A Working Proposal

As an outcome of some discussions on the fine art photography Yahoo list about the desirability of doing something in terms of an exhibition, I am proposing the following:

That we (collective) put together an exhibition entitled ‘A World of Photography’ whose aim is to explore the wide range for styles of work that comprise Fine Art Photography.

This exhibition will run online (accepted pieces will be displayed in a special online gallery on either www.digitalimagemakerworld.com or www.dimagemaker.com, I have not worked out which yet) but also physically in Australia at the Australian Academy of Design’s new gallery in Melbourne between the 17th of October and the 10th of November, 2006. This is a new space and this will be the first real exhibition there. The academy are offering it for our use at no cost other than a commission on sales.

Following discussions I have decided not to curate the show, rather making it an artist run show. This way I can enter and it may also circumvent any bad feeling aimed at me if people don’t get in. So this is a collective exhibition, I am just acting to facilitate this. Because anything like this needs to be moved along and I have access to them, I have organised the gallery and can provide the online exhibition space. If someone else wants to do this they are welcome to. In other words, if you participate it is as an equal and you accept full responsibility for your entering, your work, etc.
So how do we select work?

Work can be entered for acceptance judging by registering an account in the gallery section of this site and then, in the gallery section, creating your own album and uploading the images at no more than 1000 x 1000 pixels and placing the keyword ‘aworldofp’ on each image (along with other, appropriate keywords). The weird keyword is to allow people to do a Search on this keyword and view everything that has been entered.

I am proposing that people can enter no more than five works, to keep this under control. Work must be up on the site by the 25th of September so rating can be finished by the 29th of September so people can start shipping the work.

When people post work they need to also email me at wayne@dimagemaker.com to let me know they have entered, proposed sizes of the work, sale price (if any), what they want done with the work after the exhibition and how it will be presented. I would propose destroying work that people do not want shipped back to them. So please instruct clearly what you want done with it.

Then all those who have entered will rate the works. Highest rating works to the cutoff number get in. This way it is a democratic process. I would ask people not to rate their own work. I would suggest that myself and two other people act as coordinators to handle any issues, plus of course I’ll be doing the hanging down here in Melbourne unless any other entrants are down here, in which case their assistance would be welcome. Please note that, to maintain quality, a small panel from the gallery will have last choice over entrants. This is to avoid poor quality work slipping in. This is a last chance to cull seriously bad work only.
Concerning the size and presentation of the work. Given the nature of the gallery space we can readily accomodate work which looks very different. So I am proposing that we be very flexible with the size of the work that we can show. Smaller work in the 8×10 to 16×20 sort of size you might prefer to mat, as this seemed to be the concensus on the FAP list, but this is completely up to you and we will be happy to take unmatted smaller works, which certainly makes the shipping easier. Larger works you may not wish to because of shipping difficulties, in which case we can exhibit it simply pinned to the wall (or mounted in some other way, the gallery person will sort this out).
This has all come about quickly. Since the discussion on the FAP list the gallery slot came up and I thought it was worth running with. There will be the opportunity to do this again in 2007. I anticipate two slots, one for a fine art photography and one for a digital art exhibition, organised along similar lines to this, if this one works.

The works can be for sale. Sales will be handled by the Australian Academy of Design, as the gallery, who will deduct a 25% commission. The balance will be forwarded by the academy to the artist within one calendar month after the monies are received and cleared. The academy is handling this as the gallery, not me. The academy will place an ad in Art Almanac, the main local exhibition guide and will likely do other publicity for the show, as they are opening some other facilities at the same time.
Given the nature of this being an artist run show, I or anyone else can not accept any responsibility for the work you supply. Whilst the gallery will take reasonable care, neither myself nor the academy can accept liability for the art works should they be damaged or destroyed, either in transit or in exhibition. In other words you exhibit at your own risk. I think this is reasonable being a collaborative show.

By entering this exhibition the artist takes full resp for their work. The academy gallery, convenors and it’s staff are not liable for any damage, claims, etc. You take full responsibility that the work is yours, that you have not breached copyright, and accept any liability resulting from your work, shipping and its exhibition.

Before work has to be shipped, there will be a PDF form on this site on which you can detail each work being sent, its selling price in Australian dollars, your GST details if you live in Australia, etc and will act as a formal acceptance by you of these terms (which will be on the form). You should print this and ship it with your artwork.

All comments and suggestions are welcome but we must move on this quickly to take advantage of the exhibition slot that exists.