For those who've forgotten, never knew or are otherwise unfamiliar with the name, Addie is the gallery manager at the Special Photographer's Company (SPC), a gallery, agency and photo library based in Notting Hill. As Addie explained the gallery is a commercial space that shows and sells the work of approximately 50 photographers. The agency and library represent a greater number of photographers. The photo library specialises in 'fine art' (as opposed to 'stock') photography whose buyers range widely from interior designers to ad agencies.
So why did 13 LIP and contemporary group members want to meet her one sunny day? More to the point, what did we learn and what will we (well I!) do with my new found knowledge of the synergy between commercial and 'fine art' photography.
The morning was Addie's chance to sell us the concept of the SPC. The SPC is a gallery I visit periodically (ie whenever I'rn in the area) but it happens that I've only seen shows which were a combination of two or more of 50's, American, famous people or the music industry and frankly I'd come to think that this was all they did - misconception number one blown out of the water. As I've mentioned they represent a wide variety of photographers though they do have a history, and hence some bias, towards the music industry, jazz in particular. The agency, as you might expect, links up photographers with work - this wasn't a major discussion point as the focus for the day was the library.
The afternoon was spend looking at portfolios of work and discussing how each photographer's style could be applied to the commercial envirownent and what next steps to take to move into it. |
Addie had a number of general points relating to how to approach photo-libraries:
Beyond this we each had a specific discussion about our own portfolio. So what did I learn?
|
I'm going through my portfolio of images/series, looking at the volume of work, looking at the breadth and trying to judge whether I think I've reached that critical mass to show to libraries. If I were going to a specialist library (eg one that concentrated on gardens) then there may be sufficient. However I want a little more breadth than that so I'm holding fire until some of my more recent projects have a bit more volume. I've set myself a deadline of the end of the year to review my progress, to have evaluated the possible libraries that may be interested (looked at their brochures etc) and to have my images in a viewer friendly format - probably a single 10x8 box, each image in a Secol (see Silverprint catalogue) sleeve and a maximum of 20 images (though I may submit a few sheets of transparencies as well). In addition I want to be able to talk about the images and the bodies of work more clearly - more for general conversation so that if people ask I can provide a more concise answer as to where the work has been and is going.
It was a challenging day, it's like standing on a cliff and not quite being able to see what's at the bottom. Worth coming back with binoculars and having a closer look though, even if you decide not to leap off.
Sarah Thelwall is taking part in a show with Gina Glover and another photographer based around the theme of Gardens at the University of Reading from Oct 4 - Nov 5 this year