beachbum2277 wrote in post #8872317
Ok, so I have searched for this throughout POTN and can't seem to find a thread like this one and haven't been able to find much on the web. I live in Chicago and we have a great gallery district. I have recently seen a few galleries showing off some great photography.
Before I walk into a gallery and sound uneducated, my question is, how do I go about getting my work shown in a gallery?
What do I need a head of time? What questions should I ask? What questions should I be ready to answer?
Any and all help from those of you who have done this before would be a HUGE help!!!
Thanks in advance.
. I be interested as well. I've half a$$ed been trying for about a year.
In philly there is only one official photography gallery. the rest are mix media. the solo photo one has a set number of photographers it works with. they only take submissions rarely, so it seems quite hard to break in. basically the gallery represents the artists and promotes them, so it's more than a place to just hang work (if you get in).
I've only had exhibitions in the underground art scene. No main stream galleries. Craigslist has listings (at least in philly) but I'd guess other major cities as well, for creative gigs. there always some cafe, bar, office etc. looking to show work. these types of places have worked well for me since they typically don't take a cut of the sales. But who knows someone visiting one of these places may be a potential connection that could lead to something.
A lot of the photo work I've seen in local galleries here is hit or miss for me, not really great work.....so I'm inclined to think it's more of who you know than how good you really are. We have first friday's where all the galleries have their openings. some up starts and on the edge of town galleries have opened on the same nights as well. I've done one show at one of these obscure places. good showing, but because they are off the beaten path, not a lot of exposure. but some is better than none I suppose.
Most of the galleries I have talked to usually have a very specific process as to what, when, and how much to submit and they all differ. a lot of them (in my experience) also were charging $$$ for a review, which may or may not lead to anything.
this is just a hobby for me so haven't tried very hard, my only real motivation is to make enough $$$ to feed the habit. I've promised myself I won't go FF unless the money I use was generated from my photos....and i don't want to be sleeping on the couch.
I can't help you, but I'm curious myself....
