Despite that, there are certain galleries and markets that my work fits in well with and I need to pursue those more directly. I don’t think this feedback will mark a major shift in how I work or what I do, but I think you will see some of it creeping into my work in the future.

Finally, here are a few more pictures from the trip:

One of the many high-rises in downtown Houston.

There are lots of crosses in Texas

There is also lots of glass in downtown Houston.

Heading home...

Thanks for reading, if you made it this far. Your comments are welcomed!

-Kerik

Tuesday 3/16 I head for Houston for 4 days of portfolio reviews at The Meeting Place at Fotofest. I’ve been printing like crazy for the last few weeks and have about 40 prints I’ll be taking with me. Half of them are 14×17 gum/platinum prints from my wet plate collodion work and the rest are 17×17 gum/platinum prints of square landscapes made over the last year and a half. I am also taking a mockup of my book of wet plate collodion images that I am planning to publish this year. I’ll be hanging out with my good friend Ike Eisenlord, so it should be a great time.