Exhibition up and open!

Part of the installation at MoMA

It's always both a relief and a bit of an anti-climax when many months of work and maybe a bit of stress, the prints are all up on the walls. Luckily, the gallery at MoMA Machynlleth have great technicians so they undertook the hanging and did a great job. There's never just one way to hang a show, too many factors have to be taken into account. Size of the gallery, scale of the works, juxtapositions of individual pieces. What will work against what etc.  I had already decided to separate the colour prints from the B&W platinum prints and as there wasn't any particular 'running order' or sequence to adhere to that affected the reading of the prints this was a straightforward hang by most standards.  You can't really influence the way that any visitor will negotiate the gallery so with the best will in the world you just have to take on faith that they appreciate each work as it comes.

Part of the installation at MoMA

'Double hanging' isn't always the best way to put stuff up but in this case, a combination of factors made it necessary. The room we were allocated in the gallery isn't the biggest but neither were the prints too large that they could not be scrutinised at the heights they were hung. Inevitably, there's always a compromise along the way. 

Lighting too is important. A well-lit wall. brings the work to life and clumsy lighting placement or illumination can kill the prints. Again here we were lucky that the lighting worked well. I know from experience that it can take a lot of fiddling and adjusting to get it right.

Part of the installation at MoMA

Print sales are another thing. Pricing is difficult. Sadly, Wales is not the most receptive place for folks to acquire photography so I'm not expecting great sales. The cost of just producing great mounted and framed prints is expensive, and the reality is that even if sales are good, fortunes are never going to be made. The actual material costs are only one factor in the making and production of a finished print. People never quite appreciate that to make work like this, I had to tramp around the landscape in all weathers lugging heavy large format camera equipment  using my skill and judgement to select viewpoint and framing. Not to mention the high level of technical skill needed to bring back high quality images. 

The group of platinum / palladium prints

The platinum prints are yet another thing with regards to pricing. Quite apart from the horrendous cost of the platinum and palladium solutions, we have the added factors of time and extra expertise. The reality is that we can never fully quantify or rationalise how any piece of work may sell. Too many factors are involved including the type of work, the immediate audience for that work, and sadly of course, financial constraints that prevail at any time for the general population. Add to this the prejudice against photography in general being a 'legitimate' art practice and it becomes difficult. However, we plod on regardless!